Spectra

What do you like best?

This is a review for MyStratus, the most recent version of Spectra from StudioPlus. About all I can say good about it is that is is designed specifically for Photographic studios.

What do you dislike?

Where to begin? The web version is severely crippled. The desktop version has many shortcomings, including poor email signatures, and overly complicated workflow, and much more. For example, when you connect and sync with a Google Calendar, it rewrites the titles of the calendar entries that are added to the calendar outside of MyStratus. In other words, every calendar entries I had prior to syncing had its title altered.

It also severely limits how many devices can log in at one time. I'm a one man show, so only need one user license until I hire someone else (which is happening soon). But if I forget to log out on the desktop and try to open it on my phone or tablet, I'm locked out.

They also require you to get a merchant account from them in order to charge credit cards from within the software. I've been set up and happy with my merchant account provider for years, and see no need to switch to a more expensive provider.

The software has different tiers, and being a small studio, I only need the lowest tier. However, their list of features in snot complete - I found it misleading. It indicated you could send emails through the system but failed to note that you cannot add a signature to your emails unless you go to a higher version.

I've found several problems where the software doesn't work as expected. While there is an initial response, they have never followed up and actually corrected any of the flaws. When I finally found a much more friendly solution and sent a support ticket to cancel, they ignored it and tried to charge my card again. The cancellation ticket was acknowledged four days prior to them charging my card.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Definitely give the trial a serious look, but be aware that many basic features are missing if you don't go with the highest version. Also know it does not run on MAC OS, it is a windows only program.

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

There have been no benefits. It created more problems than it solved. While it was supposed to streamline things and bring client records closer together, it failed to do so.