Compare Centrallo и Regroup Mass Notification

Benefits:

Integrates with our Active Directory for automated account creation. We lacked a good data source for personal email addresses and cell numbers, b... Read more

Integrates with our Active Directory for automated account creation. We lacked a good data source for personal email addresses and cell numbers, but after creating the accounts we're asking users to add this information to their profiles. Not finished yet, but it seems easy-peasy.

Drawbacks:

We struggled with some questions during the initial configuration, but slowly figured out the online resources available and the value they provide... Read more

We struggled with some questions during the initial configuration, but slowly figured out the online resources available and the value they provide. Being on the East coast, we had to adapt to the West coast timing for scheduled meetings, but not a big deal.

Summary:

We've spent the past few months implementing this solution and are now inviting users to update their profiles. Too soon to say for sure, but it i... Read more

We've spent the past few months implementing this solution and are now inviting users to update their profiles. Too soon to say for sure, but it is clearly an improvement from what we previously had. We are eager to finalize user profiles and schedule a test.

Benefits:

The ability to manually upload groups that you can pull from datasets. Prepopulating groups allows for quick emergency notification generation. T... Read more

The ability to manually upload groups that you can pull from datasets. Prepopulating groups allows for quick emergency notification generation. The texting and opt out ability for students is pretty painless. Configuring users for admin level access easy and quick. Training is easy and quick. Support is there. The texting add on /texting carrier is pretty painless to use. There doesn't seem to be an issue using them as a texting aggregate. Best cost from others at the moment, both in text and user count.

Drawbacks:

Groups can be overwritten by anyone with admin level access. Count of members in the group reflect existing contact information/contact informatio... Read more

Groups can be overwritten by anyone with admin level access. Count of members in the group reflect existing contact information/contact information doesn't always accurately reflect the manual load. Shared opt out-- if individuals belong to multiple bodies using regroup, opting out of one opts out of the entire regroup platform. Support is not very effective -- long response times. Inability to understand higher level technical questions (importing custom fields). The largest drawback is the inability to mail merge, which cripples the software for customization. There supposedly an update that was scheduled to include this feature, but we had to migrate to a different mass communication system for mail merge.

Summary:

Check if your institution needs mail merge right away. From my recollection- the mail merge (importing custom fields within a csv) did not exist wh... Read more

Check if your institution needs mail merge right away. From my recollection- the mail merge (importing custom fields within a csv) did not exist when we were using it.

Benefits:

Somewhat easy to use. Managed in the cloud.

Drawbacks:

We explicitly found cross data contamination. We are a community college and our local K-12 school system already was using Regroup for mass notif... Read more

We explicitly found cross data contamination. We are a community college and our local K-12 school system already was using Regroup for mass notification. When we uploaded our data and ran reports, we found incorrect data with our dual enrolled students (these are seniors taking a college class before graduating High School.) Regroup explained that because we had a record that had the same name as a record for the local school system, we were getting the wrong data. Apparently, Regroup did not have the proper digital security boundaries between our data and the K-12 data, meaning all records were being kept in the same database. Regroup then claimed they would work to correct that within the year. Unacceptable in this day and age of high Cyber Security threats.

Summary:

Benefits:

The software is web-based. No more VPN!

Drawbacks:

Emails can often be rejected as spam; default voice cannot be changed or slowed down.

Summary:

We needed a mass notification software and chose Regroup for its user friendliness and web based platform. We are happy with the product and traini... Read more

We needed a mass notification software and chose Regroup for its user friendliness and web based platform. We are happy with the product and training is a snap. No frills, just the necessities. We love the ability to record a message, and we really love the URL feature which allows the recipient to read a text message on their phone and after 160 characters , provides a custom URL. The recipient can read the message in its entirety on the web. Very easy to implement. Very friendly tech and sales staff.