EduLink One Feedback?

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

We received a brochure for EduLink One, and it seems to good to be true - brings together several products that we currently use, with associated cost saving.

 

Anyone out there using it and can give feedback?

 

I spotted a thread from early this year, which seemed to be positive.

 

Thanks

[pooley]

As I commented on the other thread, all fine for us. £800 a year and does all our comms, parents evening bookins, afterschool clubs etc etc.

 

Can't really fault it.

 

Si

[synaesthesia]

It is too good, but it is true. We love it, have used it for ages now and wouldn't look elsewhere. Support is second to none and they do listen to feature requests and many have been implemented within an extremely quick timeframe. Couldn't recommend them highly enough, intuitive to the point where we've done very little in the way of training for staff, students or documentation for parents because it just works. We use it heavily for homework, behaviour, attendance, parents evening and mobile use, and are looking at other parts to replace things like concern reporting (in place of MyConcern). When these modules/upgrades get added, they just occur, we get notified, all parts can be enabled/disabled as needed and there has never been any extra cost.

[Gongalong]

We're a relatively big school (a comprehensive), so cost is around £2k, but still a huge saving on the products it will replace.

 

We will definitely trial it, just to see if there are any showstopper missing features for us.

[synaesthesia]

Definitely - we're 1200 students in a split-site school (and growing daily) with a similar cost. Compared to adding up everything like SIMS teacher apps, parentcall or other school/home comms, Show my homework etc it saves a lot of money. The SIMS stuff in our opinion is better than any of Capita's own offerings - the homework module we prefer to SMH. Parents evening booking system isn't perfect compared to some of the specialist versions but I say that now being fully aware they may have already updated and fixed things Our last parents evening went extremely smoothly with it.

[EdTech-Tom]

The feedback I hear from the school staff I talk to is that it's a good bit of kit, easy usability and has helped consolidate multiple third party products and SIMS functionality.

 

I would (admitting my obvious bias) of course always advise that if you're looking at a third party product to fill the gaps in functionality of an MIS you could always look at another MIS that may be a more complete solution and would also likely have an associated cost saving. It's sort of like treating the symptoms in stead of the cause y'know?

[Gongalong]

Is there any MIS that pulls together everything from SIMS and EduLink One?

[Ditto]

Is there any MIS that pulls together everything from SIMS and EduLink One?

Not sure I fully understand? Do you mean what other MIS they are that offer the same functionality as SIMS and EduLink One? If yes, that's slightly tricky to answer as SIMS is so modular. If you are looking at alternative MIS, you could start with Arbor, BromCom, RM Integris and Progresso (I think they are referring to it as CloudSchool). For a wider list have a look at Bring more data. There's not much about functionality there, but it gives an insight to market share and who the main players are to research.

[Gongalong]

@Ditto the comment is in response to @EdTech-Tom's "you could always look at another MIS that may be a more complete solution". Is there an MIS that includes all that SIMS does, plus EduLink One? We use most if not all of what SIMS offers, plus all the modules that EduLink One offers, albeit as other separate products atm.

[EdTech-Tom]

Is there any MIS that pulls together everything from SIMS and EduLink One?

 

I wish I could give you a straight up, easy answer but it genuinely depends on a variety of factors, such as Primary/Secondary/All-thru/Independent, size, what parts of SIMS you use (Most schools I speak to don't use the entire functionality of SIMS, it's a very deep product), what modules you pay for vs what's included in other products, Is the cost saving of a cloud based vs server based product+support contract worth doing things in a different way (Change management is quite important re:MIS') as well as what aspects of Edulink One you want, for instance do you need to be able to mark how many minutes late a student is?.

 

I know Bromcom do have a good "complete" offering but I believe it to be relatively pricey, the product I work with (RM Integris) can offer most of the functionality but not all of it (but if it's aspects that your school don't actually use but still pay for it's fine) and we price ourselves to give schools a considerable cost saving.

