It was interesting how the one glaring negative comment completely
contradicted everybody else's comments about customer service. Maybe
they were confused about which product they were talking about?
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Doug Bancks
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 12:06 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] HIT : Alexandria Library Automation system tech
support
Hello again,
I have listed the responses received (minus a couple positive ones that
were too similar to others) and removed (e.g. *****) the names of
competing systems to reduce OPAC envy and hurt feelings. I truly
appreciate your replies and especially your offers to provide more
information if needed. BTW, there is one very negative reply in the
bunch. Thank you.
Doug Bancks
Media Specialist
Fairmont Jr/Sr High
Fairmont, MN 56031
dbancks@fairmont.k12.mn.us
I use Alexandria and I like it. Their help desk is really good.
We just switched from ***** to Alexandria, and with
most things we love parts of it, don't like others, and haven't quite
figured out some things. We decided that we really liked the smaller
company, and didn't like what ***** was doing with all of its
acquisitions. Who knew which of their products they might cut, or what
would be around in a year or two.
I used Alexandria for 6 six years at my previous school. I was on the
team that selected our first automation system and Alex won hands down.
I
was very happy with the product, the training, the support for all of
those years. When I moved to my present school I had an old version of
***** which I really didn't like. Finally convinced the admin to let me
buy Alex a couple of years ago and I am now much happier! I'm happy to
answer any specific questions you have but overall I can say that the
program works very well and support truly could not be better.
Our district has been with Alexandria for a long time. In my library we
have been with them since 1993. I am very satisfied with the product
and the s the Tech support team. They are good at solving problems and
are willing to listen to suggestions about new features in the system.
They are great people to work with. Their trainers are also excellent.
We have had them out for district training several times.
Doug, did you know there is a demo? We are thinking about transferring
to
Alex also, so I've just spent weeks exploring the demo. Go to
http://www.goalexandria.com <http://www.goalexandria.com/> then go to
Support and then Training. The
training demo is toward the bottom of the page. It will ask for a
password
before downloading. The password is demo.
Response time is amazing. You have two choices: you can send an email
directly from the program (it's built into the main window) and you get
either an email or a phone call (if it's complicated) generally within
30
minutes but often it's more like 5 minutes. Or you can call - sometimes
they have to call back but generally I get to a person right away. They
are always very pleasant and helpful. Once when I had a major problem
(turned out it was a bug shared by a couple of other schools and they
had
to write an update!) I had the same technician for about two weeks.
Never
had to deal with a new person who didn't know the details of my problem.
Support is just great.
I use them currently and it is the only system I have any experience
with. They have great customer service. The system is very easy to use
and you can quickly get up and running as it is very intuitive. When
they upgrade, you get the updates free. Kids find it easy to use.
They are a few reports I wish I could run. Not all of them come to mind
right now but the one I can think of is books with the highest check
out.
We love Alexandria....migrated from ***** in 2002 and have been 100%
happy. We use Macs in our school. No problems, no training
required...common sense program!
Our district had experience with Alexandria a few years back. It was
horrendous. The system crashed daily (I am not exaggerating) and the
support was by telephone only. The customer support was located out of
the country; we could not call them until late afternoon. It was awful
but at the time they were working on development of a new system called
Alice or Alex. The new system may be better, I can't say. We lost
confidence in Alexandria and migrated to *****.
I've been using Alexandria for the last 7 years. It's the only
system I've ever used, so I can't compare it to any others.
I am very pleased with the system and the service. My district is
primarily Mac based, so having a Mac-native program is wonderful. It
is easy for the students to use and every librarian that I've worked
with has picked it up very quickly.
My only real complaint about Alex is the lack of flexibility with
reporting options. Most of the time, the standard reports are fine,
but occasionally I want to organize the data differently and am not
able to. I've had to export the data and organize it the way I want
it. This has only happened a few times (and I'm probably too picky).
