Jenzabar ONE vs. Skyward Student Management System

Jenzabar ONE is strongly suited for an all-in one solution for higher ed. The modern web-based platform make it efficient for end users. An institution that wants a full communication platform to connect with students, Jenzabar is the right product for your school. As with any product, development with Jenzabar One continues which is a good thing but also may cause some schools to want more features more quickly.

Incentivized

Skyward SMS is well suited as a Student Management System for anyone who wants to drive their organization based on data. The capabilities of using the fields available as well as adding our own custom forms make data collection extremely easy. Reporting abilities take that data and allow us to make sense of what has been collected

Incentivized

• Jenzabar ONE makes working within the system possible and secure using remote and WFH options.
• Jenzabar ONE is adept at managing the central functions of the Registrar's Office.
• Jenzabar ONE is capable and adequate for student accounts and billing.

Incentivized

• Skyward does well with managing the students' information. It was easy to find a student's schedule, grades, behavior record, or family information because it was all separated out.
• Another strength is the system’s way of requesting time off. All of the steps are laid out in a organized manner, and you can check the status of the request with one click.
• Skyward also pairs well with other applications. Whenever I need a substitute for a class, Skyward links me to Aesop (the absence software) and allows me to put in the request. When I’m done, Skyward updates automatically with that information.

Incentivized

• the Help system does not always correlate to the current version, so updating that with each update would be very helpful
• a method to test users' permission would be very helpful
• it is sometimes tricky trying to figure out which functions to assign to users, so making that process more clear would be great

• Skyward's reporting can get confusing so it would be nice if it was cleaner and possibly came with some common reports other schools use too.
• Skyward's GUI is out of date and needs a refresher.
• Skyward can have compatibility issues after an update.

Incentivized

It is the system I am most comfortable with, so having to learn a new system outweighs any problems I have with Skyward.

Incentivized

Jenzabar ONE is good at what it does. Given our discounting structure within the association of colleges and universities of which we are a member, the ROI on Jenzabar ONE beats the pants off anyone else's offerings. Switching horses mid-stream would be costly and difficult. Fortunately, Jenzabar ONE has the general capabilities we seek.

Incentivized

It takes some time to get used to navigating the features and layers, but once you know your way around it, it's pretty good.

Incentivized

Overall great job, issues were taken care of. People in support do care.

Incentivized

Yes, I was part of the implementation team.

Incentivized

Jenzabar ONE has 90% of the capabilities of of its competitors, and a price point significantly below those products. Both Banner and PeopleSoft provide capabilities that exceed what we need. Paying for those additional features is not cost effective. In short, Jenzabar ONE does nearly everything we need, and both Banner and PeopleSoft only offer extra capabilities we will not use.

Incentivized

Skyward is used differently at our school than GoGuardian. GoGuardian is used to monitor student use of technology during school hours, and Skyward is used to track student data such as attendance, uniform, tardy arrivals, grades, and behavior. Overall, Skyward's interface is more user-friendly than GoGuardian. GoGuardian requires even more clicking around to find what you are looking for

Incentivized

• Implementing the new admissions portal has led to a 12% increase in enrollment as we were able to spend time directly working with students with how it automated previously manual tasks.
• The ACH and credit card payment portal with self-selection of student payment plans has allowed the business office to collect 70% of what we used to send to collections.

• I believe that we have had a great Return on our Investment as we have been using this software at a district-wide level for several years now and it keeps being an effective management software system for our students and families.

Incentivized