Schoolcomms v Groupcall Messenger

[vyperz]

We currently have Schoolcomms for parent/student/staff communication - we also have Groupcall Emerge for taking registers on iPads & iPhones. We are considering movng from Schoolcomms to Groupcall Messenger - has anyone made this move ( or the other way ) and what if any are the fundamental pitfalls or gains. Messenger will work out a lot cheaper for us and we get a Emerge discount for using Messenger.

[zag]

I'd be interested to know the difference, I am under the impression that schoolcomms is much more featured.

[GREED]

I'd be interested to know the difference, I am under the impression that schoolcomms is much more featured.

 

Do you care to clarify or quantify?

 

 

@vyperz for the removal of any doubt I work for Groupcall. I would like to encourage schools to respond to this but I am happy to respond to specific questions about Messenger, and I am sure my good friends (and forum sponsors) at @Schoolcomms will also respond too.

 

Graham

[Steve21]

Personally I've had both at different places of work and find only a fraction of bits are used by people anyway. (In my experience at least).

 

Always find it's only a few people trusted to send info, then it's block based on tutor/class etc. Spam emails/text etc

 

Had Emerge at one so was cheaper to link together, have schoolComms here as no groupcall products. (Yet )

 

(Would say if there's something specific for one you want, but no "major" reason to pick either over another in terms of basic functionality, but personal opinions etc)

 

Steve

[vikpaw]

We went from @Schoolcomms to @Groupcall . On SIMS it's fine, since moving away from SIMS to Engage, it's not so great.

 

Below is my opinion based on experience and knowledge gained from using products or seeing demos. Not necessarily up to date or endorsed by the companies.

 

It defo needs a decent internet connection, which in the UK is probably fine. It's needed to operate and go through message creation, whereas Schoolcomms through the client you can run it fine and then it connects when needed.

 

We've had some issues with the sync of data, and now the updating of certain bits of data, but as the SIMS build will be different, it won't affect you.

 

I'm not sure of all the features - Schoolcomms sends reports, timetables, rewards, e-cards . Not seen any info like that linked from Groupcall, it can send anything you supply it, don't think it links through and pulls that info out from the MIS though. If a USER knows - please advise, so @GREED doesn't get in trouble

 

Schoolcomms handles absence notifications and updates SIMS, not sure if Groupcall can do this, it doesn't for Engage. A clever thing it does do is allows you to ask for open / closed ended questions to be answered, so you can use it for doing polls, and viewing the results through their interface.

 

Emerge was great, but we can't have that now (though i've offered to Alpha / Beta test...). Schoolcomms don't have an app for registers (that i know of ), but they have a parent comms app, which saves you texts as they receive alerts if on iOS - not sure about other platforms. It's really popular and i think can show all sorts of info controlled through a central interface. They have links to payments and roombooking too. Groupcall have parent and student apps (might still be in the pipeline) - saw some good demos at BETT - but not heard much since.

 

Schoolcomms web interface, probably isn't as great as the client app, but i haven't used it for a while. Groupcall (Messenger M5 at least) only works through a web interface so is slicker on that front. I don't like the permissions though, it needs way more granularity and to be role based. It's supposedly coming. There is a big change coming to Messenger's interface but no idea what yet.

 

I don't like the Messenger reports, or analysis, it's a bit clunky and not easy to use and review. It does have a nifty way to link to Twitter, and also the multi-language feature is cool, including sending voice alerts.

 

Overall, if i could, i'd have stayed with Schoolcomms and kept using Emerge. I found Schoolcomms easier to deal with and support was much better.

Edited March 26, 2015 by vikpaw

[GREED]

Would like to clarify a few points for the sake of accuracy:

 

We've had some issues with the sync of data, and now the updating of certain bits of data, but as the SIMS build will be different, it won't affect you.

 

We are aware of an issue affecting one of our Double First Engage customers using Messenger, which requires diagnosis in tandem with the team at Double First. It does not affect SIMS customers.

 

I'm not sure of all the features - Schoolcomms sends reports, timetables, rewards, e-cards . Not seen any info like that linked from Groupcall, it can send anything you supply it, don't think it links through and pulls that info out from the MIS though.

 

Messenger has eCard/Reward Cards, and also Timetables.

 

Schoolcomms handles absence notifications and updates SIMS, not sure if Groupcall can do this

 

It is able to do this.

 

it doesn't for Engage

 

This is due to the limitations imposed by Double First not allowing write-back.

 

Groupcall have parent and student apps (might still be in the pipeline) - saw some good demos at BETT - but not heard much since.

 

Emerge for Parents has been available for over a year now.

 

I don't like the permissions though, it needs way more granularity and to be role based. It's supposedly coming.

 

Thanks too for your feedback on permissions, we are aware of this not being as good as it could be and it is in the mix to be improved. As indeed it is useful to hear your feedback on all points

Edited March 26, 2015 by GREED

[Schoolcomms]

Thanks for the feedback Vikpaw, really appreciated. Yes I am afraid we have chosen to focus all our energy on providing a great product for SIMS schools, so now you have moved off SIMS we unfortunately have to go our separate ways.

 

One small correction: Our payments product is our own, not a third party product. It's completely integrated with everything else we do, so for example on the parent app (Android as well, not just IOS btw) you can pay for dinners, trips etc. as well as get the free app messages, see timetables, clubs, attendance, behaviour etc.

 

In fact payments has been a big growth area for us, a large proportion of our customers use it. We are about to launch a new feature which will halve transaction fees for schools... which is cool... I'll save that for another post though.

[vikpaw]

On the Messenger homepage, i just found a video on the new look, coming in 19 days. It looks like it will be very efficient, and it's touch friendly and responsive which will be really cool.