sjb Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 My school is currently attempting to upgrade to the new Parentmail system PMX having had numerous issues with Parentmail2. Suffice to say it's not going well so far - three weeks in we still don't have a functioning system. It seems to be very newly released and not quite finished yet... We use PM for the majority of our communication with parents, so really need a reliable system. I was hoping PMX would be the answer, but just like the upgrade from PM to PM2 it seems to have lost some of the key functions that we need (like being able to add staff members to year groups) and made things worse rather than better. Our contract is up for renewal in April, and I wondered if there are any other systems available that offer the same functionality as PM? We mostly use email and occasionally text, and need to be able to send messages to both groups and individuals and send attachments, preferably with school branding. Thank you!
TechMonkey Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) MailChimp? Not an education only solution but is used to handling large numbers of users, users can actually be bulk imported and you can report on read rates, click through rates and all manner of stats. You can use all manner of branding and templates as well as groupings and segmentations. It can also do some funky automation like if a user clicks through on a link it can carry out a task (email them or you a message for one). Now as an aside we are not using MailChimp yet, it was recommended to us by our web/marketing company and I looked into it. If I got my sums right then it blows PM out of the water on price. I guess any reputable bulkmailer would suffice. the only thing it doesn't have is text messaging so if that is a need you'd have to have a secondary system. We were looking at some mail to text solutions. HTH EDIT: On the issue of attachments I would generally recommend storing on your website and either linking directly to the file or link to the page where the file is available. Unless of course it is a personal document like a bill or report. EDIT EDIT: They do have an Event SMS service, whether that could be used for schools I'm not sure. But at about £30 for 2000 texts again it is mighty cheaper than PM. Edited February 24, 2014 by TechMonkey
sparkeh Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 We use Schoolcomms which has been excellent. School to Home Communication | Online Parent Payments System 1
sjb Posted February 24, 2014 Author Posted February 24, 2014 Thank you - will look at those options. Took the plunge and went live on PMX this afternoon and it's worse than I realised. When I send an e-letter parents now just get an alert from PMX and have to log in to their PMX account to see the text of the message! Fortunately the PM2 account still seems to be working so will hastily retreat back to that for now.
fairm010 Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 We used to use Clarion Call before parent mail.
Cache Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 We use Schoolcomms which works pretty well and we've not had issues with the Email/SMS side of it. 1
GREED Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Always recommend @Schoolcomms simple solution feature rich stable and reliable. Used it from years ago we brilliant then. They have a imessage/whatsapp style Internet messenger portion now called Parent Gateway. 1
sparkeh Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Always recommend @Schoolcomms simple solution feature rich stable and reliable. Used it from years ago we brilliant then. They have a imessage/whatsapp style Internet messenger portion now called Parent Gateway. Yeah parents love that, can't use it to make payments yet but I think that's on the way?
sjb Posted February 24, 2014 Author Posted February 24, 2014 Thanks. Have set up a free trial of schoolcomms. Looks like it's cheaper than PM too.
GREED Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 I think that is the plan to tie their payments system into the application.
tj2419 Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Always recommend @Schoolcomms simple solution feature rich stable and reliable. Used it from years ago we brilliant then. They have a imessage/whatsapp style Internet messenger portion now called Parent Gateway. How does that work. Do they download an app? Is it free to send messages like that? Cheers
GREED Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 Yes parents download the app for free then it works like whatsapp essentially. Group messages can be sent out, and if they have the app it is free for the school because it is a wifi style message not a text. I think there is then the option to text of some parents have not got the app. Huge savings to the school.
