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Topic: Enterprise Software

The top 10 things you'd change about your SIS

Summary: I went to a meeting yesterday of the X2 Advisory Council. This is a group of users/tech director types that our student information system developer (X2 Development Corporation) set up to to help drive product development cycles for the Aspen SIS.

Christopher Dawson

By for ZDNet Education |

I went to a meeting yesterday of the X2 Advisory Council. This is a group of users/tech director types that our student information system developer (X2 Development Corporation) set up to to help drive product development cycles for the Aspen SIS. We meet roughly once a quarter to review their product roadmap and help set priorities.

This time, however, they took a different approach that I thought was incredibly effective and was clear evidence that with their product now quite mature and stable, the company is keenly focused on delivering the most useful and usable product it can to its customers. Before the meeting, one of the project managers asked all of the members of the Advisory Council to identify the top 10 things we'd like to see changed in the system. Aside from a review of new features in their upcoming release, we didn't talk much about the roadmap.

As it turns out, many of the problems we identified were either fixed in the coming release or scheduled to be addressed this summer. Better integration with Excel, scheduling improvements, updates to their special education module, you name it. They're even eliminating the pop-ups that invariable give our users fits (try telling a parent accessing their student's grades for the first time how to disable the pop-up blockers in three toolbars and their browser over the phone).

X2 Aspen just keeps getting better. Although I can't discuss the details or exact outcomes of our discussion, suffice to say that we certainly pushed for some pretty cool new features that will take a rock solid product and make it even more useful. If X2 can pull it off (and I think they can), new and current customers have a lot to look forward to.

This is where you come in, though. What would you change about your SIS? Include the name/vendor and the top features you'd like to see added, the top "features" you hate, and even, the features you really like. Talk back below.

Topics: Enterprise Software, CXO

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4 comments
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  • RenWeb

    We use RenWeb; the best thing about it is that the teacher modules (gradebook, attendance, homework) is dead simple to use. Teachers love it. It is also easy to use for parents who want to see their kids' grades, attendance and behavior online. They also have a really good SQL read only access to the school internal data which is very useful for custom in-house reports.

    The number one thing I would change is that they do not provide a way to do customizations using serious programming. So custom modules, SQL update queries, etc are out of the question.
    But RenWeb's advantages far outweigh this minor inconvenience.
    juantar
    Reply Vote

  • Avoiding pushing specific SIS systems

    Aspen may very well be a good system, but I don't think you should push it. I've very much liked Infinite Campus, but frankly it's the only system of its type that I've ever seen. If you've done a thorough look at all the SIS, then you could write a piece comparing them. If not, then save the talk on Aspen until you've had a chance to look at others.

    Writing about only one system becomes somewhat of an ethical question.
    wittenberg@...
    Reply Vote

  • Avoid Vendor Lock-In

    We use aeries - works with any server as long as it's IIS, any sql db as long as it's MSSQL.

    Esp given the budget situation, costs a lot for districts to purchase licenses for these products compared to say apache/mysql/postgresql or some of the other OSS options.

    "code to published, open standards, not to platforms".

    Make sure there are hooks to allow your IT dept to extend the system without having to wait for the vendor to decide if the needed feature is worth doing from a business standpoint.

    Being able to automate data extracts and pipe them where they need to go is great, though in my case I had to build this out myself outside the system (perl + freetds).

    With increasingly demanding data interchange requirements, esp those that are requested by local entities (frequently custom, one-off stuff), having to manually dork with spreadsheets and text files is just plain lame.
    piperdown
    Reply Vote

  • RE: The top 10 things you

    Good promo piece for your vendor but I was actually looking for the answer to your headline. It instead prompted me to chime in on our success. Assistant superintendent and former IT teacher here. My district uses Schoolbrains and we have found it to be a very effective program. It is our third SIS in nine years and absolutely fits our requirements. It's available off-the-shelf but it is also completely configurable like nothing we have seen. We have different report cards in several schools and schoolbrains handles them well. It's fully unified, intutive and has really great "quick snapshots" of information. I like the test analyzer and state test builder that is built into the SIS. The school board likes that it is much less expensive than the big names out there.<br><br>The Schoolbrains user conference happens twice a year and although I missed the last one, many enhancements were made as an outcome. I'm pretty sure they release free enhancements or updates quarterly anyway. I am pushing for a quarterly meeting.
    schoolsuper
    Reply Vote
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