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SchoolMessenger

SchoolMessenger

Overview

What is SchoolMessenger?

SchoolMessenger, a West Corporation solution managed by West Education, the company's education unit, is a school community software featuring secure email, social media monitoring, school website, and mobile app.

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Pricing

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What is SchoolMessenger?

SchoolMessenger, a West Corporation solution managed by West Education, the company's education unit, is a school community software featuring secure email, social media monitoring, school website, and mobile app.

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  • No setup fee

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  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is SchoolMessenger?

SchoolMessenger Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Reviews and Ratings

(8)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
SchoolMessenger was used by our 30,000 student school district in over 53 schools in the Silicon Valley. We started using them in 2009. In the late summer of last year we identified the process to notify parents of how to opt into text messaging so we could better communicate with parents during the pandemic, especially since we were rooted in distance learning to start the year. I found it challenging to communicate with their staff because I could not directly call a person - we were required to call into a central number and each time I'd talk to a different person. As a result, I took copious notes and documented who I talked to every time.

We walked through the steps that SchoolMessenger explained to have parents opt in. We messaged our community like crazy for two straight weeks so we were ready to go with parent opt-ins for our major upload of all parent contact information. SchoolMessenger had previously coordinated with our SIS, as it is a big name company.

About two weeks after the upload, parents notified me that they were able to view information about other students, their contact information, their parents information, etc. We had a major data breach that took place. Their customer service team wasn't helpful and tried to blame it on our database administrators, but research by their staff and our database administrators showed they didn't properly write the code to match the parent contact info during the upload. Our school board was upset. Our parents were very angry. When we asked for a refund and tried to switch to another company, they stopped communicating with us. I do NOT recommend SchoolMessenger at all. Their customer service is awful, the didn't properly protect student and family information, and they played the blame game throughout.
  • It is widely used.
  • Customer service.
  • Knowing how to manage the data integration process.
  • Ethical behavior.
SchoolMessenger used to be a good product for home to school communication. However, if it can't properly integrate with big name, run of the mill student information systems, they really have no business being recommended or used by school districts. Allowing data to be released to parents about other students and parents is what every school district needs to protect against. Would not recommend them for any communication that needs to integrate with any other systems. There are plenty of other competitors out there who provide more responsive customer service and support.
  • Home to school communication.
  • Centralized messaging.
  • Lost the confidence of families that we were protecting their data.
  • Refused to refund our funds after they released confidential information.
  • Required extensive resources to find another product.
When we had to find a replacement, as SchoolMessenger lost its reputability in our parent community, we looked at and selected Parent Square. This competitor came with multiple languages and translation services, top notch customer service, and a breadth of additional features that we cannot even use at this time. Due to the issues we had with SchoolMessenger, Parent Square assigned a district rep to address any communication with our staff and that approach has been exceptionally effective.
Google Surveys, Alchemer, formerly SurveyGizmo, Illuminate Data & Assessment (DnA)
March 05, 2020

Works as promised!