 

It isn't necessarily an easy answer unfortunately, I'm happy to discuss more and answer any Q's you have if you want to shoot me a PM.

[Linfit]

We have been using Edulink One since Sept. We did an hours training for staff at the start of the year, mainly on how to send messages and use the seating chart fundtionality. The rest is very intuitive.

It has been very well received by staff and parents but the big upside for us is the number of pupils who use it, easily 80% of the school. This was unexpected but has helped mssively with engagement and communications.

 

We use pretty much all the modules, setup has been very straightforward. We haven't done a parents evening with it yet but other than that no issues.

Support are excellent, you get a reply back within a hour or two, and they have already implemented a change I asked for and are working on another, which I thought was pretty impressive.

 

It has replaced three different systems which had less functionality and were more expensive, so we have streamlined our setup, reduced our admin overhead and costs, and its a better product.

 

One of the best things I have seen in education in this area for a long time. It does show up just how expensive and clunky the various Capita add-ons to SIMS are.

 

Of course, I am only familiar with SIMS, so maybe this type of capablity and reponse is common with providers of other MIS systems ?

[Ditto]

I wish I could give you a straight up, easy answer but it genuinely depends on a variety of factors, such as Primary/Secondary/All-thru/Independent, size, what parts of SIMS you use (Most schools I speak to don't use the entire functionality of SIMS, it's a very deep product), what modules you pay for vs what's included in other products, Is the cost saving of a cloud based vs server based product+support contract worth doing things in a different way (Change management is quite important re:MIS') as well as what aspects of Edulink One you want, for instance do you need to be able to mark how many minutes late a student is?.

I know Bromcom do have a good "complete" offering but I believe it to be relatively pricey, the product I work with (RM Integris) can offer most of the functionality but not all of it (but if it's aspects that your school don't actually use but still pay for it's fine) and we price ourselves to give schools a considerable cost saving.

It isn't necessarily an easy answer unfortunately, I'm happy to discuss more and answer any Q's you have if you want to shoot me a PM.

Exactly, and many of the newer MIS providers are adding functionality so it's a moving target. Might be worth trying to get to BETT and talking it through with the suppliers, although I'm not sure Advanced Learning are attending. Alternatively, I think some of the MIS providers have staff on Edugeek so they might be willing to jump in - calling @JohnCondon and @JayAshcroft to get things started.

[EdTech-Tom]

Exactly, and many of the newer MIS providers are adding functionality so it's a moving target. Might be worth trying to get to BETT and talking it through with the suppliers, although I'm not sure Advanced Learning are attending. Alternatively, I think some of the MIS providers have staff on Edugeek so they might be willing to jump in - calling @JohnCondon and @JayAshcroft to get things started.

 

@Gongalong Definitely try to come to BETT! I'll be there to answer any Integris queries (As it's primarily what I work with) and general Ed-Tech/Cloud queries.

 

Also, Gongalong I would also say it may be a bit late in the year for this decision to be made as Capita SIMS require 3 months notice period from end of contract (Which generally ends on the 31st of March) So December 31st is the time you'd have to hand in your notice of looking elsewhere.

 

I'd follow Ditto's recommendation and attend BETT if possible and spend the next year researching, it's not an easy decision to make as it will impact most staff within the school in some way and so they'll all want input (Changing MIS usually means looking at changing finance package as well, so will affect Finance team, SBM, Head/assistant heads, HR, Exams...) A lot of moving parts.

Edited November 28, 2019 by EdTech-Tom

[Gongalong]

Also, Gongalong I would also say it may be a bit late in the year for this decision to be made as Capita SIMS require 3 months notice period from end of contract...

Really we're not looking to change from SIMS - it's such a standard, and we buy through county, so not direct with Capita. Mostly I was looking for feedback on whether EduLink One is as amazing as it seems.

[Ditto]

Really we're not looking to change from SIMS - it's such a standard, and we buy through county, so not direct with Capita. Mostly I was looking for feedback on whether EduLink One is as amazing as it seems.

