Anyone using PMX?

[sjb]

I had a demonstration of the new Parentmail PMX system at Bett, and was assured by PM's MD that the upgrade process would be much smoother than the Parentmail 2 upgrade with everything being transferred over from Parentmail 2. We have been having major issues with Parentmail 2 for a while, so I was all set to upgrade asap.

 

However, having had my introductory session with PM support it seems that all is not quite as I was led to believe. I have to start from scratch again with a SIMS upload, so will have recreate all my groups etc. The community management section seems a lot more limited than PM2, and the help pages are clearly a work in progress (e.g. the FAQ section is completely empty, and the section on importing data refers to links that don't exist). I'm now feeling a little nervous about taking the plunge. PM2 upgrade was a total headache for us and I suspect that this may be a similar experience.

 

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has already upgraded, and what their experience has been like. Is it worth it?

[jontyplatt]

We have upgraded and have decided to cancel our contract - not worth the bother any more - anyone ideas for a sms system that works?

 

 

Thanks

[TheScarfedOne]

I had an "interesting" interview with them at BETT. Couldn't publish any of it in the end though!

 

For SMS systems - look at Groupcall or InTouch (SIMS Addon only)

[sjb]

We switched to Schoolcomms in the end after a very unhappy experience with PMX and Parentmail (there's another thread on this somewhere if you are interested). We are very happy with our decision - like Parentmail it does email as well as SMS, but is cheaper, easier to use and has better functionality (for our needs anyway). There is an app for Android/Apple phones which allows texts to be sent for free to parents who download it. It links directly to SIMS so data is always up to date, and you remain in control of your data which for us was one of the many advantages over PMX. Been using them for about 6 months and would highly recommend.

[steveJCUK]

I regularly rant at parent mail!

I'm very very upset with the whole product, the award they prize on their website infuriates me and suddenly I become even more wary of companies that display accolades on the front page!

I have pm2 +pay.

 

Here are some of my challenges, I hope these are resolved in pmx - can anyone confirm?

 

1. Sims import uses preferred names, cashless uses legal. - legal is right I feel, money is involved!

2. The csv upload has 2 columns entitled forename and surname (student and parent)

3. No unique identifier for pupils and parents, they just hack together forenames and date of births.

 

There seems to be a tense relationship with our cashless provider.

 

The credit card processing element is unreliable. Payments are regularly not completed and takes the money out and puts it back 5 days later.

The registration process for new parents is horrible.

The road map is slow to deliver any new products.

 

They sold it well but in practice it's so broken and hacked together the product falls flat on its face.

The interface has been criticised by our parents no end.

When I can muster up the energy to propose to management another move I will again look into another provider.

I'm deeply saddened with the company and find few people speaking positively.

If sims integrated with slg a payment module I maybe sold!

[jontyplatt]

We spent ages on this over the summer - loads of problems - may of which I did not get involved with because the office staff handled it. Bu I did put togeth a csv which Parentmail seemed unable to cope with

[sjb]

We didn't use +Pay so I can't comment on that, but from our experience of PMX I would doubt if any of your issues would be solved. I upgraded to PMX because of issues we were having with PM2, but PMX was much worse in my experience. Imports were a nightmare - the report they suppied put data in the wrong columns, and it was not possible to edit or delete records once they had been uploaded Registration didn't work for a lot of our parents, and Parentmail frequently spammed parents with marketing emails, even after we had closed our account.

 

Schoolcomms have their own payment option, which I don't have experience of but may offer you an alternative 'all-in-one' solution. You don't have to worry about csv's as the data is imported directly from SIMS - makes life so much easier! Have never regretted our decision to switch.

[aworkc]

We use Tucasi at our school and haven't hd any problems, pretty simple to use