Opiniones de Alma SIS

Glad we're using Alma

Puntos a favor:

Unlike other SIS's, Alma actually looks and feels like it was made in the 2010's. The system is solid, and has essentially every feature a smaller school like ours would want (and many more that we don't need to use). The gradebook is excellent, and it's easy to transfer classes and students from year-to-year. Their customer service has been great (we accidentally deleted multiple report cards in different places the other day and they quickly and helpfully solved our issue by restoring to a backup), and they are continually adding features and improving the platform. And the cost has been at least 50% less than quotes we were getting from major competitors. Many reasons to switch to Alma.

Puntos en contra:

The latest transcripts update was helpful - there are still a couple of features we'd like on the transcripts front, but that's mostly because our school has a unique curriculum. This is totally just a personal preference, but I'd also like to be able to search for classes in the search feature in addition to contacts.

Start today, change your SIS to ALMA

Comentarios: Our district staff fell like the staff at Alma is part of our team. Not just someone who supports us. We know each other by name, they anticipate the type of approach we take even before we do some times.

Puntos a favor:

Alma's support process from onboarding throughout multiple years of use is unparalleled! I don't often need support at this point, but when I do their entire team is excellent. Also, their strong data privacy and cybersecurity practices are very proactive and transparent.

Puntos en contra:

I would like to see more options in the Health Record fields and the ability to message via text with small groups. That being said, Alma is continually adding new features and these have both ben submitted as possible development requests.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: TeacherEase, Skyward Student Management Suite y Infinite Campus SIS

Razones para elegir Alma SIS: Support, Functionality, and Security were at the top of the list. But there are many others

Software anterior: PowerSchool

Razones para cambiar a Alma SIS: Our decision was based heavily on the recommendations of districts who changed before us. We spoke to staff from those schools at all levels who were users and all of them had positive experiences with the product.

Not for High Schools

Puntos a favor:

Honestly tough to answer. It’s nice as a club sponsor to be able to email whole groups of students (not just those in my classes).

Puntos en contra:

Basically every single function/aspect is worse than Infinite Campus. Entering grades, making/changing seating charts, printing roster spreadsheets are all more difficult and time consuming than IC. This program is not suited for secondary schools.

Alma Fanboy

Comentarios: The most compelling reason we switched to Alma was how Alma staff understood competency-based education. We used to have to trick our old SIS to get it to do what we wanted and Alma doesn’t only do it, it was designed with CBE in mind from the very beginning.

Puntos a favor:

Alma’s user interface is so intuitive, particularly the report card process. Reporting out to family’s immediately looked more professional, was more informative, and took half the time as our previous SIS.

Puntos en contra:

The master schedule builder is done through a third party solution and it is not good. Easily my least favorite component of Alma.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: PowerSchool

Razones para elegir Alma SIS: The UI for MMS (not listed so picked one to move forward in the survey) looked like the operating system from my first PC in the 90s. The system couldn’t handle changes to our grading paradigm other than an antiquated idea of what assessment and reporting should be.

Software anterior: Zoho CRM

Razones para cambiar a Alma SIS: The cost was less and it handled competency-based Ed so much better.

Alma is a modern SIS system with great support

Comentarios: Our transition from our previous vendor was a breeze thanks to the assistance from Alma staff, and they are very responsive when it comes to changes in state reporting. The support team is always great to work with. The Spreadsheet Data Editor is a great feature that makes a lot of tasks easier.

Puntos a favor:

Extremely user friendly with a modern interface and great support.

Puntos en contra:

The invoicing system is not very flexible, and isn't set up for waivers and credits.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: TeacherEase, Skyward Student Management Suite, Infinite Campus SIS y PowerSchool SIS

Razones para elegir Alma SIS: TylerSIS has been sunsetted by the company.

Razones para cambiar a Alma SIS: It was less expensive than most competitors, there was no upcharge to help transfer our data, and they had their state reporting already up and running.

