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Month: November 2022

What must be checked when evaluating Education ERP Software?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

There are literally thousands of education technology providers and selecting the one that is right for you is more difficult than searching for a needle in a haystack.

You have to evaluate each software as per its capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and applicability. And you cannot just ignore the power the price factor holds over your decision. It is a daunting task that can take up to months. It requires rigorous comparison and one mistake can take hours of research down to ashes.

To help you in your course, we bring you a time-tested methodology that outlines 5 basic rules of ERP evaluation and how to reach the right solution.

Before we get started – assemble the A-team

Once you have come to the decision that the legacy ERP system you are using needs to go, you must start assembling a project team that is going to drive the search, research, comparison, selection, and implementation process of the new ERP solution.

Now, let’s get started.

  • Define your priorities and set the ERP requirement definition 

You just don’t start your search for the perfect solution unless you know what you are looking for. It is the most important step in the process, as the right thing any vendor is going to ask you is, “what can they do for you”.

So, let’s start by charting out the specifics that you are looking for in a product. It can be anything. Like having a system for attendance, admissions, examinations, fees and finance, resource management, data analytics, and so on. Create a list of things that are absolutely necessary for an education ERP solution you are looking for.

Also, go ahead and describe your business. It is very important to provide specifics to the vendor regarding the number of employees you have, the number of students, programs and courses, the grading process, fee process, payroll management process, etc. This would make it easy for them to configure the product as per your needs, or whether they provide solutions to manage an educational institute of your size.

You see, the better you prep this list, the more are your chances to eliminate the irrelevant vendors in the first phase of your search, and hence, no unnecessary surprises later in your deal with the vendor.

Once you have it, send it to the potential vendors and look to find people that are genuine and positive about providing solutions to your specific needs.

  • ERP Request for Proposal

Now, you have a bunch of vendors that are wanting to partner with you. You need to speculate on each vendor with utmost scrutiny because— you are spending a lot of time and money on this.

So, remember, you need to perform a detailed review for each one of the responding vendors. The right vendor to talk to is the one that delivers the necessary functionality and feature to meet your requirements defined in the document you shared with them.

Their proposal should include, the necessary details about the product. Information about their company, experience in the sector, and resources that are committing to be part of the product implementation process from their company. Also, check out their success stories. There should be some case studies and testimonials from their happy clients.

  • Make the first cut

Once you are satisfied with the primary search, make the first cut and be super selective of the ERP vendors that you would like to have a product demo. Schedule a demo with each vendor you feel fits the bill. It is necessary that you keep a significant gap of a few days between each demo to have time to outline your experience in detail during each demo.

Once you are done with all the demos, start by ranking each vendor. You must rank them based on their strengths, add-on services, weaknesses, product experience, customer support, and other factors that you find absolutely necessary in the product.

Treat every vendor equally, remember that the proposal is only a glimpse of what you are going to have to pay for — a ballpark figure, look for outliers. And voila! You have your finalists.

  • Comparison and Detailed Evaluation

Once you have identified three to five finalists, it is time you get to work. This is the most important and defining part of the process. Verify each of their claims and validate their references.

Get in touch with the potential vendors and ask them to refine their proposals. Talk to your existing users and know what their experience with the product is. Also, since the first demo would be rushed up, create a list of features you would like to have a detailed demonstration for.

During the demo, closely inspect how the software is set up and tailored to meet your unique processes and procedures. In case there is any pitfall in that, ask the vendor if that part is configurable as per your organization.

Discover, if the product is automating most tasks. It is very important for the ERP solution to reduce manual processing and automate operations to reduce the human resource efforts and cost of the operations.

Ask questions, about hosting, and product security. Check their data security compliances and their measures to ensure the data of your organization is going to be safe.

Encourage your team to ask questions. Have people from the technical side, the IT department become part of the demonstration to understand the technicalities of the software. If you have any questions regarding the software, now is the time because you are going to be in the end negotiation.

  • Selection and Contract

When you have completed a detailed evaluation you are most likely to be stuck with two or three vendors in the end that have met your criteria. Start with the one that you believe is the best among the group and tell them they are one of the choices but not the first.

