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Ellucian Banner vs. Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Ellucian Banner

    Score2.6 out of 10
    N/AEllucian offers Banner educational ERP, including its student management system emphasizing control and reporting of process-oriented facets of education such as grading and attendance.N/A

    Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/ABlackbaud Education Management Solutions is a unified student management system for K–12 private schools. Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™: Gives schools and families the ability to track admissions progress from first impressions all the way through the application process to acceptance, enrollment, and tuition payment. Blackbaud Learning Management System™: Track students' academic performance and progression…N/A
    Pricing
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Considered Both Products
    Ellucian
    Chose Ellucian Banner
    Being able to have the historical data, as I said I said before, is the huge Benefit that we have from using the system. All of the teams involved are well trained and no alternative has proven worth making the switch.
    Incentivized
    Blackbaud
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    77%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    85%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    78%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    Features
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Student and Faculty Administration
    Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Ellucian Banner and Blackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Feature
    Ellucian Banner
    8.5
    8 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Blackbaud Education Management Solutions
    -
    Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology7.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Online Registration Management8.97 Ratings00 Ratings
    District Communications, such as messaging and alerting8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Roster Management8.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform Customization8.16 Ratings00 Ratings
    Teacher Self-Service8.86 Ratings00 Ratings
    Student Data Security8.67 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community Support8.66 Ratings00 Ratings
    Class Scheduling8.67 Ratings00 Ratings
    State and National-level Reporting9.27 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance Support8.96 Ratings00 Ratings
    Teacher and Parent Mobile Application7.25 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Schoolmint Hero
    Score9.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (21 ratings)
    8.9
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    7.5
    (9 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    6.9
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    7.0
    (115 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (21 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Ellucian BannerBlackbaud Education Management Solutions
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Ellucian
    As a SIS, Banner Pages is the full meal deal. There are multiple modules that integrate out of the box. Because Banner is all I've ever used as a SIS, I can't contrast it with another program. I can say, it gets the job done for us. I will also say that a tremendous amount of time goes into strategizing how to get new functions to work for us and there always seems to be some catch that requires even more work. In general, the university has been hesitant to build too many modifications into Banner because they take a lot of time to maintain. Inevitably, a new update (of which there are MANY for Banner) will break stuff that isn't "vanilla." This is unfortunate because we've had some great ideas for how to make Banner better for us, but also understandable. If you're looking for a highly modular system, this isn't it. Banner has lots of components, but the components work the way they work and that's that. Also, don't expect very quick responses to bugs or glitches. If the bug is major, yes, it will be addressed. But, little function issues seem to be regularly overlooked.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    A good, and constantly improving solution for private schools. I don't know that a lot of its functionality would be well suited to public schools, but maybe? The integration with other Blackbaud software is a huge plus for us, as we have several of their other products including their flagship Raiser's Edge. Smaller schools may not need the sophistication of Blackbaud solutions, and it is not an inexpensive option.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Ellucian
    • I think it's great to use if you are tracking grades for certain classes, especially if you'd like to see how students do, comparing midterm to final grades. If you have the permissions, you can see both.
    • It's also good to track students individually. You can look up a certain semester, and see how they did in that particular time frame, but you can also see their cumulative gpa, or even look up their entire course history.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    • Seamless integration between the LMS, EMS and SIS modules
    • Real-time, effective chat support helps me not only with urgent needs but also to work through possibilities for increasing how we use the product.
    • Feature upgrades monthly that respond to voiced needs from users
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Ellucian
    • One thing I miss from the previous version of Ellucian Banner, is the control + page down. I struggle with alt + page down.
    • I love the Ellucian Banner favorites; however, it is a little difficult to navigate.
    • I can honestly only think of 2 things that could be improved. I use Ellucian Banner daily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    • Forms - lack of conditional questions
    • Gradebook -lack of links to assignments
