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Penelope Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 6.7 out of 10
Score
6.7 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Penelope are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Integration of Systems: Users have appreciated the system's ability to integrate different systems, ensuring confidentiality and tracking contributors effectively. This feature has streamlined processes for many users by centralizing information from various sources.

User-Friendly Configuration: Reviewers have noted that the configuration and design process, coupled with the availability of helpful articles, make the system easy to use for all levels of technical expertise. The intuitive interface simplifies navigation and setup tasks, contributing to a positive user experience.

Efficient Data Reporting: The system has been praised by users for its data reporting capabilities, which save time by automatically compiling data from various sources into individual files and providing real-time updates. These robust reporting tools enable quick access to critical information for decision-making purposes.

Reviews

32 Reviews

Not very happy

Rating: 6 out of 10

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Penelope by Social Solutions is our case management system. We use it for case notes, for calendars, and even for reporting incidents and hazards, or any change in clients' profiles. It lets us interact with medical, legal, behavioral, and other reports, and keeps the team updated, always promoting confidentiality. Penelope by Social Solutions is structured in an understandable way, letting us set our daily tasks as a to-do list in the handover.

Pros

  • Integrates different systems
  • Keeps confidentiality
  • Helps you to identify who posted what
  • Collects information linked among families

Cons

  • The plus, ok, or accept buttons are not consistent. It is easy to forget it at the beginning.
  • Sometimes is unstable and it makes you lose all the work you did not save.
  • It does not have a "memory" of your previous answers, which is annoying for daily tasks.

Likelihood to Recommend

Even if Penelope by Social Solutions is useful for case noting and any other file management, coordination and reports, it is not user-friendly. It does not let you delete your mistakes easily, it does not let you go back, and all the other issues mentioned, which are minor, added too much for a system that is supposed to support your work. However, some of the characteristics have been chosen by the system administrator and are not Penelope by Social Solutions's fault.

AB
Andres Buritica
Support Worker in Professional Services at Junction Australia (201-500 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
2 years of experience

Ideal for non-profit and community service agencies!

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Penelope is used in our organization to replace all daily documentation, scheduling and booking, and intake management of participants in our programs. We have approximately 80 participants and 30 staff with 7 departments and it allows us to easily manage staffing ratios, attendance, and programming at three separate locations. Penelope allows us to easily track data on individuals or as a group and generate reports to send to our funders, etc. It allows us to track progress and regression for individuals which is essential to our mission as an organization. Penelope provides us with an easily accessible bluebook of all of our contacts and resources. It is a one-stop-shop for all of our documentation needs. Penelope offers a direct connection to staff individually or in groups through a messaging system within the program. Staff can easily log in and see any relevant information for the day. It saves us so much time as an organization and avoids a lot of running around and daily meetings that we had in the past. Before Penelope, finding participant reports, data, and information meant time spent searching through files in different departments and talking to multiple staff to track down what we were looking for.

Pros

  • Provides time-saving features by automatically compiling data to an individual file from multiple areas.
  • Allows staff to be updated on important information in real time.
  • Provides a user-friendly experience and ease of access for staff with all levels of technical experience.

Cons

  • Accessibility for anyone with visual impairment.
  • Ability to adjust font size when printing.
  • Ability to send files as email from the program.

Likelihood to Recommend

Penelope would be ideal for a clinic setting or an organization providing individual or group support to many individuals and from multiple staff members. It is perfect for the service field to track bookings and schedules. It allows for easy reporting and tracking changes for an individual. As a non-profit service agency, it is the perfect database for us, from individual and group service to informal and anonymous services, the features allow for easy tracking of data.

SP
Shaeleen Power
Support Services Coordinator at Haley Street Adult Services Centre (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
1 year of experience
View profile

1-Stop Shop for Data Solutions

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Manage data and track client services.

Pros

  • Data Reporting
  • Customer Service
  • Identify issues and problem solve solutions.

Cons

  • Some of the fields seem redundant.
  • I think beta testing new databases should be at a significantly reduced rate due to the amount of time needed to work out the issues and refine the product. Both organizations have carrying costs during this phase of development.

Likelihood to Recommend

Industry specific reports designed to meet the requirements of our specific funding entity. Addition of tracking tools to better understand our clients and measure marketing tools.

