Higher Logic Reviews

Overall: HL community allows our members to engage each other across the country - and across generations (we've actually had posts from members in their 80s and 90s - so you know the ease of use is there!) HL community also allows us better communications and project organization. (the competing product we use in this is Board BookIt.)

Pros: Ease of use for Open Forum communications is great We have used extensively in our governance and it really organized and standardized our committee work. Ability to integrate with Abila product Abiilty to aid our chapters

Cons: I wish the libraries were easier to use - like Windows Explorer (does that show I'm old and not yet used to Sharepoint?) Wish you could duplicate "events" in the calendar like committee meetings. Wish the libraries were like google docs/share point and could be worked on collaboratively.

Overall: Frustrating and time-consuming. It's already a lot of work to strategize, evangelize, build these programs from scratch, and recruit members; the last stress one needs is the hurdle of getting the platform to work the way it should and getting the resources one needs to fix issues.

Pros: The fact that it is a tool that can help me run an advocacy program.

Cons: There have been lots of bugs that I have caught and have had to escalate to the Higher Logic support team. I just keep finding them and I can't launch my program because of it. Bugs have also negatively impacted my customers' experience in the 2nd program I launched. Also, the support team is not one person who knows my platform, goals, and agenda when I need assistance/have a problem, but it's multiple people who get back to me within long periods of time, often not resolving the root cause, but just the symptom, meaning the problem will probably happen again... I have communicated my dissatisfaction, and more Higher Logic people are thrown at my concerns, which only adds more chefs over the pot, and no one takes direct responsibility to resolve it=takes longer to resolve the issues. I am sure Higher Logic's intentions are good, but when it comes down to it, I can't depend on them to be there, to do things quickly, or even really fix the bugs I am finding; it has taken LOTS of time to get things resolved if we even do. My colleague had the same experience. To add: as a new user, the platform is not very straightforward to use, and I have to look for their materials, which are all over the place, or watch long videos to find the one thing I am looking for. The advocacy platform is very basic in look and feel, unless I hire someone for lots of $$ to help design it up.

Overall: It's been good since going live with our users. The implementation was shaky, but we got through it together with the Higher Logic team. Now that we're live, I can't imagine using our old system, or anything else. It does what we need to keep our customers engaged, connected and knowledgeable.

Pros: We've been live about a year and our staff and customers love the Qualifacts Community powered by Higher Logic. The system is head and shoulders above our previous system. We have created communities by user persona and state. It's our central documentation and resource site. Customers are engaged, and have started doing a lot of self-support.

Cons: The CMS is capable, but quirky. I still get confused trying to arrange content blocks and creating content. The email/automation rule process isn't well designed for sending one-off messages, or even recurring, but unscheduled messages like system status updats.

Overall: My overall experience with higher logic online community has been fantastic and I'm looking forward to the new "face-lift" that is coming for admins of the community.

Pros: I like the ease of being able to use the community as both an admin and user. It is very user-friendly and integrates well with our customer management software.

Cons: Although it integrates well with our CMS, I'll give this product 5 stars once the document features integrate.

Overall: we are engaging members who I think we otherwise would not have engage. so it's mostly all good!

Pros: I like the fact that HL takes care of all the set up/details/ tech and we have a product that we can customize to match our look and feel

Cons: some limitations in the implementation/set up that we worked around.

Overall: Overall, my experience has been good. Our sales rep has been very attentive to our needs and patient while we make our decision.

Pros: This software is so easy to use. It is feature rich and offers multiple modules that suit our association needs. So far, the customer service has been extremely good. Our website partner vetted other online communities for us and felt Higher Logic is the best solution for our membership. As I said, they are feature rich and the reporting is excellent.

Cons: The implantation time is longer than I expected. However, I understand the need to take time to get it implemented to suit our needs and so we don't have to redo the install again.

Overall: It has been a really great experience and the Higher Logic team is awesome!

Pros: I prefer this software because members need something that is convenient and enables them to talk to each other without the hassle. This gives them a place to talk, share documents, have private conversations, etc. As a community manager, I can maintain the back-end without interruption to their natural dialogue.

