Slate

Avantages

Slate is by far the most comprehensive and powerful tool on the market for managing student information. As someone who specifically uses Slate for undergraduate admissions, I can say that our team would not be able to do the type of recruitment nor the sheer volume of recruitment that we're doing now without it. There are so many features that have helped to automate and streamline our processes—from application review and management to event management and email marketing campaigns. It can do just about anything you'd ever need it to, if you know how to set it up.

Inconvénients

As someone who works heavily on the "back end" of the product setting everything up and managing our student data, I can say that Slate is only as powerful as your commitment to it. Because it's so customizable, that means your administrators are responsible for making Slate a useful and powerful tool for your team. There is little to nothing that comes set up out of the box and it's taken our small team of admissions and IT staff roughly 2 years to fully "implement" the product.

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Avantages

Slate is completely customizable, which seems daunting at first, but is incredibly freeing. It was do absolutely anything we need it to do for our office and has without a doubt allowed us to work both harder and smarter and increase numbers and results across the board.

Inconvénients

Because it's completely customizable, the company leans hard into a community support network. This can be super helpful, but also frustrating when you need support and other schools aren't able to help. The company seems to be actively working to solve this though.

Avantages

I don't like much about Slate. It does keep applications and allows people to enter things.

Inconvénients

It does not have features that allow people to actually evaluate applications. It is more meant for people that work with databases. Very frustrating product that makes the job harder in many ways.

Avantages

The most impactful feature on this software is the ease with pulling up data, queries and reports.

Inconvénients

My least favorite thing is if a rule is broken it has a significant impact on the data. Although we have managed this issue better with having a small System team, it is something we keep an eye on constantly

Avantages

The balance between features, flexibility, and setup is unmatched by any other product I've used. The thing I most like about Slate is that it is so easy to use. I haven't used any other product that gets usability this spot on.

Inconvénients

At the yearly Slate Summit when new features are announced, it can take awhile for them to be added to the software. However, this is really more that they have setup such high expectations on response to issues, that delayed release of a feature seeks like a big issue.

Avantages

The admission/enrollment piece is solid - we manage our scholarship program via this instance

Inconvénients

Anything that has to do with advancement, development, fundraising, donations, constituent management, reporting, queries, communications, or money. Also, customer service is nonexistent

Avantages

The product sells itself as evidenced by the lack of sales staff that Technolutions has. It is very intuitive, has great customer support, and a vibrant user community. Definitely goes past a CRM and into a total admissions office solution.

Inconvénients

Doesn't always have system integrations that platforms like Salesforce have as they try to build functionality into the product itself. Some of the features that are rolled out are very innovative but don't always catch on with the user community (happens a lot with every software provider though).

Avantages

Easy to use, customizable, fully useable by any level user. This tool is by far the best for managing the admissions process include amazing communications abilities, including texting, custom post cards, and of course emails.

Inconvénients

They do make lots of enhancements, if that can be a negative?

Avantages

I love that you can do pretty much anything you want with this software when you are given permission by the administrator. It is a database, it is a coordination tool, it is an event planner, it's an online application, and the list goes on. It is very user friendly once you get the just of it and it's extremely customizable.

Inconvénients

It's so efficient, it's a little scary. For someone who likes her privacy it's crazy to know that there is a database that can literally see what you are doing when in it and records all your actions.

Avantages

The creation on quick reports that help me manage applicants. The scheduling functionality is handy and the streamlining of shared reports between colleagues is a nice feature as well. Makes going through applicants more effective.

Inconvénients

The only con is that it can be overwhelming to tackle everything Slate has to offer. The training videos on the site should be more prominent.

Avantages

I'll focus on the application processing side:
-Easy to assign materials directly to application accounts from Slate inbox
-Easy to set up connectivity between your application portal and various rounds during the cycle
-Easy to sort data once the applicants submit
-Easy to set up checklists of items and audit based on the checklist
-Easy to email students if they are missing items
-Easy to see when students are opening emails from you reminding them to submit materials

Inconvénients

From the Admissions processing side of things:
-Sometimes items which should auto-check off do not, and you have to catch these manually
-Sometimes items which you have set up to be part of a checklist don't show up at all in the checklist, and you have to add them manually
-there's a lot of scrolling, and no way to jump down to the bottom of application item lists, which can actually take up a lot of time! It's clunky to have to click between tabs and manually scroll to a field.

Avantages

Slate has a very clear user interface and it's easy to learn how to use, whether you have experience building forms and queries or not. We're able to house all of our marketing emails and other communications in the same place as our admissions processing. Some of our forms that were housed in Microsoft Excel or other intranet sites were transferred to Slate, making it easier to organize all the information we have. We're also able to conduct applicant review within Slate.

Inconvénients

The events calendar can look very overwhelming, but it's because of the volume of events we host in our office. Although I like the Slate Reader for reviewing applications, I wish it would open in its own window so going back to a file is easier.

Avantages

Slate is by far the best CRM for higher ed admissions. It's incredibly easy to use (once you get your head around some basics) and it's noticeably designed from the ground up with the admission process in mind. They're also great with customer service and have spent a lot of time cultivating a community of Slate users who all work together to make the most of the product.