Terica Bergan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SchoolMessenger to notify parents and staff for general and emergency information. From weather closings to athletic updates to teacher conferences, all calls go out quickly with excellent reporting feedback. The reporting is excellent. You can find out how many people never answered, hung up, listened to part of the message, or listened to the entire message. It has solved many issues for us, including what phone numbers are now disconnected. The fact that it syncs with our SIS keeps our staff from having to do extra work. We do not have to leave our SIS system to send a notification. It has dramatically saved on postage and cutting down on mail going to the wrong address.
  • The reports are very detailed and easy to use. I can quickly show each school what student is missing or has inaccurate phone numbers.
  • The system itself is user-friendly. We don't have to leave our SIS system to send a message.
  • Their customer service is top-notch and very knowledgeable about their product.
  • There's nothing I dislike. This program is very straight forward to use.
  • It just works well.
SchoolMessenger works well for all of our needs. From notifying parents about school closings, potential threats to upcoming events. We used it to keep parents and the community informed of a bond proposal coming up for a vote to add much-needed facilities to our campus. Because of this system, we were able to keep everyone updated and make them feel involved in the process. We felt this system was a big help in getting the bond approved, and now we will have a new stadium and performing arts center.
  • SchoolMessenger is an excellent tool that links the school admin with the parents directly, which avoids the risks of students not delivering the message.
  • Saves money and time not being held hostage by the US postal service.
The previous system we had no longer exists because it was so inferior. Because we are so happy with SchoolMessenger, we don't bother looking at anything else. There is just no need.
The support is fantastic. I have never had such complete support from a technology service. Every issue has been resolved while I was on the phone. I never had to wait for a callback or an advanced support tech. Their people are very well trained in their product and how to meet their customer's needs.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
School messenger is being utilized in schools to send information to parents. This allows the parents to receive quick emails from the school regarding school events or other important events. It addresses the possible issue of students misplacing papers that go home and also eliminates the needs for paper copies going home.
  • Email access.
  • Attachments.
  • Notifications to parents regarding important information.
  • Page editing tools could be streamlined better.
  • Navigation could be more straightforward.
  • A short process to get up and running.
SchoolMessenger is great to send information to parents that can't be sent in a letter home. If a bus is running late, we can send a message out using SchoolMessenger to notify the parents instead of them worrying about their students on the bus. SchoolMessenger is a quick way for our families to be contacted as a whole.
  • Ease of access.
  • Quick access for families.
  • PowerSchool Integration.
Teachers have used Remind for the classroom setting, but SchoolMessenger has been great to send messages to the entire school. It makes it easy for the school to communicate with parents. We have turned this ability off in our LMS because we are very satisfied with SchoolMessenger.
Once set up, it is very easy for the school to send messages quickly to parents. SchoolMessenger is very reliable in sending messages to parents. We rarely hear from a parent telling the school that they have not received messages. This is very important during emergency situations and that parents will feel comfortable.
SchoolMessenger serves our main purpose of sending out emergency notifications and notices to parents. It is great to cut down on the paper use and the ability to attach documents to our notes. We have used this to send home notifications from our Parent-Teacher Organization. Parents have thanked us for sending a back ups due to papers being misplaced and knowing that they have a backup through email.
The ability to pull information from PowerSchool and use the contacts within PowerSchool makes it easily accessible when sending alerts to parents or guardians. Being able to update parent information is easy as well. The ability that SchoolMessenger integrates with PowerSchool is the reason why we selected SchoolMessenger. It works well.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We transitioned our district and school websites over to SchoolMessenger. We were looking for something that offered a more modern look and feel, as well as responsive technology so it could be viewed on different devices. We also wanted something that had an app feature, included broadcasts, and didn't break us financially. This included everything we need in one package.
  • The responsive technology is really good. Moving banners are smooth and viewing on a phone has a cleaner scrolling view.
  • Modern, sleek design, with more visual options.
  • The included broadcast feature helps us a lot with notifications.
  • Limited functionality. A lot is set through templates. This makes it difficult to really hone in and customize to your liking. You can change colors, etc. But really getting creative with website/webpage design isn't as advanced as some other programs.
  • The page editing (for example faculty member and department pages) is difficult to navigate. This would be a lot better if it was cleaned up and easier to navigate.
  • Setting up the website is difficult and time-consuming as well as the app part.
This is great for schools who want a bulk package of services at a competitive cost. Older website designs limit functionality and have a very square design. SchoolMessenger has more modern templates with newer capabilities which is better for visitors of the site. The functionality is great for parents who are accessing the site on the go, which happens more often than you know.
  • Allowed visitors to navigate our website on mobile devices much easier, with less time.
  • Afforded us options to integrate broadcasts and notifications limited other tools used.
  • Updated our look to match a more modern, tech savvy atmosphere.
We went from Final Site to SchoolMessenger. Final Site had a lot of customization with so much functionality and a real professional look and feel. Unfortunately, the cost set us on a new path, which led us to SchoolMessenger. SchoolMessenger packages a lot of the services we need in one, but it is missing core elements of design that Final Site offered us.
Overall, this is a good, effective, and cost-efficient product. It is missing some key functionality we had with a previous program which limits my total score, but I still think a lot of school districts can get a lot out of SchoolMessenger. The features and functions they do include work well.
Viewing the website works really well. However, designing and building pages is difficult and limited. The menu of choices and navigating it is difficult. It requires steps to complete simple tasks or embed outside elements. With this, I think SchoolMessenger could use some revamping to assist those who aren't fluent in HTML and web design, much like other programs like Weebly, Wix, or WordPress work.
What we thought would be a simple task was no easy feat. It took us a lot of time to get SchoolMessenger up and running and we never implemented the app feature. This was something that just put us over our timetable as we needed to get the website up for parents and community.
Scott Trautwein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use West (school messenger) for our websites, and parent/emergency notification system. It is used by our entire school district.
  • Does a great job of posting messages to multiple locations at once. We can send out a message that goes to email, SMS, phone call, Facebook, mobile app and website.
  • Very detailed and clear reports after the message is sent, showing who it was delivered to and who didn't receive it.
  • Interface is very user friendly. Little to no training is needed for basic users.
  • Cost is significant. Not unreasonable, to lower price would be great.
  • Support is very, very slow to respond. Unless you call in it takes several days to receive a response. I've had tickets open for over a week to resolve the issue.
West is well suited for school districts looking for a single location to manage communications and website hosting. Robocalls, parent notifications and emergency notifications are handled perfectly. West ties into your SIS so it is easy to pull the information. The initial setup, however, is a little time consuming and complicated. After it is set up, it works well.
  • Kept all communications uniform across multiple mediums (Facebook, mobile app, email, phone) -- All messages are the same.
  • Cost was the same as our previous solution
  • Easier to use than previous solution
  • shoutpoint
Easier to use and more cost effective than shoutpoint
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