SouthCoastSaint Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 In light of the email this morning about Schoolcomms being acquired by ParentPay, not sure how I'm feeling. A glance at ParentPay's twitter feed doesn't fill me with confidence; announcements about issues and outages. Are there any happy users of ParentPay on here to make me feel better?
bossman Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 We use it here and as far as I know our admin staff are more than happy with it, coupled with CRB biometrics it works fine once setup and configured. 1
mjk Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 just looking at other systems to get away from parentpay so thanks for the headsup. My list so far, now schoolcomms is off the list is: Tucasi / scopay Wisepay sQuid Parenmail has anyone any others or recommends ?
Banjo Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 Will Schoolcomms lose the write back facility into Sims in the future>? 1
SouthCoastSaint Posted January 24, 2017 Author Posted January 24, 2017 According to the press release they will remain two separate entities but I am unsure what ParentPay offers in the attendance/messaging area, I assume sooner or later there will be some re-organisation. Having been with SC for years, the business has changed beyond recognition as it has grown. 1
mjk Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 According to the press release they will remain two separate entities but I am unsure what ParentPay offers in the attendance/messaging area, I assume sooner or later there will be some re-organisation. Having been with SC for years, the business has changed beyond recognition as it has grown. I don't ParentPay's disdain for their customers has changed one bit. 1
karldenton Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 We have had endless demo's but feedback from other schools on Parent Pay isn't great. Neither is it great on accountant forums. We have looked at sQuid but not made a decision yet. Wisepay are at Bett so will be having a chat with them 1
Achandler Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 Don't touch Squid, endless problems, we gave up after 9 months! 1
truebluesteve Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 Schools Cash Office (Tucasi) has been a complete pain over the last few months and the support has been poor. We seem to be encountering bug after bug in the software since we moved to the latest version. Going to have a look around when I'm at BETT, but there don't seem to be that many good providers out there - ones that haven't been assimilated by ParentPay at least!
jmak Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 In my experience, Schoolcomms has been a far superior product to Parentpay especially in these areas: Support Support Reporting Comms functionality Availability of service during peak times Availability of support during peak times Integration with SIMS Integration with SIMS for payments Knowledgeablity (?sp) of support staff Oh..... And did I mention that their support is better? Invoice for next year just came through. I guess we'll renew this time - we should get at least a few months before anything changes, but I'll be keeping a very close eye on performance before signing up again. 2
mjk Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 The first thing to to when choosing a new company is to phone their support line and see if you can get through to someone!
Schoolcomms Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 Firstly as always, thanks for the kind words about Schoolcomms. There are no plans to aggressively integrate the two businesses, or stop providing any of the services that either Schoolcomms or Parent Pay offer (to cover off the specific question above, that includes Schoolcomms’ SIMS writeback capability). It also includes our payments product, which will continue to be available and supported. Indeed we have some new features coming over the next few months… watch this space. Schoolcomms Payments and ParentPay are quite different products with different capabilities, suited to different needs, and I’d really recommend you have a look at them both and pick the one that is right for you.
maturelady Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 I hear GroupCall has a new payment system they are showing at BETT. Worth a look. 1
Bigbird7 Posted January 24, 2017 Posted January 24, 2017 (edited) We were considering a move from Parent Pay and Keep Kids Safe to the more integrated approach provided by Schoolcomms. Oh well, time for another rethink again! I've looked at the Groupcall system and the payments system is very much in it's early days, for example there is no integration with Cashless Catering systems such as Cunninghams. Without this we couldn't consider it, it is promised for the Summer though. Edited January 24, 2017 by Bigbird7
GREED Posted January 25, 2017 Posted January 25, 2017 We were considering a move from Parent Pay and Keep Kids Safe to the more integrated approach provided by Schoolcomms. Oh well, time for another rethink again! I've looked at the Groupcall system and the payments system is very much in it's early days, for example there is no integration with Cashless Catering systems such as Cunninghams. Without this we couldn't consider it, it is promised for the Summer though. Just for information as it is stated here, PayOurSchool (Groupcalls Parental Payment solution) will have cashless integration this term, and will have all the major cashless caterers integrated.
zag Posted January 25, 2017 Posted January 25, 2017 Firstly as always, thanks for the kind words about Schoolcomms. There are no plans to aggressively integrate the two businesses, or stop providing any of the services that either Schoolcomms or Parent Pay offer (to cover off the specific question above, that includes Schoolcomms’ SIMS writeback capability). It also includes our payments product, which will continue to be available and supported. Indeed we have some new features coming over the next few months… watch this space. Schoolcomms Payments and ParentPay are quite different products with different capabilities, suited to different needs, and I’d really recommend you have a look at them both and pick the one that is right for you. Do you know if you will integrate the logins at some point? I like schoolcomms but the login system using a "memorable word" is terrible security. All our staff need to write it down to remember it. This is about the one thing I would change with Schoolcomms.
Sylv3r Posted January 25, 2017 Posted January 25, 2017 When I get to BETT, I was planning on having a word with SchoolCOMMS anyway - we use SchoolCOMMS for parental engagement but another provider for our online payments - I was hoping to move to one system for both, so it will be interesting to hear what they say.
howartp Posted January 26, 2017 Posted January 26, 2017 In my experience, Schoolcomms has been a far superior product to Parentpay especially in these areas: Support Support Reporting Comms functionality Availability of service during peak times Availability of support during peak times Integration with SIMS Integration with SIMS for payments Knowledgeablity (?sp) of support staff Oh..... And did I mention that their support is better? Invoice for next year just came through. I guess we'll renew this time - we should get at least a few months before anything changes, but I'll be keeping a very close eye on performance before signing up again. Ditto to all that - support was the first thing that came to mind when reading the announcement. There are no plans to aggressively integrate the two businesses, or stop providing any of the services that either Schoolcomms or Parent Pay offer. Indeed we have some new features coming over the next few months… watch this space. Thanks for the update. We're looking at moving ParentPay over to WisePay at Easter - the Single Signon aspect of Wisepay is particularly of interest. Guess I should look at SC's payment module given we adore SC's messaging. Ditto to getting rid of the memorable word! Have you considered AD authentication? ("Use current windows credentials" ideally, but if not then LDAP) 1
CMLG Posted January 27, 2017 Posted January 27, 2017 We use Tucasi/Scopay - I'm not involved with it but there seem to be a lot of parental and staff complaints about it not working.
AJWhite1970 Posted January 27, 2017 Posted January 27, 2017 WisePay impressed me greatly at BETT, will be having a closer look when I get back in the office on Monday
howartp Posted January 28, 2017 Posted January 28, 2017 Yeah, I'm getting a second demo booked to show finance team when I get back. Also need to tell NRS that Wisepay can send multiple purses (Dinners, School Shop, e.g.) into NRS.
truebluesteve Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 We've had another demo of WisePay and I think we will be going with them as nothing could be worse than Schools Cash Office right now (I hope I don't regret those words). As an aside can anyone tell me what ParentPay charge in terms of transaction fees for credit and debit cards? Ta...
Bigbird7 Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 They've just reduced their charge to 1.275% We've had another demo of WisePay and I think we will be going with them as nothing could be worse than Schools Cash Office right now (I hope I don't regret those words). As an aside can anyone tell me what ParentPay charge in terms of transaction fees for credit and debit cards? Ta...
truebluesteve Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 They've just reduced their charge to 1.275% Thanks - I assume that is for credit cards only or is it for both? WisePay have a (or used to) set charge for debit cards
Bigbird7 Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 Thanks - I assume that is for credit cards only or is it for both? WisePay have a (or used to) set charge for debit cards Parent Pay is an across the board charge for everything, they moved to that system last year. Schoolcomms have a different charge for every payment method which is confusing but they do offer bank transfer which others don't and at a flat fee of 16p. 1
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