GREED Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 I should also say it is messages going out parents cannot see everyone in the group or anything like that!
sparkeh Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Yes parents download the app for free then it works like whatsapp essentially. Group messages can be sent out, and if they have the app it is free for the school because it is a wifi style message not a text. I think there is then the option to text of some parents have not got the app. Huge savings to the school. Yeah its all done automagically, if you send a text then the parents with the app get the message via the app, the rest get a regular text. Oh and the app reports back when the message has been read. Proved very handy for us in certain circumstances Edited February 25, 2014 by sparkeh 1
tj2419 Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Can you choose to just send it to the app? Powers that be aren't too much of a fan of paying for the texts. Thanks
winng Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 +1 for Schoolcomms for ease of use and reliability too. It was used for sending basic email and text messages, sending out exam and student timetables, and termly reports as attachments to a generic email as well at my last school. 1
Schoolcomms Posted February 26, 2014 Posted February 26, 2014 Yeah parents love that, can't use it to make payments yet but I think that's on the way? Yes payments will be in the School Gateway app around March/April time. (Along with a whole bunch of other stuff) 2
Schoolcomms Posted February 26, 2014 Posted February 26, 2014 Can you choose to just send it to the app? Powers that be aren't too much of a fan of paying for the texts. Yes when you compose a message you can choose "App only", "SMS only" or "App or SMS" (default). So if you select "App only" then the message will only go to those that have downloaded the app.
sjb Posted February 26, 2014 Author Posted February 26, 2014 Am impressed so far - SchoolComms have spent a lot of time on the phone to me explaining how their system works and dealing with technical issues I'm having with the initial import. Like the look of the system too.
PaulHughes Posted April 9, 2014 Posted April 9, 2014 Thank you - will look at those options. Took the plunge and went live on PMX this afternoon and it's worse than I realised. When I send an e-letter parents now just get an alert from PMX and have to log in to their PMX account to see the text of the message! Fortunately the PM2 account still seems to be working so will hastily retreat back to that for now. @sjb - Thanks for the post. Can I quickly correct this comment. Parents only need to login ONCE. There is a 'keep me logged in' feature just like that found on Facebook which means parents click on the link in their emails and go directly to the message. (Any submissions back the schools (forms for example) require the parent to input their password so protecting against any security issue when using 'keep me logged in'). It's widely recognised now that ordinary email is not secure and that sending information (especially if it's personal) is not good practice. Now that ParentMail enables parental response (form submission/trip consent etc) it is NECESSARY that parents are logged in when they reply. This also provides 100% guaranteed delivery receipts and means parents don't have to trawl through junk mail in their personal email accounts to find school messages.
sjb Posted April 9, 2014 Author Posted April 9, 2014 That may be the case, but the message a parent receives just says 'you have a message on ParentMail', not even a subject header so that they know what it's about (that's of course assuming that they are able to register on PMX in the first place, which was a real issue for many of our parents due to various technical issues with the site). For us that just wasn't good enough as we know from parent surveys that a lot of parents make a judgement about whether to read a message based on its subject. Form submissions and trip consents on PM are a substantial extra cost on top of the core system, so we wouldn't have considered those anyway. Have now been using SchoolComms for a few weeks and are very glad to have made the switch as their system is so much more flexible, easier to maintain and easier to use, for lower cost.
PaulHughes Posted April 9, 2014 Posted April 9, 2014 That may be the case, but the message a parent receives just says 'you have a message on ParentMail', not even a subject header so that they know what it's about (that's of course assuming that they are able to register on PMX in the first place, which was a real issue for many of our parents due to various technical issues with the site). For us that just wasn't good enough as we know from parent surveys that a lot of parents make a judgement about whether to read a message based on its subject. Form submissions and trip consents on PM are a substantial extra cost on top of the core system, so we wouldn't have considered those anyway. Have now been using SchoolComms for a few weeks and are very glad to have made the switch as their system is so much more flexible, easier to maintain and easier to use, for lower cost. I am sorry to hear you were not happy. PMX is a first generation product and like all first generation products will benefit from a few updates. (It has already had 6 in the first 6 months and the things you've mentioned have already been attended to). However I'm happy to hear that you are enjoying SchoolComms ... in my experience they are a good company run by some nice people. Best of luck going forward. Paul.
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