Now, this may be a trick but it never goes wrong. Telling people that they are very close to getting the deal but there are also others would give you an edge over the negotiation. That does not mean you can get them to anything, but it would open a wider door during the negotiation. Always aim for a fair deal that benefits both parties.

Document and discuss system implementation, license, configuration, confidentiality, data sharing & security protocols, ongoing support, customer support, cost, implementation process & time, training, data conversion & integration, networking & security customization, and other important things in the document.

Once you are satisfied, announce that you have selected the vendor, make the initial payment and monitor the implementation process like a hawk.

This process would likely help you end up with the right vendor. The key here is to evaluate the vendor with utmost scrutiny and stick to the specifics you need most direly in the product. The more clear you would keep your communication with the vendor, the most likely it is that you would have only the genuine vendors to deal with at the end of the process. Also, price negotiations are tricky, always ask the vendor if there are any hidden costs. Document your interactions with the vendor, just to have a reference. Most importantly, go back to where this blog started— assemble the A-team. The more technically sound the team would be more likely they are to see any loopholes in the product.

Crisis in Philippines Education: Technology can be a solution

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The August 2022 data from a World Bank report had some alarming statistics on the education crisis in the Philippines. 91% of children in the Philippines struggle with reading simple text at the age of 10. In fact, the Philippines scored highest on the Learning Poverty index in the list of countries in Asia. 

Learning Poverty means the inability to read and understand short texts by the age of 10. No matter how minuscule this situation sounds, the situation of the education system in the Philippines is grave. The report also indicated a 90% learning deprivation rate. And more than 5% of children in the Philippines are deprived of school. 

Education Crisis in the Philippines

Covid-19 has put many countries on the verge of economic collapse. Even the current economic climate, given the situation in Ukraine and Russia and its impact on the export and import of Asia and Europe, cannot be ignored when we talk about the crisis in the education sector of every country. 

In a separate report by Inquirer.net, the World Bank identified two reasons for the high learning poverty rate. First, the share of out-of-school children is higher for boys which is 5.1% than for girls i.e., 4.8%. Meaning, boys are more likely to be deprived of school education than girls. Second, boys are more likely to achieve minimum proficiency at the end of primary school (91.7%) than girls (89.2%) in the Philippines. 

Even before Covid-19, the state of the education sector in the Philippines was not that good. The country’s financial status is one of the top factors and still adds up to the growing education issues in the Philippines. Furthermore, after covid-19, more children, youth, and adults are seen deprived of learning. 

Moving forward, we can see these issues becoming more prominent and worse over time with long-term effects if we don’t start acting now. As much as we delve deep into the current state, it becomes quite clear the battle is going to be prolonged, and it would require some big social and economic changes. 

Education System in the Philippines

Undoubtedly, Covid-19 has increased the crisis and worsened the current state of the country. The sudden event has brought along with it some of the biggest challenges, such as health crises, and distance learning through the internet, TV, and more. Blended programs were launched in October 2022, and involved lessons through TV broadcasts and social media platforms. There were some schools that had the infrastructure to support systematic online learning. But, these new learning pathways rely on the availability of resources to teachers and students, which unfortunately is not there in the Philippines. 

Although the government of the Philippines took some drastic steps to ensure education does not stop, they failed miserably because people lacked tools such as computers, mobile phones, internet access, and others to continue education through blended learning. In a survey, the top 5 concerns with digital learning among Filipinos were: 

  • No availability of digital tools 
  • No internet access
  • Poor internet connectivity
  • Lack of student engagement and focus in online learning 
  • Lack of education in parents to support children in their education

As per the DepEd, close to 4 million students were not able to enroll in school after covid. And the problem is – the number is not coming down. In fact, the issues are elevating and the situation is worsening making it difficult for the government to take any drastic measures to alter it. 