The most user-friendly SIS on the market

Comentarios: From start to finish, the Alma team will hold your hand every step of the way to ensure that a migration to their platform goes smoothly and end users are comfortable with the transition. As needs change (and they frequently do), Alma can adapt to the circumstances with customizations and integrations that work to ensure your workflows run efficiently at every level.

Puntos a favor:

Alma is the most user-friendly SIS on the market. The intuitive interface makes everything from registration, grading, report cards, and state reporting a breeze. Users in any role will find Alma to be significant improvement over any SIS they have previously used.

Puntos en contra:

The autonomy of do-it yourself customization is limited when compared to other vendors. However, the Alma team is ready and willing to implement any desired customizations on your behalf. It might just take some time to get them rolled out.

Great Potential

Comentarios: It is a solid experience with great people who know a large amount about data bases and most school systems. We do get a bit frustrated with some of the miscommunications over CALPADS and a few of the reports.

Puntos a favor:

Their cost is very competitive and their IT is amazing. They work very hard to try and answer all your questions quickly.

Puntos en contra:

Sales people tend to oversell the capabilities of Alma, it is a good system but it is not able to deliver the moon. We are currently fighting tooth and nail with CALPAD compliance.

Alternativas consideradas previamente: Aeries SIS

Razones para cambiar a Alma SIS: Cost, Aeries is very expensive for a single school.

My experience

Comentarios: I really like using Alma but some of the customer service aspects are not as accessible as they used to be.

Puntos a favor:

I like using Alma. It is very user friendly and easy to maneuver from page to page.

Puntos en contra:

It takes much longer to get questions answered and things fixed than it used to.

Alma Revies

Comentarios: Very good experience so far, much help is available

Puntos a favor:

It is very user friendly, if you don't know how to do something, it is easy to try to figure it out or you may do a chat with an ALMA member.

Puntos en contra:

We are still learning and may need extras

Help is on the way! Great Service

Comentarios: Alma has great customer service. We can always get our questions answered!

Puntos a favor:

The ease of use of Alma is extremely helpful for new staff and the customer service is amazing.

Puntos en contra:

We have nothing we dislike about Alma at this time.

ALMA is what we were looking for....

Comentarios: This program has helped our students, staff, and parents utilize one student management system and use it to it's fullest potential. Each people group is able to pull from the system the vital information they need; some need more than others and the program has addressed all levels of information and all levels of user. That was important to us as we needed something that our staff could use to keep track of vital demographics, our teachers could use to track student grades and assignments and yet parents and students could log on and keep track of grades, test assessments and missing assignments. It meets the needs of every level.

Puntos a favor:

This product is very easy to use, in real time and easy to understand. Novel users can open up this SIS program and navigate in order to find the information they are looking for.

Puntos en contra:

We were one of the first public schools to sign on with ALMA, therefore we have evolved with the company. There have been some growing pains as we have evolved. The tech support teams have been gracious and very helpful in keeping us up to speed and rolling.

Excellent, Comprehensive, and EASY TO USE

Comentarios: This has made running our school so much easier. I am so glad we switched from the old software.

Puntos a favor:

We moved from PowerSchool to ALMA and it is sooooo much better! Everything is intuitive. No paying for extra training for everything. No extra modules being hawked to you every month. No need to pay for someone to "maintain" the software. It isn't some old Database software that you need to learn equations for. It looks wonderful, is easy to use, and super adaptable. All of the new additions that you get charged for with other software are free updates with ALMA. If you do have a problem, ALMA *wants* to hear from you! It's an entirely different relationship. And it has more features. Because it is a modern piece of software and not something based off of antiquated 90's era software, there are more bells and whistles. New options are being added every couple of months. Often based on what the users have asked for. This makes my job 100% easier!

Puntos en contra:

Some things are still a little complicated but it comes with online instructions to help you along.

Review for Teachers

Comentarios: I have had a good overall experience with Alma. They have focused on having good customer service and it has worked out well from my perspective as a teacher.

