Ravenna is an admissions and K-12 Student Management system. It replaces the former inRESONANCE SIS, and BigSIS cloud-based school management and student information system, from VenturEd Solutions.
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Slate for Admissions
Score 7.0 out of 10
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Slate is a platform for admissions and enrollment management, student success, and alumni/advancement, from Technolutions in New Haven. Designed and developed exclusively for higher education, Slate by Technolutions supports the student and donor lifecycle, and provides a unified interface to CRM, outreach and communications, travel management, online applications, online reading, student success and retention, and alumni and donor engagement.
Over the past six months, I've run the full gamut of emotions/thoughts on inRESONANCE. The software is dated, so it is not intuitive if you've been in web-based tools in recent years. That said, I think it is perfectly suited for smaller, start-up organizations that need guidance. The support we receive is excellent and always timely.
Overall, [Technolutions] Slate has been an incredible CRM for our institution. It was easy to learn, and it does its job well. The ability for students to log back into a portal and see their application digitally has saved our staff a lot of time and effort. Previously, we had a web based application that didn't allow for applicants to be actively engaged in their application files and [Technolutions] Slate solved a real problem for us. It's affordable, intuitive and effective.
There are a lot of terms used for different information in the database. It would be nice if that could be streamlined somehow and more intuitive for the users.
There are a lot of details to go through to make custom list or create reports. If you don't do these processes regularly, it seems you are always relearning the process.
There was a point when data changes needed to be done in two different places, but I think we may have resolved that issue.
While some features are incredibly intuitive and easy for most users to use, there are other features that essentially require coding experience to understand. The features that seem more difficult than others are queries and reports (especially configurable joins queries) and some of the conditional logic within emails and print mailings. Additionally, implementation will definitely require dedicated IT folks for at least a year (or more).
Brian, our representative, as been tremendous. His response time is outstanding - and if he is able to alter the tool on the spot, he will. We've been able to do more sophisticated maneuvers because of his willingness to problem-solve with us. When the functionality isn't there, it is also a very honest conversation and we know when we have to work outside of the tool.
While I do wish they had actual representatives that we able to come to you for trainings for implementation and new users, I understand that a big draw is the money that is saved by instead investing in knowledgebase, which is it's online tutorials for different functions of Slate.
We were using the CRM database system, however it was too proprietary and when we wanted to make changes or customize we were continually paying an outside consultant to get things done. With inRESONANCE, we are able to make the updates, and customize as we need to internally. It has saved us a significant amount of money in this regard.
Slate, by Technolutions, is so much more powerful and easier to use than Banner. While we still use Banner for our current students, it wasn't enough for what we needed to do to reach our prospective student population. Especially with the communication options, Slate is lightyears ahead of what is possible with Banner.
