Experiences with and feedback about SharpSchool?

Hi, all. Does anyone out there have experience with a Web content-management system from SharpSchool (http://www.sharpschool.com)? We have been evaluating CMS solutions since the end of summer and SharpSchool has emerged as a strong contender due to extremely competitive pricing and what appears to be a strong feature set.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had actual experience with this company and their product(s). (I'd also be curious to know how SharpSchool compares to SchoolCenter if you've had experience with both.)

We are considering using SharpSchool to replace our current district and school Websites (17 in all) and for student-safe email. Our basic goals are to raise Web content throughout the district to a uniform standard, make content more accessible for information seekers, and to democratize the ability of faculty and staff to create and maintain Web content.

For years now, Web development within the district has been done using FrontPage and Dreamweaver, which is far more tool than the average teacher or staff member needs, wants, or should have to contend with. Yes, we have considered free and open-source solutions, but it has been determined that we do not currently possess the in-house manpower and expertise to successfully implement and maintain them.

Thank you in advance for your input!

Regards,

Brad

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Permalink Reply by Pam Jeter on June 1, 2010 at 4:41pm

You all are making me nervous! Due to funding issues, I had to cancel our contract with SchoolCenter and move to SharpSchool. We have not implemented at all yet, and no exchange of money has taken place.
When you talk about how "slow" the pages are, is this only when adding content, or is it slow for your end users (parents/community members)?
I am almost ready to cancel the whole thing, but that means I will also have to commit to renewing several other individual contracts we have out on other individual web based programs. Anybody have any good word about SharpSchool??? Did they redeem themselves Diane?

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Permalink Reply by Pam Jeter on July 15, 2011 at 2:13pm

I thought I would update this forum on how we are doing with SharpSchool now...a year later.

Even though from my June 2010 post above, where I had second thoughts, I am glad that I did move forward with the implementation of Sharpschool in our district.
I am pleased to say that we did not find the slowdowns mentioned in previous postings. In fact, any time any of our staff had an issue and called their support team, the issue was resolved in a very timely manner!

The team at SharpSchool has checked in with me throughout the year to see if we are pleased with their service and their product. Anytime I have provided feedback on changes or what we would like to see upgraded, they have been very responsive and cooperative. They helped us custom design our splash page to meet our specific criteria, which I did not find with any of the other providers unless they charged a large fee.

A big part of the criteria we desired in a web hosted solution, surrounded professional development. We can have a great looking site, but if it isn't easy to update and keep content current, then we didn't accomplish our communication goals. Sharpshool provided on site training, webinars, manuals and a great customer support site that contains videos and a knowledgebase to support our PD needs.

I know it is a BIG step when selecting a web hosting solution and there are always issues with any solution you select. So what it really comes down to is how responsive the support team is on resolving those issues and I have found that SharpSchool meets our high expectations in this area.