Puntos a favor:

This is a pretty good product, not perfect, but good. The most useful part here is the link to google classroom for grading. This helps me be able to give feedback in one place and have it connected to my students and their parents. The parts that would be nicer for our specific use would be if Alma would be able to be linked to Atlas, Inc. this is what our school uses for different organizational goals.

Puntos en contra:

There have been a few glitches in the system that our administration has run into. First dealing with the report cards for 6th grade did not work out with the Semester 1 Reports. So we had to give the parents the Nine weeks report cards for our school. The one part that is disappointing is the link does not work with standards based grading. This problem does not stem from Alama, but is from Google not doing standards based grades. Other than that it has worked much better than the Power School System we had in place before.

User friendly, stellar customer engagement, appealing interface

Puntos a favor:

I like how user friendly the system is. Families, students, and staff are able to navigate Alma with ease.

Puntos en contra:

We look forward to Alma implementing some kind of texting in the future hopefully!

Implementation Review

Comentarios: Excellent. Implementation folks have been great.

Puntos a favor:

The ease of use and functionality. It is very intuitive.

Puntos en contra:

Difficulty to look at/find students in different ways, ie Grade, Groups, Activities

Very useful and complete tool

Puntos a favor:

The platform is very easy to use and intuitive.

Puntos en contra:

The platform looks like a little bit old-fashioned

Alma SIS in a small, rural, school district.

Comentarios: The staff at Alma are excellent. The transition was difficult because it needed to occur over a short timeframe. But the support was there and we pulled it off.

Puntos a favor:

Alma integrated well with Google Apps and provided integrations with other third party software. The interface and design were well thought out with the end-user in mind. Running reports and editing the data are easy and intuitive - and those are the most important aspects of an SIS. The support was excellent, and always available through the Alma Academy.

Puntos en contra:

We would like a module that would allow our cafeteria software to integrate so parents could see their child's lunch balance in the same place they view their child's schedule, teacher, and fees. There were also growing pains, as state-required data collections differ in every state and sometimes this meant there were duplicate or similar data fields that confused some of our clerical staff.

Powerful - 21st Century - Highly Recommended

Comentarios: When you have been with company for years is it hard to make a switch. From day one Alma made our transition to their software painless. Lets face it, people do not like change, especially a secretary that has been here for 30 years. Alma made it easy with their robust training and support our secretaries were smiling "like the butchers dog" The days of our principals spending all summer creating a master schedule are over. Alma's schedule builder is amazing! Overall I would highly recommend Alma and If they continue to stay on the cutting edge of innovation we will never need to make another switch.

Puntos a favor:

There are so many GREAT features about Alma, to list just one is hard to do. I love the feed back that I receive from parents, teachers and administrators stating what they love about Alma. As an technology administrator you only hear when something is not working. Alma provides so many easy to use features everyone loves it. From the administration scheduling, it's seamless integration with Google Classroom, easy custom reports, on-line student registration and the awesome communication link with parents and students.

Puntos en contra:

Well there really isn't anything I do not like about Alma, they continually update and add new designs and innovation to it's all inclusive student accounting system. Understandably some suggested features take longer to add then others.

Moving in good directions

Comentarios: Far better than any other software I’ve used to manage classes, but still approaches the problem from an administrative, quantitative standpoint, rather than a student development standpoint.

Puntos a favor:

There are concessions made to narrative evaluation, which is great for an alternative school. Each block, the system gets cleaner and easier to handle as we write our evaluations for the kids, and, since our output is so much more complex than a single letter grade, it’s really important that the cognitive overhead for each evaluation be as small as possible. I’m really gratified that Alma continually improves this aspect.

Puntos en contra:

Touchscreen integration is clunky but getting less so. It’s often hard to see what I’m doing, as column headers disappear as I scroll. There are a bunch of interface elements like this that make interactions awkward or repetitive, which induces frustration and boredom, which leads to errors. It feels like evaluations are 90° off. I want to be able to evaluate a student, but it’s easiest to evaluate not only one class at a time, but one skill for the whole class at a time. It discourages thinking holistically about individual students and encourages comparing them in each skill. I think this makes it harder to do evaluations and makes them less accurate. Daily evaluation notes go nowhere. We take attendance each day, which is dutifully reported, but any qualitative expression we have is thrown away. This does a great disservice to students because it means that, in the course of a day, it’s harder to make qualitative assessments of a student, leaving us only with their attendance data — a quantification that’s easy on a database designer but is hostile to learning.

