Ellucian Colleague vs. Senior Systems

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
Senior Systems
Score 4.0 out of 10
N/A
Senior Systems, a Momentive Software (formerly Community Brands) company, offers their school management system to K-12 private and independent schools, including the Ascendance database for student data and admissions management, and the Radius platform to integrate Admissions, Accounting, Academics and Advancement.N/A
Pricing
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
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 ColleagueSenior Systems
Features
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
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
Senior Systems
6.4
Ratings
25% below category average
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology7.00 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Online Registration Management8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting7.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Roster Management8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Platform Customization8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Teacher Self-Service8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Student Data Security8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Community Support7.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Class Scheduling8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
State and National-level Reporting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance Support8.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Teacher and Parent Mobile Application8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

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Medium-sized Companies
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ellucian ColleagueSenior Systems
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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Senior Systems school software is great for small schools looking for a software package that can be implemented across many departments in the school at a reasonable price. Senior Systems does offer on boarding and training to help learn the system but continuing training is difficult though also necessary. Senior's admissions software modules leave much to be desired though they have purchased Ravenna which offers a top-of-the-line option that blends very well with Senior.
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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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  • A broad-based, unified platform that can be used in many areas across campus.
  • Robust database that is very customizable.
  • A web-based platform that can be used on any device.
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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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  • Outdated look and feel for internal and external customers.
  • Somewhat complicated and tough to learn; it's not very intuitive.
  • Customer service response times and support leave something to be desired.
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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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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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On the admissions front, SchoolAdmin beats the Senior Admissions module hands down for ease of use, performance, customer service, and reliability. We have had no downtime issues with Senior but regularly experienced downtime issues with Senior. School Admin is also very intuitive and easy to learn and use. Senior has a much steeper learning curve.
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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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  • A fairly priced system.
  • [The] convenience of having to manage only one system and database.
  • Senior is long overdue for an update and refresh to make it look modern and to make it more easy and intuitive to use.
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ScreenShots