exception of NetCommunity/Online Campus Community or whatever they are
calling it now. In place of what Blackbaud offers for this we use a hybrid
Edline/SharePoint solution. We do use Faculty Access for grades/progress
reports and NetClassroom to deliver grades/progress reports electronically.
Faculty Access and NetClassroom are functional but lacking in some areas and
they are both clunky. If you want more detail on the features lacking in
Faculty Access, take a look http://fawebfeedback.blackbaud.com. Again, we
use both products effectively, but there is certainly room for improvement.
I've built a number of custom ASP apps (e.g. warning list, grade/progress
report look up tool, ...) that pull data from Blackbaud tables. If you want
some insight into the possibilities regarding building solutions that
seamlessly use Blackbaud data (no exporting required) but don't rely on
their clunky and expensive API I might be able to help.
Overall I really like the Blackbaud platform. Version 7.x is a good platform
that has been rock solid for us and a good fit for our school overall.
Looking ahead, version 8 is extremely cool from an architecture perspective.
In version 8 Blackbaud has placed an entirely new web services layer between
the backend database and the client software. This opens up a whole new
range of possibilities (especially web-based and mobile device utilities)
and will make developing custom applications far easier and much more
powerful. I'm also very hopeful that the 8.x replacements for Faculty Access
and NetClassroom will be much better. Overall, the future looks good for
Blackbaud products.
Now to my one major frustration with Blackbaud. I follow Blackbaud fairly
closely and have been to several of their conferences. I continue to be
extremely frustrated with the treatment Education Edge gets vis-a-vis
Raiser's Edge. IMHO Education Edge is very much a second class citizen down
in Charleston. I think it is very telling that whenever you ask a Blackbaud
developer a question, invariably the answer comes with a Raiser's Edge
example. It seems to me that they do all their development on Raiser's Edge,
and then once the have that platform ready they get around to applying the
new technology to Education Edge with a serious time lag.
Do me a favor. If you do wind up taking a close look at Blackbaud which I
really thing you should if it's in your price range, ask them when version
8.x of Raiser's Edge will be out. Make sure you get an answer this this
question; they should be able to give you some kind of date. Then ask them
when version 8.x of Education Edge will be ready. They'll try to avoid the
latter question, but press them for a concrete answer. Feel free to say that
you've heard criticism that Blackbaud does not give Education Edge anywhere
near the developer emphasis that it gives Raiser's Edge, and that you want
reassurance that Blackbaud is serious about developing Education Edge. I'm
curious what they say to prospective education customers regarding the 8.x
release date for Education Edge and the Raiser's Edge/Education Edge divide.
--
Tom Phelan
Director of Technology
Peddie School
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Brandon Watkins <
brandon.watkins@theindependentschool.com> wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> We are looking at switching to a different provider for our school
> management software. We are currently using Senior Systems, but are looking
> to make a change. I was wondering which software package or packages others
> are using for student management, gradebook, registrar etc. and if you are
> using a package that integrates business office functions such as accounts
> payable and receivable and if not what accounting software you are using.
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
> Brandon Watkins
> Director of Technology
> The Independent School
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution,
> non-commercial, share-alike license.
> RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
>
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