Vision for quality education

Any country that is undergoing a major crisis would take many steps toward turning the situation around. Before people think, the Government of the Philippines is not doing anything enough, I would like to draw your attention to their efforts. The country is addressing these concerns in one of the key Programs that is set to come out. The country has seen children and people growing away from education. To counter that, they have made free compulsory education from TESDA that focuses on skill building, both vocational and technical. 

Various government aid and grants are being provided to students, as the government wants people to take the charge of their education. They want people to understand the value of education and how it is not just a basic life skill but a human right that assures the quality of life of a person largely. 

How can education technologies help in crisis management?

Drawing out from the above discussion, it is easy to identify the causes of the education crisis in the Philippines. Naming a few, it is clear that the education system in the Philippines needs drastic changes and requires to make social and economic efforts to stabilize. 

Some other reasons such as lack of resources, lack of funding, mismanagement of funding, no data-backed decision-making, and no tools to analyze student performance on the go are some other challenges. 

In countless studies, it was established that technology could have a positive impact on the education and the people of the Philippines. In many, reports it was found that education organizations that were technologically equipped did not get much affected by the worsening situation and other factors. It showed that students using digital tools in learning were able to grasp the curriculum much faster and had a better performance than students that had no access to digital tools and went through the traditional way of learning. 

  • Equipping students for their future careers

Using digital tools gives students time to become familiar with technology which opens a wider door for opportunities. As technology has become a backbone for all industries, students choosing career opportunities in any segment would be benefited through their advanced familiarity with tools such as the internet, mobile devices, computers, apps, websites, web portals, etc. No matter what sector they choose, today students need some basic computer skills to do well in their careers. 

The country must not only prepare for the present challenges but should keep a futuristic approach in its countermeasures. Or else, these gaps would again expand and put the country in a crisis. The faster these gaps are filled and the more the country aims to bestow skills that give students international opportunities and stable career paths the better. 

  • Personalization of learning and teaching approaches

Meanwhile, personalized learning is not something new in the west, countries in Asia still struggle to have the basic infrastructure to support personalized learning and diverse teaching approaches. Every student has his or her learning style and the curriculum for any course must cater to the tools to support students rather than expecting them to fit in. 

With technology, teachers can work on customizing learning for students. Also, it enables teachers to compare student performance in a quantified manner given tools such as student management systems have pre-built reports to track student performance, progress, and participation in classroom activities. 

  • Drives down the cost of education operations

True enough the technology tools are expensive, but what most education organizations fail to realize is that the initial cost is only a one-time investment and the benefits that you reap from the tools are long-term.

Using technology allows education organizations to reduce operational costs through automation and provides predictive analytics to boost market understanding and decision-making. Furthermore, paperless operations alone can save tons of money for all educational organizations. 

Advanced education technology solutions such as Education ERP have inbuilt tools to manage all the internal and external operations in an education organization. 

  • Boosts teamwork, communication, and productivity

Not only do education technologies can help in improving the decision-making for the education authorities, but they also provide functionalities and features for all the stakeholders to perform their tasks on software. These are advanced solutions that allow automation in operations and increases accountability in people to boost productivity. Also, since things become so transparent and fast, people take decisions faster which makes the operations more seamless. 

The way forward

The education crisis in the Philippines is demanding some serious measures. Technology can be a solution wherein it provides a robust infrastructure and aims at improving the accessibility of knowledge irrespective of the social and economic divide. Furthermore, education has become a luxury to students because education is becoming costly. It is very important to work on reducing the cost of education and this can only be done through educational technologies. 

Education ERP for Higher Education Institutes: Saudi Arabia Edition

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software is an industry term for an app suite, a multi-module software that is designed to serve and support multiple business functions. An ERP solution can mean many different things based on its application in various industries. And hence, it becomes very important to map your expectations from the software with its core functionalities, and features. Today, we will discuss what ERP means for a higher education institute. 

The history of ERP solutions in Saudi Arabia 

ERP solutions are very dynamic. Not just in the features and functionality, but it has a very interesting story of its inception. It is an app suite, which constantly evolved with the changing needs of the world. It is one of the oldest solutions which is still blooming and metamorphosing as the world demands. 