Inconvénients

Slate is long overdue for some marketing, campaign, and communications updates. Deliver is still behind other more commercial CRMs in terms of capabilities, and I'd love to see queries, reports, template communications, and events updated with an eye for easing the customer journey and streamlining communications.

Avantages

The ability to connect with students through personalized communication is highly impact as an Admissions Counselor. My team and I are able to set up queries to pull select groups of students into messaging lists to support students throughout the admissions process. The ability to communicate with students via text is powerful as many students will respond to a quick text message over an email.

Inconvénients

Slate can be rather particular. Having a CRM manager has a huge impact on my work on the satisfaction of my work. I cannot speak from the CRM manager perspective, as I imagine the "cons" of Slate are likely found there.

Avantages

While I love most of the features, what I like most is the support and constantly-improving culture of Slate. We get questions answered quickly and new products built sometimes within a few days of request. I am in the higher ed industry and the document reader makes managing high volume application loads and accessing/reading very easy. We have yet to be disappointed by the CRM.

Inconvénients

Deliver (building email campaigns) lacks in terms of design features. As our most impactful channel, we hoped the feature would get more of an upgrade.

Avantages

Once you have gotten used to the set up, it isn't hard to use. You get to now the best places on a student profile to find information, track their application status, etc.

Inconvénients

It's not super intuitive. Information that is closely related can be spread apart in different places (I often have to go between the Read Appliation section, Timeline Section, and The application tab to find the info I need) But other wise I don't have many issues with it.

Avantages

I like that I could read the applications and score with relative ease, once I was able to locate the files.

Inconvénients

Navigation is not easy or user intuitive. I needed help. I also was confused by the chat or social piece up top... I'm not sure why people would use an admissions app to be social. There are functions on there that I never use.

Avantages

Slate is the *best* CRM for admissions. There's so many wonderful things I can say! The unlimited licenses, the easily accessed data/reporting, the ability to quickly segment your audience in so! many! ways! Really, Slate has made our lives so much better. I can't say enough good things about it!

Inconvénients

I've found that Slate has its own jargon, and it's sometimes hard to find definitions/what those terms mean outside of Slate. But that's really my only complaint!

Avantages

Slate has a large set of features and makes collecting and reviewing applications rather easy.

- Applicants are able to submit their applications entirely online.

- We are able to review and send admissions decisions through Slate.

- The Mail-Merge function (called "Deliver" in Slate) is quite robust for ongoing applicant contact.

- The ability to Query tool in Slate is (mostly) intuitive and easy to use.

Despite a somewhat steep learning curve (see the 'Cons' Section), I would recommend using Slate to streamline the application process.

Inconvénients

While Slate is a very powerful tool, it is not polished. Slate documentation is there, but not robust. The customer service feels similar.

Slate has a steep learning curve. Once you get there, the software is very powerful, but it takes some time.

Slate also has some database limitations. Slate stores Applicants (people who have submitted an application) and Prospects (people who are interested, but have not yet submitted an application) in two separate databases. This means that you cannot search both at once without some SQL work.

Avantages

I love how easy it was to enter and keep track of admissions documents. I loved the easiness of logging in and the file lookup feature is excellent.

Inconvénients

It would get rather slow or bogged down, though maybe this was because almost everyone in our office was constantly on it.

Avantages

My favorite features of Slate are the user-friendly query-building functions, the ease of access through the web and app platform, and the communication abilities through Deliver and SMS Inbox.

Inconvénients

Reporting between different databases can sometimes be an issue, but Technolutions is already releasing features to address that concerns for users!

Avantages

My favorite part of slate is that you can "impersonate" an applicant to better understand their question about their application and troubleshoot for them. Slate is great at taking different types of required application materials (i.e. PDFs, videos, audio, etc.).

Inconvénients

Slate is a bit non-intuitive and takes some training to get the hang of it. It would be great to be able to compare applications side by side in the read view.

Avantages

Easy search feature, downloading from Slate inbox, and uploading new materials. It's also easy to track fair attendees.

Inconvénients

It's hard to track emails once "resolved". Once you resolve emails, they only stay for a time. That's difficult when needing to look back.

Avantages

I work in two different instances of Slate. I love that you can have so many categorizations of roles, and make them as broad and customizable as you want. The learning resources are really good and help you step-by-step. The interactions at a glance is very helpful.

Inconvénients

There are no email templates that are pre-installed. The company seems to be focused on advances in the application and reporting system and not so much as an event or email system. Also, there were many updates revealed as ready to use at last year's conference but now are still in development.

Avantages

User friendly, easy to do all the basics. In addition, it has a lot of depth. The more I explore Slate, the more helpful tools I find. Slate makes my job easier.

Inconvénients

One (very minor) complaint is that if I'm midway through entering info and leave the screen for too long, sometimes it signs me out without telling me. I finish filling in the info, only to find out that I can't save it because I'm signed out. This has on rare occasion resulted in me losing work. But the net time Slate has saved me is so high that I consider this a very minor inconvenience.