Personally never used it, but the feedback on here is is unusually exceptional - can't really recall a bad word against the product. Best organise a test drive and feedback back to all.

[supportman]

It is very good, but its just making up for the parts missing in Sims. Although I'm not sure the interface is that great and the requirement to put the SimsID in active directory each year is a pain...

 

Both Bromcom and iSams provide most of that stuff as standard in a cloud product.

Edited November 28, 2019 by supportman

[synaesthesia]

It is very good, but its just making up for the parts missing in Sims. Although I'm not sure the interface is that great and the requirement to put the SimsID in active directory each year is a pain...

 

Both Bromcom and iSams provide most of that stuff as standard in a cloud product.

 

Shouldn't be, can automate that from a SIMS report really easily! We got used to it as our Moodle (also used to be looked after by Overnet) needed it for something.

[DavidYoung]

We use it now at 3 schools and it is great. The fact that staff now have a good SIMS experiance through a web-based interface is really helping drive our Chromebook programme.

 

The fact that we can use a cheaper SMS provider (ClickSend) plus the app push messaging is saving us money. The interface is easy to navigate too.

 

I do really wish it had Google login and Classroom support too though, that would be perfect.

[David44]

According to the notes on the Android app, Google login is in beta.

[SouthCoastSaint]

Definitely - we're 1200 students in a split-site school (and growing daily) with a similar cost. Compared to adding up everything like SIMS teacher apps, parentcall or other school/home comms, Show my homework etc it saves a lot of money. The SIMS stuff in our opinion is better than any of Capita's own offerings - the homework module we prefer to SMH. Parents evening booking system isn't perfect compared to some of the specialist versions but I say that now being fully aware they may have already updated and fixed things Our last parents evening went extremely smoothly with it.

 

I agree with all the positives above. For us, Parents Evening seems popular with parents (no extra login to the other site) and teachers (same reason) but as the admin I am much less in control with the set up and reporting. New features will be added over time I am sure. The other part more difficult for us is absence reporting. We moved from Schoolcomms - we were able to receive texts that could be seen by anyone logging in to the system. We can't have incoming texts at mo and replies to absence chase ups go to the sender. When you have two staff sharing the attendance role this is harder to work with. Also the communication log isn't updated in the same way. Attendance officers are persevering (and it's much cheaper than Schoolcomms) but for them it's not as easy.

 

Everything else - really good!

[DavidYoung]

We moved from Schoolcomms - we were able to receive texts that could be seen by anyone logging in to the system. We can't have incoming texts at mo and replies to absence chase ups go to the sender.

 

We still have Teachers2Parents just for absence texting so parents can reply and the attendance officer can see that it is coming from a parent's registered mobile. It would be great to have proper 2-way communication in Edulink.

[SouthCoastSaint]

We still have Teachers2Parents just for absence texting so parents can reply and the attendance officer can see that it is coming from a parent's registered mobile. It would be great to have proper 2-way communication in Edulink.

 

Hmm. Texts are much cheaper in EduLink (via ClickSend), but it's more the annual cost of keeping Schoolcomms on just for absence texts. Maybe we will look at other options, but seems a shame to continue with two systems.

[Chaniel]

We've been using EduLink One for over a year now and have had absolutely no problems, and it really is as good as it sounds. When we signed up, we managed to get a free trial for a period and we tested it out with staff and some parent comments.

 

Students love the fact they can login and see achievement/behaviour/catering balance. Parents find it really simple and intuitive to use.

 

They're working on payments as a priority now I believe, think Google Classroom integration has been requested a fair bit too (that's what we want!)

[supportman]

Students love the fact they can login and see achievement/behaviour/catering balance. Parents find it really simple and intuitive to use.

 

How does the catering stuff work? What system does it sync with?

[deano3693]

We've used it for a couple of years and it's amazing! We're going to start looking at switching some of other things off and moving them to Edulink to save money such as Homework, Seating Plans, Parent evening etc. It could save us thousands each year!