Ellucian Colleague vs. PowerSchool Student Information System

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ellucian Colleague
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Ellucian offers Colleague educational ERP, including a student information system supporting higher education institutions with student admissions and registration, academics, curriculum management, and other aspects of student management.N/A
PowerSchool SIS
Score 8.4 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The PowerSchool Student Information System covers administrative needs, such as scheduling, attendance, reporting, data management, faculty management, emergency/medical and health management, registration, and more for K-12 schools and districts. It is easy to use and boasts an industry-leading gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro. Users enjoy a fully web-based SIS that is flexible, configurable, and scalable with real-time updates on any operating system, browser or device.N/A
Pricing
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool Student Information System
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool SIS
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool Student Information System
Features
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool Student Information System
Student and Faculty Administration
Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian Colleague
7.8
Ratings
6% below category average
PowerSchool Student Information System
8.5
Ratings
3% above category average
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology7.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Online Registration Management8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting7.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Roster Management8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Platform Customization8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Teacher Self-Service8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Student Data Security8.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Community Support7.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Class Scheduling8.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
State and National-level Reporting8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Compliance Support8.00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Teacher and Parent Mobile Application8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
User Ratings
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool Student Information System
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ellucian ColleaguePowerSchool Student Information System
Likelihood to Recommend
Ellucian Colleague is well suited for student academic information recall, such as advisement details, courses, primary choice, GPAs, and demographic information critical to in-time decision-making for faculty and institutional leadership. Less appropriate scenarios would include our financial management needs, such as accounting, ledgers, and financial transactions. These functions are better suited to other CRMs.
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PowerSchool is great for schools to keep track of student information, schedules, and grades. It integrates with other programs to make setting up classes easier and faster. PowerSchool gives teachers a singular place to find information or input students' grades. It also has an app for parents or guardians to use to check their student's grades which is very useful.
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Pros
  • Colleague offers a single reference point for all student data, which creates consistency and unity across campus and ensures students hear the same information from every source.
  • Colleague recently updated its interface to be more accessible to all people. Previously, it was not accessible through any browser aside from Internet Explorer.
  • Colleague provide helpful user restrictions that prevent departments from altering or erasing data they do not typically use. For example, I cannot change student billing and accidentally wreak havoc for the cashier's office.
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  • PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
  • Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
  • PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.
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Cons
  • Develop API's that are vendor agnostic rather than selecting specific vendors (Clearinghouse, ImageNow).
  • Colleague tends to be to reactionary to the changing needs in higher education rather than developing the future.
  • Hound clients to pay extra for consulting (consultants are usually bad), rather than helping institutions to use the product. Seems to be the first thing help line personnel jump to rather than working with clients to figure out creative solutions.
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  • The user interface could be more intuitive. Because of the many features, it can sometimes be difficult for administrators to find what they are looking for.
  • A recent upgrade allowing for more flexibility in the relationship between students and parents was long in coming and didn't go very smoothly. We are now dealing with a ton of clean-up after the upgrade. Even after we have cleaned everything up, there is still a ways to go before PowerSchool is on par with other SIS systems in that area. In their defense though, they are actively working on getting caught up.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
The district is unlikely to change systems due to the cost of training and tech support to facilitate such a switch.
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Usability
Ellucian Colleague rates highly for its usability and functionality. Ellucian Colleague serves as a comprehensive solution, making it easier for students, faculty, and staff to communicate, find the information, and accomplish multiple tasks. Colleague has provided enhanced visibility into data and improved decision-making to drive strategic institutional outcomes. A colleague has created efficiencies for staff.
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Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.
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Alternatives Considered
Ellucian Colleague offers exceptional value for the money compared to the pricier options in Blackbaud's suite of products. Ellucian Colleague stacks up well against Blackbaud and other CRMs in terms of its value for the money, ease of use, and customer service. Overall, Ellucian Colleague provides greater value for the money.
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Each software I used in my career had special features which were specifically unique for them. PowerSchool Student Information System was an impressive software that offered the ability to ease student registrations and admissions online using web forms where students and parents could submit and upload their information and necessary documents to the school/institute with just a few clicks. Even though this feature is available on a few other similar software, PowerSchool Student Information System was the only software that was specialized in this area.
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Return on Investment
  • With Colleague Student, we have been able to be more efficient in our department which has given us the opportunity to take on other projects that are helpful to our students.
  • Colleague Student has enabled my department to cut down on our paper consumption which has been a huge budget savings. Our old system was so untrustworthy that we were printing many things to keep in case we couldn't get the information out of the system again. With Colleague Student we do not have to do this. We have stopped printing many things we used to print.
  • Colleague Student has also helped us have a better handle on which students are preparing for graduation each semester. This allows us to more accurately print commencement materials, etc.
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  • Having one system within the school district is beneficial. Teachers are able to access a variety of information and also do input all within the same program.
  • Communication with parents has been impacted greatly, as they always have information at their fingertips without teachers having to call or email them with a grade update. Parents are able to check student's grades at any time.
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ScreenShots

PowerSchool SIS Screenshots

Screenshot of Student attendanceScreenshot of Standards-based gradingScreenshot of At-risk dashboardScreenshot of Parent view of student schedule