CSE

[TonyJF]

Anyone have any bad experiences with CSE? Or even any good ones?

[Diello]

Staff are friendly enough, but wouldn't touch the product with a 20 foot barge-pole.

[mattx]

Originally Posted by Diello

Staff are friendly enough, but wouldn't touch the product with a 20 foot barge-pole.

Which product ? They do quite a few now.....

[Linfit]

We used their Network Toolkit and their proto-VLE,Workspace Explorer, for 2 years. Demos seemed good and the people we dealt with were friendly and did their best to be helpful, but we found the software buggy, tech support once installed was poor, and it never really did what we wanted or expected it would do; their classroom manager software never worked throughout the two years we had it.

I believe they are now involved in Fronter which we evaluated when we were looking at VLE's last year. Didn't like Fronter much and CSE's involvement would have made me reluctant to adopt it even if it was better than it is.

My general feeling is that they promised a lot but always seemed overstretched and unable to deliver a product that actually did what it said on the tin. Looking back on my decision to go with them I now think it was one of my poorer choices.

We now use Frog as our VLE and Netsupport for classroom management. Much more professional outfits to deal with and much better software.

[Edu-IT]

I used it a few years ago as a user and it wasn't too bad. Not sure what it is like from an administration point of view.

[kingswood]

We use their software (Network Toolkit etc). The school have been with them now for over 10 years!!

We are currently looking at moving away from them, but I don't want to get specific on a public forum. I do agree with others that their staff are nice to work with (although they have lost some of their best engineers of late). We aren't interested in Fronter because we are hooked into another VLE now.

If you want specifics or an insider view of CSE then give me a shout via PM and I will be happy to give my story!

Paul

[mattx]

Interesting reading about CSE - we still use the OLD ver of Workspace explorer - yes its buggy but I have written various apps to work along side it. Its quite good for deploying software and for central management.
When I first joined the school they had just hooked up with CSE, they had a contract for a site visit from an Engineer twice a month. It started well, then appointments were missed etc. They soon got back on track but started sending us young but enthusatic new starters - because of my experience in regards to my old job I ended up training them !! We stopped the support after that and saved a quite a bit of money.
Didn't they have a tie in with junglebyte software ? Junglebyte, Provider of Premier Classroom Management Software
They installed a version of some desktop management tool they were flogging, it was terrible [ it was a early version ] - I soon took it off and deployed VNC everywhere....

[TonyJF]

KINGSWOOD

Paul

I have sent you a PM to your Yahoo address.

Added: OK, have just had the mail bounced back. Which address can I reach you on please?
Cheers.

[localzuk]

We use CSE for our cabling. They do a good job, whilst being competitive compared to most other companies. We've also had a few other bits and pieces from them in the past.

[FragglePete]

We moved over to CSE. NET Workspace this summer, and well....

It's like most things, if it worked correctly then it would be bloody brilliant. But there are a number of bugs in the system that really starting to me off and a number of teachers. And parts of the system are just unfinished which is very very poor.

I'm assured by our account manager that all these little issues will get resolved, but support although friendly do appear over stretched. I think the support department is just one person! And during the Summer he was off doing installs!

It would appear the main product is developed by just one person also, and I just don't think they test things properly.

Our biggest complaint is the licensing system. I'm all for companies protecting their investment, but when it gets in the way of the system working correctly through no fault of ours then it falls flat on it's arse.

Central administration is pretty good, it looks pretty good and as I said when it works, it's fab. But it's just little annoyances that are getting to us.

I also looked at getting them in for infrastructure work (cabling), and their prices were very competitive but were just pipped on a number of things.

At the moment, we're tolerating CSE in a hope that all the little issues will be solved, if not then next year I will look at alternatives.

Pete

[alexknight]

We have used CSE to carry out work in the school, mainly installation of projectors and cabling. I don't have any complaints and the quotations were competitive.

Alex

[dan400007]

After a conversation with the Sales Manager at CSE things have been smoothed over.