BD
Beverly Derouard
Executive Director at Victim Services of Kenora & Area (1-10 employees)
Vetted Review

Penelope for Non-Profits

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a small-midrange size non-profit organization that uses Penelope for our client database. We use it for 1:1 in-home caseloads, group-based parent education, and group-based child and youth programming. Penelope is a user-friendly system that provides clarity, ease, and simple processes for our frontline staff to use the system in a clear and efficient way.

Pros

  • Configuration and design process.
  • Help articles.
  • Standard processes yet able to customize.

Cons

  • Standard reporting could be expanded and more complex.
  • Improve functionality of groups.
  • Higher level training on how to use Penelope in a more complex way.

Likelihood to Recommend

Penelope is well designed for casework. We find it is well suited for staff who have caseloads of families or individuals and are doing one-to-one work with them. I find that Penelope is not as well suited for registered programming in a group fashion. The reporting for groups is almost non-existent and the Groups List page is unwieldy and difficult to navigate efficiently.

VU
Verified User
Administrator (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
1 year of experience

Database makes complex relationships simple to navigate

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We switched to using the Penelope database a few years ago because we realized our current platform was ineffective at tracking and producing needed outcome metrics. We needed a system that had the capability to track a network of client relationships, allowed for the exchange of multiple initiatives, and had tools for team members to work collaboratively on cases. Our organization helps families create action plans to accomplish their goals. We believe strongly in the power of community and finding solutions through generating informal supports. This system is designed to understand and capture the dynamic of how family members, community stakeholders, and professional resources work together to empower wellbeing. Penelope's default platform provided customization that allowed the database to align with our service model, specific strategies, and language. Penelope's form and reports are flexible enough to meet the requests and reporting demands of both foundation and government funders.

Pros

  • Organization a network of relationships.
  • Integrating various projects.
  • Customized reporting.

Cons

  • Increased standardized reports and filter features.
  • Better training on the ODBC.
  • Mac support.
  • Better ability to report on individuals within the family.

Likelihood to Recommend

Penelope is well suited for social service case management operations. It also looks at whole families as a unit but realizes each member has different needs and brings something unique to the solution. It manages client relationships and resources well. If you need to monitor service units, time with clients, and interventions, it has various tools for this. I think the system is too complex for donor management and not needed for client interactions that are one and done.

RN
Rich Nichols
Executive Diector in Corporate at United Advocacy Group (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
2 years of experience
View profile

Penelope, one of the best things that happened for us in 2021.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Penelope as our main case management system. It addresses our need to go paperless and have one central system for all of our case notes. It also allows us to work from home or in the office and always be able to update our calendars. We use this system for every case that we see.

Pros

  • It is very intuitive.
  • When you forget to fill in something it points it out in a clear and easy-to-understand note.
  • Client notes are very easy to add.

Cons

  • The feature for the date of birth times out too quickly.
  • You can't upload any files that may have a symbol such as a . in their title.
  • The learning modules could be more concise making it faster to find the help you need.

Likelihood to Recommend

We have used some terrible software in the past. Penelope is a breath of fresh air. The counselors can easily input their notes and reschedule a client. They don't leave sections blank because the system tells them what is missing. The "are you sure" reminders are a nice feature just double checking things for you. We have not found a scenario where it is less appropriate to use Penelope.

VU
Verified User
Consultant in Professional Services (1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
1 year of experience

Great case management option!

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a nonprofit agency that case manages Families in the community while we work to help them achieve goals and solve problems. We use Penelope as our case management system. We use Penelope for everything in our agency. It is where we store our data, write case plans, schedule meetings, run reports, and collect resources. Penelope was a serious upgrade from the previous Susy that we were using. It is very detailed and not overwhelming.

Pros

  • Case management-places to store multiple data points in organized manner[.]
  • Scheduling client meetings and the ability to connect to clients through the system
  • Great Customer service- implementation team was super helpful in setting up the system and answering our ongoing stream of questions. They are still helpful answering questions 2 years later whenever they come up.

