SunGard Higher Education Reviews

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – You get to make actual contributions to higher education.
You get your hands on bleeding edge technology.

Cons – Lots of high quality long time employees can make advancement difficult.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – They are a high tech company and there are a lot of good folks working for them

Cons – Not an employee friendly company (if you aren't at the top)

Advice to Senior Management – Get to know the people that you send into the field and REALLY get to know your clients. Stop writing contracts that don't really meet the needs of your clients.
And the movie that employees have to watch about ethics... too bad it isn't really practiced toward the employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than a year

Pros – nice telecommuting option. free snacks once a month. friendly co-workers.

Cons – Sales team that consistently under sell services and then expects consultant to complete work as unbillable. unrealistic time lines. not fore-though into travel planning ( I once went from Boston to Sacramento to Virginia to Portland Ore, back to Virginia and back to Boston in a 10 day period because the services manager could be bothered to work out the engagement schedule). Benefits and salary are below average. The bonus structure is set up to be impossible to reach the top tiers without killing yourself. For example, if you take time away from billable work to attend training, you'll miss your utilization number and therefore, your bonus is impacted.
Communication from senior management doesn't exist.

Advice to Senior Management – learn to balance your commitment to shareholders with the need to treat your employees better than 3rd work country factory workers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Positive people and a good work environment.

Local managers and team. Corporate rarely interfered with local decisions.

Managers were mostly hands off and relied on employees to do their work.

Cons – This company doesn't exist anymore after the merger of Datatel+SGHE.

During the merger the Bain Corporation stripped out all the competent senior management and replaced them.

Advice to Senior Management – None because they were all fired in the merger.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great people; decent pay and benefits

Cons – Changing priorities; too much work for too few employees

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Benefits package is on par with competitors. The hierarchy scale is built on a concept of collaboration; whether it is executed or not depends on your management.

Cons – Just poor overall communication throughout the business lines. Little to no collab on ideas, fore-thinking, plans, movement, etc. Absolutely no culture to speak of. Just a very bland company overall and the product lines reflect that.

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Opportunity to work with end users

Cons – Not enough, nor consistent communications from management

Advice to Senior Management – Consistent communication up and down the line

Current Employee – been working at SunGard Higher Education

Pros – Good company to work,
Office location is in the center of the city

Cons – No bad things about the company

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Higher Education industry at the C level

Cons – Too varied a product/services strategy.

Advice to Senior Management – None

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SunGard Higher Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Work to support higher education in positive ways.

Cons – Some, not all, of the people I worked with at the central help desk could be immature, emotionally taxing. A few bad apples always have the potential of wrecking an otherwise nice working environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't tolerate inappropriate angry language on the floor. Walk the floor regularly and pull out those who bring their personal problems in to work with them and then get overwhelmed as a result.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend