Graduway Reviews

Great product, very helpful team. Love the integration with LinkedIn and Facebook!

Pros:

Ease of use, functionality with LinkedIn and Facebook. Ability to connect people themselves through the directory. Events capability and the new groups section are both terrific to use.

Cons:

Not really a complaint, but I sometimes struggle to get people to sign up in the first instance. We need to find a hook to get people on there to begin with.

Graduway for Alumni Management

Comments: We are really really happy using the Graduway solution. They are a true solution ‘partner’ for our alumni engagement & fundraising needs. They really make it a focus to help us take full advantage of their feature rich solution. Graduways software has enabled us to boost our Alumni Services to a place we are proud of, and with all the tools available to us, integrated into our CRM and critical base platform

Pros:

Graduway offers a comprehensive integrated solution to make most of alumni management & engagement. Their platform is feature rich and they are always working to add new features. They have outstanding customer service.

Cons:

I cannot really think of things I do not like about this software. It’s a league above the other platforms in this space.

Good tool to boost alumni projects and engagement

Comments: Very good. It's clear that Graduway really seeks to provide value for money and never stops optimization. The migration to the new platform is quite delayed but looks promising. When problems with the previous customer success manager arose, Graduway reacted quickly and provided a new, very supportive and experienced customer success manager. The tries to sell additional tools was quite persistent at some stages, especially given that we're already a client. But overall Graduway does a great job and the strategic input by the CEO was also very helpful. The Global Leaders Summit is a great opportunity of further education, especially for small alumni teams. We've learned a lot about alumni engagement thanks to Graduway!

Pros:

It makes it easy for alumni to find each other and reconnect. An alumni newsletter can easily be set up and customized. Statistics are very helpful for benchmarking and ROI checks.

Cons:

Customization options are still quite reduced at some tools. If the platform isn't synched to school's database (in our case not possible as the database is tailormade), managing access and updates is quite time consuming.

Super User Friendly, Needs Work on Admin Side

Comments: An attractive and easy to use product.

Pros:

I love how user friendly this product is. I rarely have questions on how to access and use the system and I feel users from a variety of generations are able to understand and effectively use the Graduway system.

Cons:

There a real lack of control over profiles on the admin side, and the mentorship features need a lot of work (though I hear there's an update that will improve this.) I wish there were more options in reporting. It's tedious to have to pull one huge file and then whittle it down to find the info you're looking for.

One of the alternatives considered as my Alumni platform

Comments: When we went to implement the new platform of our Alumni, this was one of the 4 main alternatives considered, along with AlumnForce, AlmaShines and Hivebrite. However, it was not chosen, because although it is a good platform, it has less functionality than the competitors and has a relatively high cost.

Pros:

It has a very beautiful aesthetic, it is quite easy to use, for both administrators and users. Very low usage learning curve. Its use is pleasant. Excellent technical assistance. Good deployment cost. The [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] of the company that owns the product has a great vision on Alumni, and his book is the basis for the implementation of a successful Alumni.

Cons:

In the short term, the company provides a low cost of implementation, but in the long term, the platform's annual fee is high. It is a well-built product, but it lacks many features that already exist in competitors. The cost-effectiveness of competitors is much better.

Very pleased with the functionality and response received from our alumni base

Pros:

It is very easy to create the news stories and newsletters. You do not have to put in a significant amount of time to maintain

Cons:

The home page can get cluttered and busy if you have a lot of stories to share . I have heard of a few people having difficulty resetting thier password.

Good at the begining, not much progress after 2 years, poor support speed

Comments: We set up a social alumni network very quickly

Pros:

Specific for alumni, good linkedin integration (at the begining), and nice to start for a social alumni network, easy to setup.

Cons:

Not much progress, new "wow" functionalities have to be extra paid (that they never told us), poor support speed, not total multilanguage functionalities

Very pleased with this product

Comments: More engagement with alumni

Pros:

This is a great tool for our alumni. People love the newsletter, and we are very happy with the directory and the jobs board. It has been easy to roll out the online community to our constituents.

Easy yo use and excelent costumbre Support

Pros:

Easy to use it is a very intuitive plataform , I like the translation in a expensive variety of lenguages.

Cons:

Restricted functionality to admin role, much options gdoesn't exist, and events payment must have many getaway óptions

It's been a fairly good experience

Pros:

Ease of use to the end user (alumni, students, etc.), easy way to get updated data, app availability, branding.

