FACTS

Excellent product for a VERY niche market

Avantages :

RenWeb is School Information System software. It allows the user to take attendance, track grades, generate report cards, as well as a HOST of other features. Very feature-rich. In years past, RenWeb sort of lost its way with not really understanding who its core customer was - K-12 schools. After the acquisition by FACTS, RenWeb has really turned the ship around.

Inconvénients :

I do not like that FACTS is completely re-branding RenWeb as FACTS SIS. It doesn't sound as good. It looks like they're admitting failure. My preference would simply to be a major revision overhaul and re-branding with the same name.

Exceeded expectations

Commentaires : After initial setup, usability and reliability are better than expected.

Avantages :

FACTS handles tuition billing. collections, and integration with Quickbooks Online.

Inconvénients :

Some features are tricky to use, but we are able to adapt to the software in order to achieve desired results.

Buyer's Remorse.

Commentaires : Renweb is a disaster.
1. The default date setting for all documents your teachers and staff go to the trouble to upload and make accessible to students and parents is ONE DAY. You read that right. You didn't know your staff would go to the trouble to upload something for just 24 hours, but that is what Renweb thinks, and refuses to change. Their default should be a one week date range. In what universe would anyone want documents to disappear in 24 hours? In the Renweb universe only. You must remember to change the date when you upload it.
2. Renweb will not set a default for any links you click within Renweb open in a new tab, claiming that is a function of your browser. But many, many websites set their links to be either pop-ups or new tabs. Renweb will not.
3. No flexibility on naming links on the website you pay them for. If you want to use Lesson Plans for Assignments, forget about naming it correctly for YOUR school. Your parents and students will have to use their pre-named tabs, whether or not that applies to your school. Forget about any customization for the big bucks you pay.
4. 'Resources' as a link name is used twice, which is very confusing to parents and students, and unnecessary, given there are many words in the English language. Why not name the Class tab for Resources, 'Documents'? Because that is what it is. Then the other Resources, in the menu column, will be distinct, and for schoolwide resources.
5. Email formatting is abysmal; some kind of primitive html form that yields automatic spacing (not visible to the sender) between paragraphs and an ugly font; there is now a Communications Beta, so perhaps that will address the sheer ugliness of their email formats. There is much more disappointment awaiting you in the inflexible Renweb, but after spending my morning untangling yet another problem, I need to get to mission-critical tasks.
Yes, they get high marks for customer service from many users, but that customer service is necessary to compensate for all the inherent issues. I am so sorry we invested in Renweb. Unnecessarily complicated to interface with, while yielding emails that look like they were created ten years ago. An odd combination of behind the scenes 'sophistication' with primitive-looking email communications with parents/ students.

Constantly improving software for schools

Commentaires : We use Renweb throughout our entire school. We use their basic Student Information System as well as their value added Online Application/Online Enrollment. Overall their system helps us accomplish much more than our past paper system, although we have frustrations about the functionality of the features and ease of use from time to time. Fortunately their customer service is too notch and there's never been a question or issue they haven't walked with us through. They are currently in the process of updating their entire system from a desktop version to a web-based. Once this transition is completed and the bugs are worked out, they will have a sleek, modern interface that isn't as clunky and is more user friendly. Their value added product of Online Application/Online Enrollment leaves a bit to be desired but is a cost effective solution. It is not as user friendly for the families going through the process and doesn't make it easy to simplify some of the steps. We've enjoyed working with Renweb so far and would recommend the software to another school that is willing to put in the time and resources to work with a company that is in the process of updating their systems.

Avantages :

The customer service is the best part of using Renweb. They have a lot of self-help articles and videos. If you are crunched for time or can't find the answer you need just call them and they are more than happy to walk you through the issue! Another great thing is to have everything you need to run a school in one system! That simplifies all of our lives. They've even developed an integration with FACTS to make billing streamlined!

Inconvénients :

The fact that Renweb is creating a new online system and going away from their desktop based system will be great once it's finished. Right now it's frustrating to be stuck between the two systems with some important features not functional online yet (I know because I have a mac and can't use the desktop version). Some aspects of Renweb are clunky and not well organized which can be frustrating when you are trying to figure something out and don't have a lot of time.

Powerful software but slow to innovate and address issues

Commentaires : I've been using RenWeb for five (5) years now and have a major love/hate relationship with it. It's expensive to get started and then expensive if you want to adjust anything. Thousands to add a custom logo to the report cards. The financial account system is not GAAP compliant and their response was "we're not an accounting software company." But if you're going to have the feature then do it right. The online teacher portal is not Chrome compliant and it took four years to get the Parent Portal working on Chrome. For two years I had to tell parents to run IE in compatability mode to get it to work. RenWeb1 (theire new online portal) was announced and pused 1.5 years ago and still is not functional. They promised an Android app when we signed up five years ago (it's only 3-6 months away - they promised) . It tooke 3 years to get it functional. They are extremely slow to inovate. Their modules do not integrate well. If you put something on your lesson plans on a specific date, only certain entries can be added automatically to your classroom calendar and then your gradebook. So for many things you have enter the same information 3 or 4 times to get it to each location. This results in frustration on the teachers part and lack of use. What keeps me with them are the tuition management module and the student (afterschool care) time clock. The student clock creates unique barcode scanner cards for authorized pickups to ensure the correct person is picking up the kids. This one feature is about the only thing that keeps me with RenWeb. There is no Google Apps for Education integration, but according to them "it's coming soon". The last time I heard that statement, it was three years. That's not soon.

Avantages :

One stop shop for multiple software applications

Inconvénients :

Slow to innovate, expensive add ons, frustrating software functionality