SapphireK12

What do you like best?

I really like that Sapphire is a small company. I think this allows them to have better focus, and I like that I am able to personally know and speak with a good portion of their team. Beyond tech support, I can reach out to their engineers or their implementation specialists and talk through an issue. Plus, with their annual Sapphire University, we get to interact with their team directly, in addition to learning about upcoming product features. Also, their PIMS support is excellent.

What do you dislike?

I have very few complaints about Sapphire. There are really only two major issues that we face regularly. One is the difficulty of importing information, especially on an automatic schedule. There are a few import utilities and some mass assignment jobs, but it would be helpful to be able to import a CSV with some student data. Also, Sapphire doesn't always "play nice" with other educational products, so we need to jump through hoops to get the data flowing sometimes (although to be fair, they are getting much better at this).

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Meet with the company and meet as many of their employees as you can. Explain your own specific needs. If you can, attend Sapphire University before purchasing to get a feel for what the company, product, and community are like.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Sapphire handles the overwhelming majority of our child accounting and state reporting, and it does so really well. We rarely need to modify the files we give to the state. We also use it for all grading and attendance, as well as online student registration. We even use the Community Portal to have students and parents provide information back to the district.