November 2019 - Academia ERP

5 Tips for Cloud Implementation in Higher Education Institutes

Posted on November 27, 2019July 16, 2025 by Hemant Mahajan

Shifting to a digital solution from on-premise software or from manual management; can seem a difficult switch at first for any educational institution. Education leaders and IT staff look for the solution that can minimize their workload and not make it complex with difficult to learn technology.

Whatever your reasons are to transform your institute digitally, it is always good to have some tips, information, and details that can guide you to make a well-informed decision.

In this article, you will know about the various aspects an ed-leader should consider before choosing a cloud-based management solution.

Configurability & scalability: Before choosing a cloud solution, it is important to check if it is configurable according to the needs of your institute and is it scalable to manage the increasing number of students in the future.

Cost-benefit analysis: Cost vs benefit analysis is no doubt an important factor before shifting to any new technology. The main objective is to do more with fewer resources and ensure cost-saving.

A good budget analysis is checking if investing in the software profitable in the long run, where and how you will be able to manage cost-saving and by what percentage it can benefit you.

Academia cloud-based solutions increase cost saving by upto 22%.

Communication: Better communication leads to better management.

There are cloud solutions that smoothen communication among stakeholders via multiple ways i.e. SMS/Email notification, messengers, mobile app, etc for better decisions and faster results.

Look for these features and check how it can help your institute on micro and macro levels.

Multi-user Accessibility: Single-user information access can make workflow complicated. If the respective user has access to relevant information, he/she can share it accordingly and it’ll also help him/her to stay updated.

This technology offers a feature by which you can give access to everyone with the privilege to see only limited and relevant information.

Proper Training for staff: Implementing technology without introducing it to your staff will only make it difficult to use and will serve no purpose whatsoever.

Staff and teachers might find it difficult to adjust to the change in IT. It becomes important to educate the staff about the opportunity with training and skill development for a move to the cloud.

Understand the needs of your institute

It is possible that you might end up buying a solution that is not serving a purpose as you skipped checking its feature details. Therefore it is important that you understand the exact need of your institute, and your reason for undergoing a digital transformation in management.

Bottom line

The cloud solution is the future of higher education. Institutes have already started using it for admissions, fees, student record management, course, examinations, etc. But following your peer blindly is not the solution. If you are shifting to a smart solution for your institute, you need to make a smart analysis before investing in it. Do use the above-mentioned 5 tips in your search for cloud-tech.

Academia ERP is a cloud-based solution to manage the complete student life cycle that ensures cost-saving, increases efficiency and enables 360° transformation in higher education. Know more with a free demo now.

Benefits of Academia Institute Management: Module Guide 101

Posted on November 21, 2019July 16, 2025 by Hemant Mahajan

A smart way to accelerate academic operations and introduce efficiency is by shifting to automation. A good education ERP not only offers 360-degree automation but also brings about a digital transformation in the institute ensuring a competitive edge.

With 20+ modules and configurable features, Academia by Serosoft is an award-winning college management system that is helping thousands of educators and students across 10 countries.

These series outline in detail the key modules offered by Academia that effectively automate the administrative processes in an institution.

Campus Setup

This feature particularly manages the setup and information related to the college administration. The module can create as well as simultaneously manage several academic departments. Being customizable, it’s terminologies, underlying features and labels can be changed or modified based on the institute’s needs. In the case of institutions managing several campuses, the campus setup can also efficiently separate set of terminologies for each one of them.

Additionally, the module also configures and maps biometric device details for its various classes, labs and program rooms. One of the most notable features is the provision offered to download documents in bulk for applicants, students as well as the faculty.

It is capable of controlling the entire campus management process on a single platform. Academia also provides mobile applications for students and a responsive faculty portal for teachers to manage their tasks via mobile/tablet.

Pre-admission/Admission Management

As the name suggests, this module primarily creates and manages admission applications for the institution. It lets students apply through the online application form facility on the institute’s website along with managing the application form sale and generating an offer letter.

A major manual task that this module digitizes is converting inquiries into applications and applications into admissions. All of this while storing precise information and records of every student registration. It also comes with a feature to create and manage various enquiry and application reports. Some of them include statistical reports for applications & admissions including target achieved, conversion percentage and YOY increase. Pre-admission and admission management module also generates a detailed report of applicants at each stage of the process with their respective statuses and ranks.

In a nutshell, this module manages all aspects surrounding admissions including campaigns, registrations, online forms, and inquiries. The online application portal helps parents and students with numerous queries related to the processes and relieves the prospective students from multiple inquiry visits to the college.

Program & Course Management

One of the most vital modules for any institution, this one creates and manages the plethora of programs & courses offered by different departments in a college. Managing them includes defining the credits, hours and sections for the programs as well as setting up limits for programs being offered within a semester. It also maps programs & courses with respect to the sessions, i.e. programs offered within a session and with respect to courses, i.e programs offered within a course.

