RS Connected... Who uses it?

[hardtailstar]

Hi All,

 

Our school is looking at getting RS Connected in school.

 

Do any of you guys use it and is it any good?

 

This is their website https://www.rsconnected.com/contact.html

 

Thanks in advance

[Danp]

I'll be keeping an eye on this!

[hardtailstar]

I'll be keeping an eye on this!

 

Are you thinking of using it too?

[HC_Netman]

I've just booked a meeting with them in May.

 

Will be interested in peoples opinions too.

[Danp]

Are you thinking of using it too?

 

Yes, I am now. I have been looking at some similar products recently, trialled a few apps etc so this is another to watch/get in contact with.

[bobsmith]

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/164075-rs-connect-ed.html

 

I use it and it's great. It's an improved version of KeepKidsSafe which was also great.

[hardtailstar]

I've just booked a meeting with them in May.

 

Will be interested in peoples opinions too.

 

Our meeting is in April, so will see how it goes.

 

Yes, I am now. I have been looking at some similar products recently, trialled a few apps etc so this is another to watch/get in contact with.

 

I think we are pretty much going with it before even meeting with them according to the ladies in the office.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/164075-rs-connect-ed.html

 

I use it and it's great. It's an improved version of KeepKidsSafe which was also great.

@bobsmith How does the uploading of content work to the app in regards to school news etc? Is it via an internet login and it pulls those details to the app?

[theeggmaster]

Yes, we use it and are very happy with it. We moved from KeepKidsSafe to RS ConnectEd last September. We're looking at the app now to replace our parent portal and also to save on SMS messaging.

[eddyc]

We use it here.

 

We used to use KKS which was a bit limited so moved to SchoolComms which had its own problems. After 3 years we decided to go back to RS Connect Ed.

 

Since moving back we've had issues where messaging the whole school would miss a random chunk of contacts out. So we would have to manually check and select those contacts who didn't get the message the first time.

 

After reporting this and them claiming were an isolated case, they eventually admitted other schools are having the issue too.

 

They have since rolled out a fix but it took them a good six months to get them.

 

Another bugbear of mine with them is as soon as they have a foot in the door they constantly harass you to but school asset manager.

[fiza]

We have RS Connect Ed but are trialling Schoolcomms which from first impressions looks much better and adaptable to what we need.

[Bigbird7]

We have RS Connect Ed but are trialling Schoolcomms which from first impressions looks much better and adaptable to what we need.

 

Exactly the same situation here and so far very impressed with Schoolcomms. The integration with SIMs is a winner. It does bring the potential to bring our Frog Parent portal, payments system and messaging under one umbrella. They are also looking at integration with our parents evening system. So potentially a winner in terms of engagement and a significant cost benefit.

[JonThompson]

We use it. The app is just a glorified mobile friendly interface with which you can put links from to sections of your school website. The positive is that it saves money on texts.

[synaesthesia]

Funnily enough we've not long moved from Schoolcomms to ConnectEd and find the latter far better and more flexible. Been using it a few months now.

[fiza]

Funnily enough we've not long moved from Schoolcomms to ConnectEd and find the latter far better and more flexible. Been using it a few months now.

 

Would be interested to know how the 2 compare. We have not long been with Connect ED but have a trial of Schoolcomms on the go. It would be good to hear from someone who has used Schoolcomms for some time as to what is better and more flexible with Connect Ed.

[hardtailstar]

Would be interested to know how the 2 compare. We have not long been with Connect ED but have a trial of Schoolcomms on the go. It would be good to hear from someone who has used Schoolcomms for some time as to what is better and more flexible with Connect Ed.

 

We are using Schoolcomms at the moment and the ladies who use it think RS Connected is more flexible.

[fiza]

We are using Schoolcomms at the moment and the ladies who use it think RS Connected is more flexible.

 

In what way is it more flexible? What can it do that Schoolcomms can't and vice versa.

[hardtailstar]

In what way is it more flexible? What can it do that Schoolcomms can't and vice versa.

 

I dont know, they are the ones that told us that it is and going ahead with it, I only found out about it yesterday.

 

I think it may just be the app and the features with that.

[sparkeh]

We use Schoolcomms but are looking at Connect Ed at the moment. If you compare the feature list

• https://www.rsconnected.com/core_functionality.html
  
• https://schoolcomms.com/functionality/
  

 

I think that Connect Ed does a fair bit that SC doesn't. Things that stand out for us (excuse caps, cut & paste from website):

• ABSENCE AND PUNCTUALITY MANAGEMENT
  
• MULTI LANGUAGE TRANSLATION TOOLS
  
• SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SUITE
  
• DYNAMIC PERMISSION FORMS & DATA COLLECTION SUITE
  
• PARENTS EVENING & EVENT MANAGEMENT
  

[fiza]

We use Schoolcomms but are looking at Connect Ed at the moment. If you compare the feature list

• https://www.rsconnected.com/core_functionality.html
  
• https://schoolcomms.com/functionality/
  

 

I think that Connect Ed does a fair bit that SC doesn't. Things that stand out for us (excuse caps, cut & paste from website):

• ABSENCE AND PUNCTUALITY MANAGEMENT
  
• MULTI LANGUAGE TRANSLATION TOOLS
  
• SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SUITE
  
• DYNAMIC PERMISSION FORMS & DATA COLLECTION SUITE
  
• PARENTS EVENING & EVENT MANAGEMENT
  

@sparkeh - Schoolcomms does do absence management according to their website.

 

FOR SCHOOLS

 

Publish attendance rates straight to the School Gateway app. Use Schoolcomms automated absence chasing and write back parent email responses to SIMS attendance log – at the click of a button.

FOR PARENTS

 

Parents can view their child’s attendance on their smartphone, tablet or the School Gateway website. They can explain any absences straight from the screen reducing calls into the school office.

[fiza]

I'm not favouring one over the other. We are looking at both but want to make the right decision.

[sparkeh]

@fiza thanks I'll look into that. Our Attendance Officer seems to think that Connect Ed does something with attendance that SC doesn't so I'll take another look.

[Stutwo]

We're happy with ConnectEd. Responses to SMS/App messages are written straight to SIMS at the discretion of the attendance office and the communication with SIMS is quick (typically writeback within 1 minute and usual report generating time to populate the absent/lates lists for contact). Once you push the app with parents to get a decent userbase, then set the system to only use SMS to those without the app, the savings on texts are significant.

 

The Social Media section is useful if you have more than one person you want to be able to post to Twitter and Facebook as the logins are held within ConnectEd, and also provides some protection if the holder of the logins is absent. The Social Media monitoring simply does regular searches of social media with the keywords you add, then presents the results within ConnectEd or emails you daily when there are any results.