Skyward Student Management System vs. Veracross

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

Veracross is good for classroom training sessions management and conducting seminars. It keeps the record of trainers, trainees, sessions of training, etc, and helps organize trainings in a systematic manner. It helps improve the operational efficiency of the overall training and learnings of the new colleagues where they can be assigned projects/assignments and keep a track of the same.

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

• Student and family data is easy to keep up to date. And there is so much data that you can keep track of. It is so helpful to have all data in one place so we don’t have a human error in transfers g to another system.
• Recording donations is very easy and you can attach backup documents very easy which is great during our yearly audit. All records are in the system and can be pulled at anytime.
• Easy for parents to sign in to view and edit their own information as well as view student reports.

Incentivized

• 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• Skyward's GUI is out of date and needs a refresher.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

• Normally it has everything I need for my work, today I was able to make a video call and chat from my cell phone and this adds more positive points to Veracross.

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

Incentivized

We will continue to use Veracross for the simple fact that we have one database across all of the departments in our school. Veracross continues to listen to customer feedback and improve and enhance the system.

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

LOVE the Technical Response Team - the first line of help at Veracross. I can quickly submit a ticket and receive a response knowing that they have looked in our system and know what we are trying to do! Our account manager is also amazing! So nice to have a person within the company who knows our school and our needs!

Yes, I was part of the implementation team.

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

Veracross had so many unique features that stood against other similar software and learning management systems which compelled us to buy it over the rest. Features like the ability to create our own customized reports according to tutor/parent specifications help us to offer exactly what is needed while constant Email reminders make sure that we never miss a single email. Also, the ability to take attendance from any device makes everyone's schedules more flexible. Considering all these features it was our aim to buy this software and test it out for our company.

• 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

• tasks that used to take 30 minutes can take as little as 30 seconds (I'm not exaggerating)
• it's a complex platform so there is signficant investment in both training and data preparation (for conversion)
• it's really expensive (but over time will pay for itself with systems we can sunset and attrition that we don't need to replace)

Incentivized