Cons: I customized the design because I needed it to be "pretty." I think if it were easier to make it a bit more natural to websites within the tool, that would be the only change I would make at the moment.

Overall: I enjoy HUG quite a lot. I think it leads by example and is easy to use.

Pros: The Higher Logic platform allows for members to communicate with each other in a safe place, removing the middle man. My company, prior, had been tasked with being the middle man. Our members would contact us with queries, we would have to make the appropriate questions. HL helps to remove us as an extra step in THAT process, allowing us to focus on other matters.

Cons: There are times when I wish HL had some more plug/play style technology. The ability to drag and drop entries, personalize a homepage, etc. I have been in my current position for only 6 months so a lack of familiarity with the product is part of the issue; but is seems that some of these features arein the works as we speak (per the opening sessions).

Reasons for Choosing Higher Logic: I was not with the company when the decision was made.

Pros: Our organization uses higher logic for many things. The fact that you can manage an online forum and see so many members engage with each other is amazing. We also use higher logic to manage our volunteer application process. It keeps it very organized with all the deadlines and applications and sending out emails approving/declining members. There are so many different functions you can utilize with Higher Logic and there is still so much more for us to learn. Their customer service is great and the ticket process is very simple and you typically hear back within an hour or so from customer service.

Cons: You really have to learn the back end of higher logic to make changes which can be very confusing. That is really my only complaint which I can't even complain about- you just have to adjust and learn how the system works because their are so many options.

Pros: Launching online communities through Higher Logic has been a great decision for our organization. It has allowed our members big and small to engage with their peers. It has been well received.

Cons: Our least favorite thing about Higher Logic is the customer support process. When we signed on it was a very personal experience. It has since become a bit sterile.

Reasons for Choosing Higher Logic: iMIS Communities was not as user friendly.

Overall: I've had an overall great experience with Higher Logic. The on-boarding process was great and very personalized. Recent customer support has been a bit rough, but the product is definitely the best out there.

Pros: I love the integrations with our AMS and LMS. Unlimited flexibility with design.

Cons: The library is a bit outdated, but apparently there are plans to improve it.

Overall: Overall, I learn more daily. i am still trying to get buy-in from my association, but I am fighting for HL because I believe it is capable of so much more.

Pros: I like how easy it is to learn how to use the product. I love how information is easy to find.

Cons: I think training for community managers should be longer. After 2.5 years of being on the platform, I am just learning things I need to know. However, since being CM, there is so much I need to know and I wish i would have gotten all of this information prior to be becoming the CM.

Overall: LOVE HUG!!!! Great members who always help each other out.

Pros: Love the ease for the end user (or members) If the pages/platform are designed correctly by admin/staff they love this connection to their peers.

Cons: admin interface...its clunky and somewhat confusing. The reports are hard to come out with a final combined report

Overall: We needed something to replace our old listservs. We are so far so happy with Higher Logic. The system is so searchable, so our users can find and use the amazing content they have helped to create.

Pros: This software is excellent for accomplishing goals of engaging community members. I appreciate the ability to automate activities and engagements. I also love the report functionality. The New Admin Experience has really enhanced my ability to support our community. It's MUCH easier to find what I need.

Cons: I did find that there was quite a learning curve for the community site and the admin side.

Pros: There are a lot of great features available with the online community depending on what package you have. You are able to use it for forum style discussions as well as share and save documents. Communities can be private or public to all members of an association.

Cons: The library is not totally intuitive and can be a little tricky to rearrange and organize, however this is minor compared to the benefits HL offers.

Overall: We wanted to give more power to our members as well as a way for them to interact on a daily basis. This allows us to do that.

Pros: We just launched our platform and a couple of things we love: 1. The integration aspect and process was awesome and very easy. The APIs worked great. 2. The ability to customize was extremely helpful and useful. We have control of what it is and we don't have to rely on them to do everything.

Cons: Some of the backend functions you have to learn where they are as they may not be where you host them or what you would call them. However, once you learn, it's easy.