PowerSchool Student Information System vs. Synoptix

PowerSchool Student Information System is a cool software that can be highly recommended to anyone who is living in the educational management space. It is proven that this software can reduce your manual workload massively if you use it right. Plus it is really worth the price you pay. Especially if you are in the administrative field, this software will help you to minimize manual efforts put into student registrations, staffing recruitment, and main resource management processes.

Incentivized

Synoptix has been great for us to allow end users access to the data and information they need to make informed decisions without letting them have full access to all ERP functions. It has also been very easy to create custom reports that meet our needs. It is also nimble enough to create quick reports that are needed with a small turnaround

Incentivized

• PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
• Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
• PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.

Incentivized

• Easy report building interface with an query interface that allows financial users the ability to conduct complex queries without difficulty.
• The ability to create reporting that allows us to review in-depth financial review by drilling down into accounts to find transnational data easily.
• Easily maintained and monitored with simple upgrade installations and end point installation.
• Great knowledge base for review and trouble-shooting.
• Highly knowledgeable and easy to work with staff.

Incentivized

• Does not consistently communicate with related software such as Illuminate for Special Education Students.
• Drop down menus frequently refresh as data is entered which slows down the user's ability to enter information.
• Icons are sometimes unclear and not easily understandable. Word labels for some items might be more effective.

Incentivized

• It has a poor install procedure which is not standard. It almost requires copying folders from an existing computer to the new install.
• The update process is less than desirable. It seems like Compusoft needs to do a better job of testing before releasing updates.
• The interface is a bit archaic. It looks more like a program from 20 years ago than one used today.

Incentivized

We would be starting over at square one if we did not continue our PowerSchool subscription. We do not have a program in a place that would take its place.

Incentivized

There is no question that we will continue to use this product for as long as it's available

Incentivized

Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times

Incentivized

It didn't take long to learn how it works and has always been easy to navigate and accomplish all that we have needed. Whenever there have been any issues Synopotix has been great to address them in a timely manner and have always been able to resolve the issues we have had

Incentivized

Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.

Incentivized

Support does not know much about software solutions. As an example, I have struggled for weeks just to set up LDAP that should be fairly simple.

Incentivized

Good guidance of what steps will halppen.

I have heard good things for Infinite Campus and Skyward. I would [evaluate] each of them and see what fits your needs. Each has their strengths and weaknesses and so picking the right one for your needs is important. PowerSchool [Student Information System] does have some great features, but lacks some fundamental reports and functions to make it top notch.

Incentivized

Synoptix is more oriented to users as their own developers. You do not need to understand any sort of coding or languages. If you are working in financials you just need to know your trial balance. The menus and programing are so user friendly the programming is "kinda obvious"

Incentivized

• It has created shortcuts for all staff members, saving us time.
• In creating shortcuts and combining many different systems into one, it is saving our school money.
• It has created a safety net for teachers because grades and student information is stored electronically, which means teachers not having to worry about losing or misplacing their grade books.

Incentivized

• As a reporting tool it has allowed us to make fact based decisions. We have a significant annual cost with relation to our legacy system and Synoptix provides us with the best tool to mine the data that resides in our legacy system.

Incentivized