    • Not being able to customize displays, for example, Grading tab - we just finished 1st semester and teachers could only see the current quarter but not the 1st one which is still part of the first semester. Lack of customization in assessments.
    • Scheduling- even though re-running generating schedules, we're still getting a high number of unscheduled students. Lack of being able to limit the number of scheduled classes in a row for teachers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Ellucian
    We have no reason not to renew with Ellucian - we are in deep with the ecosystem, and have Ellucian providing us with information technology support. If anything, should the opportunity arise, we'd probably consider adding a different ellucian tools into the suite of applications we already have on board.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    It is a solid product. We have some issues with the capabilities of the website building components and the out dated technology behind its communications software but overall Blackbaud Education Management Software services to combine numerous functions into one product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Ellucian
    You definitely have to learn it before it becomes easy to use. It's better than it was, but it's still not entirely intuitive. You can't just look at it and play around to figure out how it works
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    Blackbaud EMS is very usable from my perspective. I am a power user and get lots of valuable functionality. It is, however, a complex system. Sometimes necessarily complex to accommodate flexibility for diverse customer needs. Some complexity seems unnecessary and/or hold-over functionality from earlier versions; nice to see this type being evolved away from over time. It is valuable to receive regular updates to the system along with good release notes of what changed and notices of significant changes in advance.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Ellucian
    It's pretty much up all the time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Ellucian
    Has gotten much better due to new hardware.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Ellucian
    Our department generally does not contact the support center for Banner but the IT department does. That being said, in the seven years that I have been here, I have not once needed to contact the support center; we have had no glitches on Banner's side that needed to be addressed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    Decent support however the chat feature can take a great amount of time out of the workday. If for instance you are waiting for someone to respond in the chat and there is a fire drill, if you are not responding within a few minutes, you are disconnected and have to start all over again. It would be great if you could submit your problem and then whoever has the most experience, can respond. The training in the Blackbaud University is good but also time-consuming - a 3 hr training in the middle of a workday is a lot to ask. I like the 90-minute sessions. It would also be great to offer a shorter webinar to update on any changes implemented. Other than the email I subscribed to, there is no information on how these updates actually work.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Ellucian
    very satisfied, along with the IT staff and ellucian support the upgrades do very well and have minimum down time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Ellucian
    PeopleSoft was more user-friendly. It also provided the ability to save and bookmark queries. PeopleSoft will allow users to use common names to search for queries. Overall, it seemed much more current than Banner. PeopleSoft provided enrollment data for specific sections which allowed one to spot trends of enrollment in a given class.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    Blackbaud K-12 is very similar. I feel like I would be trading one set of issues for another so it's kind of a wash. We are very much hooked into the Blackbaud website with our Google SSO, SmartTuition, and Schooldoc integrations. It would be difficult for us to transition. That is the main reason I haven't really entertained other web firms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Ellucian
    being able to scale with hardware was easy and not cumbersome. We were allowed to user virtual machines which made things very scalable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Ellucian
    • There is positive ROI on the product overall. It had reduced or allowed us to focus our staff members on something which is very use and it does the job in the background.
    • The application has supported in a lot of ways in saving resources and utilizing them in very productive & efficient manner
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Blackbaud
    • Negative - The rollout is brutal. Blackbaud said it could happen in 6 months, but that is definitely not a reality. It will take well over a year, and one complete school cycle to actually integrate everything correctly.
    • Positive - The amount of time saved in data processing has allowed our office to become more involved in other areas of the school.
    • Positive - The ease of having everything in [one] place, from inquiry to application to contracts and course registration, has been a HUGE benefit to our applicants and their families.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Blackbaud Education Management Solutions Screenshots

    Screenshot of Topics pages help organize units of learning throughout the year in the Learning Management SystemScreenshot of Blackbaud's education management solutions come with strong reporting tools to get the information you need quicklyScreenshot of Schedule view makes it easy for teachers to manage their daysScreenshot of Blackbaud Enrollment Management System Admissions Checklists help applicants track their progress in the admissions processScreenshot of Blackbaud's education management solutions come with strong reporting tools to get the information you need quicklyScreenshot of Keep track of all the key information about your students in one place