Cons:

Limited reporting, not so clear statistics of use and lack of some content options, like videos on the news feed

Graduway alumni platform

Comments: We've been using our Graduway platform for about 18 months now and are really pleased that we chose them to supply our platform. What I like the most about them is how great their customer service is, for our alumni when they're having issues, but more importantly for us as admins. Our account manager has taken the time to get to know our business and our needs and the entire team (from CEO down!) are invested in helping us meet those needs. They take on board client feedback in a very productive way, and are very responsive to ideas. In fact, there have been a number of new features added which are a result of client feedback. We were able to take time in building the platform and had full control over when it launched. We got help from them at launch with promotion, and receive continuous tips and pointers on steps we can take as an organisation to grow the platform. The platform itself is pretty easy to use and intuitive. The social sign on makes it even easier for our alumni. We have a completely international alumni base so some functions may be lost in translation, but overall alumni tell us they love it. They message each other, love the album and we have seen steady growth in sign ups. As admins it's not too time intensive to manage any more we can see basic statistics and manage what users see on the site. The news widgets are a useful way to share content from our main website. Mentoring is the one area that is more challenging for us, and does need more admin work/effort to make it successful, unless you already have a proper mentoring programme set up. There are areas for improvement, but Graduway know this and are working on it. Overall, it's a great supplier, with a very good product.

Pros:

Bright, attractive, inviting interface. Easy to use. Regular new developments released.

Cons:

Search functionality. Homepage could do with restructuring.

SVSUConnect

Comments: In my 37 years in Higher Education, I have not had a platform that truly can impact our brand (stories) to enhance our reputation and engage our alumni like Graduway has in a short period of time. Everything they have promised they have delivered and more. They are incredibly responsive to our suggestions and their customer service is outstanding. The campus wide community has embraced this tool, understanding its value to the long-term success of our university. Weekly we have generated new ideas and strategies due to the opportunities this platform provides that had not existed in the past. SVSUConnect is now playing an essential role in our university strategic plan. I would highly encourage you to have a demo to see first hand with key players in your university the possibilities this platform could provide your university - you will not be disappointed!

Pros:

It provides our alumni and students significant career navigation, mentoring and networking opportunities. Enhancing our reputation and brand through stories. Providing prospective students and their parent's value (outcomes ) to our degree. Mentoring opportunities for our alumni to mentor our students. This tool can also have a big impact on meeting enrollment and retention goals

Cons:

It takes time to navigate the university academic side of the house to create win/win scenarios -- one needs to be patient but no doubt the effort will pay off in the long run . Need to create champions through out the university to maximize what the effectiveness of the platform.

This Software made the Launch of our Alumni Portal so easy!

Comments: Connecting our Alumni, our students with our Alumni and also being able to reach out to our Alumni. The Feedback we have received was good and withMBS Connect we have found an easy (and sexy) way of keeping our Alumni up to date.

Pros:

I really like the Usability and some of its Features (Newsletter function, Job Portal, Events, News items). The Graduway Team was always really helpful and supportive. They seem to be very open to their customers' Feedback and work on continuously improving the Software. I also appreciated the Alumni related articles sent out, as well as the quarterly Reports and updates.

Cons:

Even though the Features are Overall really good, there are sometimes some restrictions to them which makes working with them a Little bit challenging or less convenient (e.g. Newsletter text a bit too short, no possibility to Highlight info (bold, italic)). But These were just Little things

Great customer support and easy to use platform

Comments: Graduway's personalised customer service is excellent - Sarah guided us through the whole process with patience and a sense of humour that made it entirely painless. The best tip I can give is to be clear about what Graduway can and can't do, and how best to use it alongside your existing channels and platforms. Support and buy-in from colleagues makes the world of difference, so take the time to communicate the benefits (to them) and explain the purpose, to manage their expectations before you launch. The administration area is simple to use and we're very excited about the planned expansion to functionality in mailing features, Groups and site content - which are all a direct response to customer input. It's nice to feel listened to as a customer, and even better to see improvements as a result.
Some features, currently missing, would make me more inclined to rate everything as 5/5, but it's a great start and we're hugely optimistic about the impact this platform will have on our overall Alumni Engagement Strategy following a wider launch to students, with Graduway's support.

Pros:

The ability to filter and target user groups for effective communications, the easy admin area and the interactive elements built-in to encourage networking among alumni and students.

Cons:

The built-in invitation/message/newsletter functions are good, but lacking in reporting features that would make this much more useful. Having no ability to view bounce backs, unsubscribes, open/read rates means that we have to use Mailchimp for this activity, which is disappointing when our expectation was a single platform to manage our communications with alumni.

An excellent community platform

Pros:

Our Graduway platform is easy to use from an admin point of view and from a user point of view. Support is on hand to deal with any queries. The team are constantly updating and improving the software which keeps it current.

Cons:

The software could work as a standalone database and community platform, but still requires a back-end database. This requires some coordination between systems which some room for error.

