Cloud based college management solution for colleges
4.5/5 (40 reviews)Populi is a cloud-based campus management solution that allows clients to maintain operational data for colleges and schools. The solution manages the entire student life cycle starting from lead generation until final placements. The software is suited for small and medium sized institutes. Some of its key customers include Ocean’s Edge School of Worship, Calvary Chapel Bible College, Baptist Theological Seminary, Rudolf Steiner College, and Visible Music College.
Populi campus management solution manages all aspects of operations beginning from lead generation to user profiling. The primary features of Populi are learning management, new lead tracking, finance operations management, and content & library management. The solution includes basic search, advanced resource browsing, an alphabetical subject directory, and links to external resources.
Populi is compatible with various browsers and is available across devices such as desktop, mobile and tablets. Populi campus management solution offers open API and integration with other web based services such as Google Calendar.
Pros
- Web based
- Easy to use
- API offers advanced access to data
- Customer service is responsive (the CEO often replies to requests)
Cons
- Tries to do too much - It handles Student Information well, but our finance department doesn't prefer it and our Faculty use it for tracking marks, but don't particularly like it as an LMS
- Data exports are limited - I had to code an application in PHP to work with the API to get enrolment information out in a usable format
- Roles are not customizable - We have student call teams who can only access basic contact details if we give them a staff role (which gives them too much access)
Bethlehem College and Seminary is a small Christian college which sprung from Bethlehem Baptist Church and the preaching of John Piper. For over 10 years, Bethlehem Baptist had a non-degree granting institution. In 2009, after John Piper encouraged the leadership to launch a seminary, we realized that managing student data and finances would be critical. This began a search for low cost college management software that was designed for school with less than 500 students.
In 2009, there were few options. In addition to low cost and designed for small schools, we wanted a web-based solutions, because we did not have the resources or personnel to run our own servers. In addition, we are an Apple shop, and most all college management software ran on Windows servers.
Then we discovered Populi. With a flat monthly rate and a low per student monthly rate, Populi fit our financial model. In addition, Populi was web-based. This meant that we did not need to purchase any additional hardware, and all of our staff, faculty, and students were able to access the software without any additional client side software besides a web browser.
The Populi staff worked hard to help us transition our Excel files of student data into their database. They answered the phone in person and assisted us with all of our configuration. The website was simple enough that we learned on the fly. With any new venture, there are bumps and hiccups along the way, but we were able to work through those.
Over the last 5 years, we have grown at nearly 25% per year. Populi has seamlessly grown with us. They continue to improve the product and provide additional services, and so far, have not raised the price.
One recent improvement was additional Admissions applications. Since we are both a college and seminary, it was very important for us to have two different application processes. This solved a lot of headaches for us.
Five years later, this school is still very thankful for Populi.
Even though, I had some trouble with pulling data previously with customer support we had overcome most of the obstacles. I believe with right training the program can accommodate most of our needs as small institution. I highly recommend populi to small institutions like us with an advise to inquire and receive proper training when you initial start using it. Don't hesitate to ask for training and make sure to allow your staff a time for training.
Pros
Accommodates small institutions with very reasonable pricing.
Customer support is very responsive to inquiries.
Cons
Learning how to use efficiently needs a proper training by Populi expert.
It is difficult to learn by self training through videos and tips.
All possible
Pros
It is difficult to say; documentation is exhaustive and the product is very well crafted and incredibly intuitive, but perhaps customer support is probably one of the best I have ever experienced!
Cons
With Populi, you can manually request a backup of the complete database on a daily basis, which generates and lets you download a CSV file with all the data, which is a nice feature, but I really miss the ability to schedule it on a regular basis and perhaps have it transferred to a secondary cloud storage.
Thanks for the feedback, Alfredo! One note - you can schedule/automate backups using the API. We will consider making that an option without having to make use of the API. Thanks!
Pros
It keeps improving and is more useful today than it was when we bought in (2011). They listen to feature requests from the users and try to accommodate. Service is prompt and helpful. They fix things or educate in how to use the software. The back up and reporting features are very helpful when we need to back track to find an issue.
Cons
Searching for something in help could be improved. It seems that sometimes you have to do a fair amount of searching to find the relevant page.
• Small : $199/mo. + $7/mo/billable student
• Medium : $499/mo. + $6/mo/billable student
• Large : $1199/mo + $5/mo/billable student
• Populi's performance dashboard allows tutors and administrators to view the performance of an entire class or look into individual student and activity from multiple perspectives.
• Populi keeps data in a centralized location which can be accessed over the web at any point of time.
• Populi runs daily backup with availability for daily, weekly and monthly data snapshots. Entire data is encrypted and stored in a SSAE 16 Type II compliant data centers.
• Populi college management solution offers smart calendar feature to view daily activity and setting appointment for all users and can also sync with Google Calendar.
• It helps to manage student records, registrations, courses, generate leads and track student financials.
• The software allows school administrators to create profiles for leads, students, faculty or alumni and offers provision to create connections between different profiles.
Below are some frequently asked questions for Populi.
Populi offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: $199/month
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Not Available
• Small : $199/mo. + $7/mo/billable student
• Medium : $499/mo. + $6/mo/billable student
• Large : $1199/mo + $5/mo/billable student
Populi offers the following features:
Populi has the following typical customers:
Mid Size Business, Small Business
Populi supports the following languages:
English
Populi has the following pricing plans:
Subscription
Populi supports the following devices:
iPhone
Populi integrates with the following applications:
Edvance360, G Suite, Stripe
Populi offers the following support options:
Knowledge Base, Online Support, Video Tutorials
This product was in place when I arrived in my role supporting it. It seems to be the choice of many smaller (< 300 student) post-secondary schools. It has served us well for tracking student records but there are lots of little annoyances that cause us to adjust our workflows in order to use the product. It would seem if you had no processes in place and wanted to follow their recommended ones, it would suit you well.