Cons

  • [A] minimal number of [ready-to-use] reports [using] to pull data from [the] system. The reports are helpful but hard to get all that we needed. We did pay to have a custom report created for our needs.
  • My only real complaint: I am not a tech-y person so I find the OBDC connection setup and data [pull-out] kind of complicated and also there is no easy way for a Mac computer to connect without purchasing another program to help. There was minimal assistance with helping us get that set up which was frustrating.
  • Long onboarding process[.]

Likelihood to Recommend

We looked at lots of systems before we signed on with Penelope. For the price, we didn’t find anything better. Overall we have been very happy with our choice to use Penelope for our case management system. Our staff has been happy with it as well. I would recommend this product.

VU
Verified User
Administrator (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
2 years of experience

Penelope review

Rating: 4 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Client database, client data, program data.

Pros

  • Easy to create clients, manage groups, open and close cases and services

Cons

  • Not always user friendly interface
  • When errors are made, difficult to correct
  • When in groups and marking attendance, no options for "select all" to mark all as attended or not attended; need to manually open each one to mark attendance

Likelihood to Recommend

[In my experience] I find that information gets lost or else there are too many places where it can be stored. For a client, you can store their pregnancy information in their individual file or case file, or service file.

VU
Verified User
Employee in Human Resources (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
2 years of experience

Penelope is NOT ACCESSIBLE and therefore not compliant with Canadian Legislation for Access for persons who identify as living with a disability.

Rating: 3 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it as a case management tool for digital and remote service delivery.

Pros

  • Digital management and review
  • Remote access for consultants

Cons

  • Accessibility overall for persons with a disability is nonexistent and not being addressed at all. That is for both clients using engage or client connect and consultants using the system for case management.
  • Navigation bars non-responsive to screen readers
  • Lack of tags and descriptions for navigation tools
  • Inability to move within the system in a straightforward and free fashion
  • Lack of ability to share questions more than once in a form
  • Form building tools are not accessible
  • Reports are not straight forward, do not coordinate with forms
  • Tools for making a financial form are limited and not easily used
  • Background colors are non-AODA compliant, font too small, no ability to enlarge, navigation tools are hidden behind multiple boxes, and impossible for a blind person to navigate.
  • When purchased in 2014, promises of accessibility were made by company salesman, management, and staff. It has never transpired.
  • lack of support when trying to learn the system and set it up. Instruction is by Wrote for a "To Be" designed process but no examination about how the setup affects things such as searching, reporting, outcomes.
  • Blue Book is not accessible, Engage is not accessible, Penelope Mobile is not accessible, Client Connect is costly and not accessible.
  • Updated attachments must load multiple times and result in needless storage issues and extra work.

Likelihood to Recommend

Although I like some of the functionality of the program, it is archaic in development, lacks inclusion for persons with a disability. Lip service has been paid for addressing AODA accessibility rules and access. Product is exclusionary towards persons with a disability. It is designed for an American medical model and false promises have been made. No one is addressing Canadian concerns about default information collection that is against our privacy legislation and compliance with our accessibility legislation both federal and provincial. I would not recommend it to any service provider based on the lack of accessibility.

IG
Ian Grant
Business Manager in Information Technology at PPRC (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
6 years of experience

Great features but a little difficult to use...

Rating: 7 out of 10
Incentivized

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this product to track clients in our organization and their participation in programs and the services they access through us. We use the program to track case notes for clients, counseling sessions, and check-ins. We also use the product to track the practical supports that clients receive from us so that we have a better idea of who has received what from our organization.

Pros

  • Caseloads are manageable
  • Appointments are easy to track
  • Lots of space for client case notes

Cons

  • It can be difficult to remove things or correct errors
  • Adding clients to groups as a one-time attendance is not possible, which makes it difficult for drop-ins
  • There is no calendar that you are able to see all of your appointments with clients

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Penelope is appropriate for tracking appointments and interactions with clients. However, it can be difficult if we are not able to see our appointments on a larger scale (i.e. a calendar). If we were offered a calendar, it would help to track our days with various appointments with clients. It would be nice to have an overview to see which clients we are seeing more of and which clients we aren't seeing as much. I think it's easy to track information about clients, but sometimes accessing this information can be difficult once it's been input. We have intake forms that we fill out with clients and it can be difficult to recover these attachments if you don't know exactly where to look in their "Case".

AT
Adriana Turner
Counsellor at Rose of Sharon (11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Penelope
1 year of experience