Moving to Alma from another SIS

Comentarios: Staff is in the process of learning how to perform their tasks in Alma as opposed to the previous SIS.

Puntos a favor:

It is intuitive and easy to manage. Tasks such as scheduling is easy and quick. The Alma Start module allows you to quickly set up processes for registering / approving and enrolling new students.

Puntos en contra:

The documentation could be better. There is no one Administration guide to get all the answer from. A chat feature from support would be a great help to get an answer quickly for simple questions.

A flexible and responsive product. Unbelievably effective and efficient.

Comentarios: We have reduced our printing costs, improved communication with parents, and successfully submitted our PIMS state reports. Communication with Alma has been great! The online resources and chat feature are very effective. Chat is answered within 10 minutes, often in less time. They have been responsive to our needs. Feedback from the teachers about their use of Alma has been very positive.

Puntos a favor:

The user interface is very intuitive. Everything is where one would expect it to be within the program. Migration to Alma from our previous SIS was so straight forward and seamless that I was not sure the SIS was going to be ready on schedule. It was ready on schedule and very few issues have been encountered. Issuing digital report cards is very easy and our parents love it. We also communicate with our parents on a regular basis by using the email feature in Alma. Parents also have expressed satisfaction with the parent portal for checking their student's grades. Teachers find it very easy to use the gradebook.

Puntos en contra:

Any concerns/needs we have expressed to Alma have resulted in instant inquiry and potential solutions.

Hobby School of Ulaanbaatar

Comentarios: Create and download any reports that I wanted. That affects work easier.

Puntos a favor:

Alma SIS is understandable to use and all the school management needs are included in it.

Puntos en contra:

But Alma SIS doesn't match our region. Especially in the payment section. Furthermore, the time difference makes slower our connection.

Alma: A Teacher's Point of View

Comentarios: Our overall experience has been satisfactory. We rarely have the "drama" we dealt with when using our previous software. Keeping up to date more quickly and making changes to make the teacher use more efficient and faster would be of big help.

Puntos a favor:

Our school was first drawn to Alma because it combined a good software to meet student, parent, and teacher needs with great value. Customer service is fantastic. If any of us ask an online question, help is quick.

Puntos en contra:

Alma takes a long time to keep up with the times. For example, we have used it several years, but they just added the ability to enter a score on one student's grade book for a given assignment, and then hit enter, and then an automatic opening to the next student's grade to enter. In effect, it now performs well with a number key pad. Entry was singularly entered one a time which was so slow. In addition, there should be a quicker way to approve report cards. Finally, because we want students to monitory their grades, it would be helpful for them to have their own password access for limited viewing, keeping the parent password private for fuller access.

Head Lower School Math Teacher Review

Comentarios: I have been please with my experience with Alma.

Puntos a favor:

This software allows me to easily interact with our entire student body by accessing contact information and schedules for each student.

Puntos en contra:

I haven't found anything I don't like so far with this software.

A Great SIS - and Getting Better

Comentarios: Our school has tried several different solutions for grading and record keeping, and Alma is by far the best we have encountered. We tried Power School (a user-unfriendly dinosaur) and internally developed software (effective but too labor-intensive and time consuming to develop and maintain), and Alma is far superior to both. I really cannot recommend Alma highly enough.

Puntos a favor:

The best thing abour Alma is its ease of use. In addition, it has one of the most professional and responsive customer support departments I have ever encountered in any product or industry.

Puntos en contra:

It does not yet have all of the functionality that we would like, particularly in the area of recording curriculum, but since we adopted it three years ago they have regulerly added new features and improved the functionality of what was already there. I really do believe that in short order they will address curriculum within the program, and at that point every major use we have for an SIS would be covered.