Great Platform for Alumni

Comments: We've been very pleased with the Graduway alumni platform. Their customer support/success team made sure we knew exactly what steps to take as we prepared to launch. It is very easy for the user to connect and it is also easy to manage from the administrative side. You can pull complete Google analytics for the product. The customer success manager can set this up for you. While the platform is designed for peer-to-peer/student connections, we've also worked with our individual schools to ensure a more vibrant networking experience for our alumni who have indicated a willingness to help and our students. Several of our schools have a mentoring program in place and we have connected them to their alumni from the platform who have indicated a willingness to help. Lots of good synergy happening from those connections and new mentors identified which helps them expand their mentoring program.

Pros:

Easy of use for users and administrative personnel.

Cons:

Pulling the more detailed reports when we need them. However, we do get a very detailed quarterly report from Graduway.

Graduway has been fantastic in our alumni connection efforts. Needs a class notes outlet.

Pros:

I love that we now have the capability to offer our alumni a networking and social media type platform. This has been severely lacking in our fundraising and overall alumni interaction efforts. Graduway now provides an outlet to update alums and keep them connected with the school.

Cons:

The design. Hands down. We NEED an outlet on Graduway to put a daily update of class notes that don't need to be deleted or replaced and can provide a history log as well (similar to Facebook). I know Graduway is working on this design, but it's been pushed back and I believe this is hurting our alumni connection efforts.

Mulgrave SchoolReview

Comments: Great support as we wlaunched the program and the am has worked seamlessly to engage our alumni community. They continue to support as we grow and develop our platform. New features are added regularly making the user experience better and more accessable.

Pros:

Use of use, Interface and customer support.

Cons:

Would like a texting type feature like Messenger of DM on Instagram A group chat has been requested bu outr users

Graduway for UK School

Comments: We've been live with Grauway for seven months now to our whole community after a test period of six months and we've recovered so many lost alumni, engaged our older pupils with the presence of our office and established ourselves as a hub for the wider community. We'd been working in the same way for the past eight years with very slow progress. Since our launch with Graduway, progress has moved so quickly and engagement levels across the board have gone through the roof! We're delighted with the initial results and would recommend any institute looking to reconnect with the digital generation consider the platform as something which may help, alongside an integrated communications plan.

Pros:

the ease of use and the functionality which is very helpful for our office and aims

Cons:

the lack of flexibility in structure but it is understandable that there has to be a backbone of core functions that cannot be customised.

graduway product recommendation

Pros:

practical, self-explanatory and intuitive

Cons:

i may be a little more practical to use , there is still room for that

A brilliant facility for widening and deepening alumni engagement

Comments: They've provided a platform which helps us to build community in a way that cannot be done offline; it will work hand-in-glove with our events programme when that re-commences post-pandemic.

Pros:

Ease of use and set-up, despite the many and varied things that it can do. Customer service is outstanding.

Cons:

Very little that we haven't liked so far.

I find the platform very easy to navigate.

Pros:

The fact that automatic newsletters are sent to alumni and I can control when it can be sent is convenient.

Cons:

I cannot upload articles/documents to news items - which is really frustrating. I have to post it to our website first, and only then can I paste the link to the article on Graduway. This causes an unnecessary time constraint, especially if we want to post information immediately. I also don't think our Alumni click on the links and if they do so, they are redirected away from Graduway - which defies the purpose of the platform. Don't we want alumni to stay on the platform and interact with the content? Also the size limit of the photo's that are required for news items, is too small. This means that most of the time I cannot post the entire photo of a class graduation for example, a part of the photo is thus cropped out, which looks unprofessional. Sometimes it is difficult to toggle between the admin and user interface.

very easy and accessible platform!

Comments: very simple way to connect with fellow alumni

Pros:

It is a very accessible platform. Very easy to use, and simple but attractive graphic. You can easily find your way and identify fellow alumni and interact with each other. Definitely a good tool.

Cons:

Not so much advanced functionality. After you sign up, there is not so much way to facilitate discussions.

Love it!

Pros:

The platform is very easy to use. I like the ability to send information to alums who haven't created a profile but have been uploaded to the pre-populated list.

Cons:

When you delete a user, all of the photos they have uploaded disappear. I wish there was a way to keep them there. I am anxiously awaiting the new layout in FY18 since it is cleaner and not as overwhelming.

Still pretty new. My customer service rep has been wonderful. There are a few glitches.

Pros:

Intuitive - and a great way to outreach. Easy to customize and make it look as if it originated from my organization.

Cons:

A few glitches in functionality (having to post a picture for an event). Possibly could use more insights available on folks viewing.