A program & course management module offers features to define student advisors and program coordinators. It also lays out the period name and underlying terms according to the specific duration, reporting cycle and program intake of an academic year.

Its features simplify, centralize and organize the management system. With a single database system and integration of departments, it allows information to flow seamlessly. This lets decision-makers to monitor, control processes and efficiently manage with 24*7 access to data.

Image source: freepik.com

5 reasons for student attrition and how to address it

Posted on November 13, 2019July 16, 2025 by Hemant Mahajan

Whether it’s a college, a schools or a training centre, there are some very common triggers that lead to students dropping out of institutions. Most of these issues can come from a personal space or from the educational system itself. If these issues are not addressed properly by campus management at the right time, they can decrease student retention and greatly affect overall educational efforts of the institution.

Here are some stats related to the issue:

In the USA around 1.2 million students dropout of high school annually, where the graduation rank is 19th globally. In India, out of 100 students only 70 students reach senior secondary. The enrollment rate in India is 23%, in the USA 87%, and 39% in the UK.

The reason for dropout and low student retention in institutions are many, but there are some major issues that should be addressed as soon as possible.

Financial problems

It is one of the primary reasons for student attrition. Not being able to afford the cost of higher education or degree, family’s week financial status, the burden of responsibilities, etc. are the reasons that make students leave college and go for a job.

One grave challenge in this scenario is the student loan. In America student loan is one of the major causes of concern. According to a study by Margertia McNealin, in the US, over 40% of students borrowers are not able to pay their loans and that results in pushing them out of school.

Less quality time with educators

The low student-teacher ratio, especially in higher education is a prevalent problem in India. The current ratio is 24:1, lower than Brazil, China, Canada and Russia.

If students do not get proper guidance & counseling by educators, they may be unable to share and express their problems, leading to disinterest and eventually leaving the school.

For all levels of educational institutes, teacher-student quality time is very important. It helps teachers to understand students, his/her weaknesses and strengths, the reason behind the performance, his/her expectations from the institute, etc. It also helps students understand themselves better.

De-motivating institute environment

Lack of student-engagement activity, carelessness towards student attendance, outdated syllabus, orthodox teaching methods are some of the examples which lead to a demotivating institute environment.

Boredom’ is one reason students leave classes and eventually institutes.

According to a study by GradNation.org that surveyed the top reasons for dropping school, some of them show a significant trend from the classroom environment:

No one cared if I attended.
Teacher and school problems.
School environment

Poor administrative management

Institute management plays an important role in students’ academic journey. Ease of documentation processes, on-time access to information, better connectivity between management and students brings a positive perspective towards the institute.

However, slow document processing, miss-communication between students and staff, loss of data, etc. are still ongoing problems in this sector.

Lack of student support

Student support is an important factor that parents and students often skip checking during admissions, and institutes also do not give much emphasis on.

Higher studies are tough and along with other reasons, poor student support and de-personalized learning are also responsible for high dropout rates.

What are the measures to minimize student attrition from institutions?

If institutes can address and resolve the above-mentioned issues on time, it can impact positively on student retention and decrease drop out rates. For example, institutes can maintain a positive environment for students, schedule appropriate sessions for a student-teacher engagement, introduce proper administrative management, etc.

Online learning is leading to a decentralized education system with 24*7 access to educators & other resources. It is becoming a major trend in the education sector as it offers cheaper yet better access to books i.e. e-books, and cloud solutions to store academic data.

Also, institutes can take the help of technologies for a better institute management system, that can surely improve academic operations, increase teacher involvement, and ensure student success.

Check out technology trends in the education sector and learn how a college management system can benefit an institution.

6 Major Challenges faced by Educational Institutions and how Academia ERP can help

Posted on November 6, 2019July 11, 2025 by Hemant Mahajan

There are thousands of operations that govern the management of your institute on an everyday basis. Needless to say, they all happen at the same time, and at times you would wish you had at least 10 heads to keep a track of everything that is happening around in your institute.

Meanwhile, your metamorphosis is an impossible thing, let’s focus on transforming the way your institute functions. Yes, we are talking about digital transformation.

Digital transformation is highly demanded in the education sector. The education industry around the world is undergoing some major challenges, and there is no other option but to go digital and take on these challenges.

Here are 6 major challenges that are faced by education institutes, and how Academia Education ERP / Student Information Management System can help:

Automate Student Registration & Admission Process

Admission phase is one of the most mismanaged aspects of any education institute that is doing it manually. Let’s be practical, you are asking a bunch of people from your staff to manage thousands of enquiries and applications, and that too in a short time.

The dull and repetitive procedure thus can easily to automated with Academia ERP. The product comes with pre-admission and admission execution features to make enquiry management easy for your institute and handhold every applicant to become a student in your institute. Not only, the product optimizes the process but also provides you with data analytics with predictive qualities to ensure you are choosing the right applicants that would be well fit in your culture and curriculum.