We've had Alex the whole time I've been here (7 years). THey're really
helpful - actually answer the phone when we call and work us through
problems step by step as needed. They will email directions to help,
too. There's no longer a print manual, just a searchable PDF so I
actually find that easier to use. The only down side in my opinion is
that they're in Utah so I can't always get things done before school
with the time difference - but you're in MN so it's closer.
I have nothing but good things to say about this automation software and
its parent company, CompanionCorp. We switched from a DOS (yes, DOS)
program to Alexandria over the summer and the other media specialists in
the district and I worried about having enough time to learn it. The
transistion was absolutely seamless from the moment we sent our records
to them until they were sent back to us. We had 3 hours of conference
call instruction with one of their reps. and still have 2 hours to use
yet, and she answered all of our questions and demonstrated the
"nitty-gritty" that we needed to know to get started. Any time I have
had questions and emailed or called customer support, they were very
timely with their responses--within the hour--and if were were on the
phone with them they took whatever amount of time that was needed to
answer questions or fix problems. The online researcher--what patrons
see--is very easy to use and to set up.
I have used it since 1999, currently in both Mac and Windows formats,
and am very pleased. I do know they are currently working on an upgrade
for probable release during this calendar year. Tech support has almost
always helped me solve a problem, once and a while I have figured it out
myself while talking with them. I really feel their support is the best
out there and that is vital.
I like the fact that I can log on at home and do some work from here.
I have been on Alexandria for 7 years now and love it. Great tech
support,
easy to use interface, lots of great features. I previously used [3
different systems were listed].
We moved to Alexandria in Jan. of '07 and have been very satisfied with
the entire package. Tech support is available both by email and phone.
I've used both methods and been very satisfied. They also send out an
email newsletter and tips of the week that are most helpful, often
things I had no idea it was capable of or wouldn't have thought to try!
I used to have Alex and LOVED it. I was forced to switch to **** 2
years ago
and not a day passes that I don't wish for ALEX. Their tech support is
wonderful, very patient and knowledgeable. If you get Alex I think you
will be
very happy with it.
I recently purchased Alexandria and, one of the reasons, was that people
on this list raved about their customer service. I've had to e-mail
them a couple of times and answers are polite, helpful and fast.
The only automation system we have ever had is Alexandria. We have
MACs so I don't know about the PC side. It works just fine and I
have used technically support when I could not get the palm inventory
device to work. I had dialog with them for over an hour and found
them to be very supportive.
We purchased and installed Alexandria last summer. I would say that it
took about four months to work through the different issues and now we
are pretty satisfied. Here are a few recommendations:
1. E-mail tech support with questions/problems and they usually get
back to you within a day (unless their server is down). A telephone
call seems take longer to get an answer.
2. Go to their training -- we opted out of this and now we wish we had
gone. I think there are many things we aren't taking advantage of
because we don't know about it.
3. Install their updates as soon as you can. Our tech coordinator
waits on any updates until a day off of school and thus we often have
problems that the update would have fixed if installed. This is out of
our control!
4. The manual/handbook isn't very user friendly. We have better luck
searching their website for tips/suggestions as things arise.
We have used Alexandria in our elementary and high school buildings for
the
last 8 years. Their tech service is good. Their screens are easy to use.
We
especially like it because it works well with Accelerated Reader. You
do
need to keep up with their updates which has made us at one point need
to
update to a newer server. The yearly cost for updates and service is 599
dollars per building. We are a small district so we do not have them run
our
system (more money when purchasing). We have been satisfied with
company.
I have had Alexandria for 10 years and am extremely satisfied with it.
Tech support, although seldom needed, is prompt and experienced. I have
nothing but good to say about the product and recommend it.
We are a small K-12 school with 225 kids. I have been using Alexandria
for about 9 yrs. I am not web based, because of finances. The tech
support is wonderful. The program is easy to use for both the
librarian and for the kids using the Researcher. When I did the
conversion, it was over the summer, I used the program with CD's that
they had, and on a whole the process went smoothly. The key is to have
weeded extensively. Making corrections in the data base is not
difficult. I have never regretted choosing Alex and would never
switch.
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