Curriculum Management

It is an every-year activity and can take days. You are well aware of the hassles of designing the right curriculum. And if you have tens of courses and programs running in your institute, you can say goodbye to a whole month of your life.

With Academia ERP, you can manage your curriculum better and allow easy structuring of the course components. For every subject, every chapter, lesson, and resource material you would be surprised how easy your life would become after you implement Academia ERP.

Productive Classroom Management

Lesson planning, student attendance, student engagement, student performance management and analysis, and so many other things. Just percolating knowledge is not the end of your responsibilities.

Having said this, you need a well-designed product that fits well in your academic structure to perform all these tasks. You need to free up your teachers to focus on the primary goal of providing quality education and focus on their performance improvement and leave the other ad-hoc tasks to the software. Guess what is the solution for this – Academia ERP.

Better parent-teacher association

If you wait for months to interact with the parents of your students you need an ERP solution right away. The world is moving towards omnichannel communication and people expect to stay in touch with these digital communication tools on the go.

Also, parents are demanding a larger share in their ward’s academic life. You need a solution such as Academia ERP to keep in touch with the parents of the students and provide them detailed reports on a regular basis about their ward’s participation in academic and non-academic activities.

Hassle-free finance management

Keeping track of fee payments, sending payment reminders to students and parents, payment collection, updating records, managing & sharing the receipts with the payer, and resending frequent reminders to the students that have not paid are some of the most tiresome duties for your administrative staff. Also, consolidating data to prepare financial reports and tax operations may become a hassle.

For streamlining all the finance-related activities you get a fee and finance module in the Academia ERP software that automates the task and tracks each transaction to keep a record for digital management of receipts – eliminating mismanagement completely. Also, the software sends system-generated reminders through various modes of communication. The system has in-built financial reports that allow you to consolidate data easily and generate reports faster for compliance activities.

Resource Management

Resource management is the primary goal of any ERP solution. For an admin to keep track of all the resources such as inventory, hostel, mess, library, and more it becomes time-consuming. Also, the process is prone to delays and errors. To eliminate even the slightest tracking mistakes you can opt for Academia ERP. It is one of the best tools that come with a full-fledged resource management toolkit and allows easy tracking of various types of resources.

Wrapping Up

Aside from dealing with the major challenges mentioned in the blog, the Academia ERP software assists you in the better management of your institute. It has multi-center capabilities and is a perfect enterprise-level solution for the chain of institutes as well. The product is built to streamline some of the most complex operations in an institute like — admissions, examinations, attendance management, student data management, student lifecycle management, student performance management, and more. To learn more about these features, request a live demo today.

How can Power BI Dashboard help Higher Education?

Posted on November 1, 2019July 16, 2025 by Hemant Mahajan

Almost all organizations generate a significant amount of data on a daily basis. To keep the record and create an effective mechanism for analysis is difficult if done manually. Power BI or Business Intelligence (BI) is a tool and a smart method that companies apply for representing data in a readable format. This approach simplifies analysis and improves the efficiency of the organization.

Educational institutions generally use the Power BI tool in a Student Information System. The tool is integrated into the system that is represented with a separate module for data analysis.

Here is how Power BI dashboards help in higher education:

Data-driven Decisions

With the higher education dashboard, the administrator can easily track state-wise admission and fees collection, class-wise student strength, examination results, attendance, etc. This helps them in strategic planning to get better output from different departments thereby helps them to make more informed and data-driven decisions.

Simplified Understanding of Data with Data-Drilling feature

This is a feature that helps educators locate very specific data. Suppose you need to find the data of fees paid by a student or the frequency of fee submission, without scrolling through the entire data of fee reports, you can easily get the targeted information with the drill-down functionality.

It allows complete information of a particular student which can include academic progress, invoices, medical history, and other information. In addition to the dashboard features such as filtering and sorting, it enables organizing data for better understanding.

Simplified Analytics for Administration staff

With the help of Power BI dashboard admin staff/ teachers do not have to spend time on the intricacies of data analysis. It transforms complex data from the departments into a simplified visual format so that anyone can comprehend it and make a judgment accordingly. Student performance, their results, marks, attendance, working days of college, fee records, etc. are easily understandable with the help of this tool.

Conclusion

Features of Power BI dashboards are indispensable tools not only for larger higher educational institutions such as universities or groups of institutes but also helpful for smaller colleges and education academies.

BI dashboard can provide significant benefits to any institution that analyzes considerable amounts of data daily. Here are its key features:

Improves administrative management
Reduces paperwork thereby saving costs
Decreases turnaround time leading to faster management
Improves analytics that helps in better student recruitment
Enables a better understanding of student behavior and academic progress

A well-designed system can give you a quick overview containing the major indicators. You can also use the drill down or search feature to get more detailed and specific information related to a particular student/class/course/year etc. According to the needs of a specific user, there can be dashboards providing different types of data.

Know how Academia SIS dashboard reporting can help your institute take data-driven decisions. Get a free demo now!