It all started in the 1960s, the economy was great, and most industry sectors were expanding. This is when the manufacturing industry realized they are lacking a solution that provides inventory control. This gave birth to Material Requirement Planning-I, the first-of-its-kind software and a forefather of enterprise resource planning. With time, the software evolved and by the 1990s, it was extending its services to the areas such as Finance, Human Resources, Project Management, Engineering, and more. 

The solution was efficient in addressing the needs of various industries and streamlining their operations to offer cost-effective solutions. Although it was a risky implementation, industries continued to rely on this amazing solution. 

Looking at the product’s success in the west, many industries in Saudi Arabia too implemented the technology to achieve global expansion. The technology even disrupted the education sector and by 2007, the Saudi Arabian government started implementing ERP solutions in public and private education organizations. 

ERP in higher education 

ERP in higher education institutes is widely used by corporations. It has played a significant role in implementing a digital ecosystem that gives better scope for monitoring and administrating the institutes. It allows tracking of various operations such as human resource management, resource planning and implementation, student information management, and financial management. 

Despite the challenges of implementing ERP systems, organizations in the corporate sector have highly benefitted from the financial competitiveness they get on implementing the solution. Although, it is only a recent phenomenon to see ERP making its way to the nonprofit sector as well. The trend picked up when higher education institutes realized the benefits of using an ERP system — it made management, financial and administrative tasks very easy. 

Implementing an ERP solution in a higher education institute becomes rather difficult than its implementation in a corporate because of the unique organizational model and core processes. A higher education system supports academic growth and has a set of activities that did not initially lie in the core capabilities of an ERP solution. It is more about scheduling the learning process and advising students on their performance and engagement. Furthermore, admissions, examinations, and resource planning & implementation are very unique aspects in and of an education institute. 

Even though the implications of using an ERP system in a higher education institute and in any other organization have shown a positive effect, it is still important to address the unique aspects of an educational system to not make any mistakes in the implementation process. Also, it helps us understand how beneficial are ERP software over legacy systems and what value they bring in. 

Modules for ERP in Higher Education

Quoting from Kassel 2009 Report: 

“As scientific and teaching enterprises become ‘big business and universities’ throughout the world struggle to revamp or reorganize their identity within an era focused on “commercializing higher education” 

“Software vendors are increasingly viewing the education market as a lucrative “industry” potentially worth several hundred billion dollars in revenue .” 

Education ERP is a very popular technology that is here to revolutionize the internal and external operations of an education organization. It transforms the way an institute — manages, administers, and monitors. However, it is important to note that education systems around the world differ, and meanwhile, most education technologies are a good fit for institutes in Europe, and America, but they fail to successfully implement their product in the Arab world. 

It is very important that an education institute partners with a vendor that has an in-depth understanding of the higher education system. A vendor that has a very futuristic vision about the software and meets your expectations in the short and long term. It is also important that they provide constant updates to the software and roll out features that are more efficient and effective in the working of an education institute. 

In short, it is important that educational institutes are partnering with vendors that do not believe the implementation of the software in the organization was their end goal. Rather they should be innovating constantly and gaining a grip over the market with forwardism. The product should show functional efficiencies that define the processes and operations of an education organization better. 

  • Functional Requirements of a higher education institute in Saudi Arabia from ERP
S.No.  Functionality S.No.  Functionality
1.  Communication – internal & external 15.  Timetable Management
2. Staff profiling 16.  Course Resource Management
3. Student Information Management 17.  Assignment Management
4. Hostel Management 18.  Assessment 
5. Alumni Management 19.  Ad-hoc Reporting
6. Feedback System 20.  Admission Management
7. Transportation Management 21.  Payroll Management 
8. Curriculum & Lesson Planning 22.  Reports & Analytics
9. Staff & Student Attendance Management 23.  Human Resource Management
10. Performance Analysis 24.  Placement Management
11. Academic Calendar Management 25.  Asset Management
12. Examination Management 26.  Online Examinations
13. Library Management 27.  Online Education & Blended Learning
14. Fee Management 28.  Accounting

 

  1. Additional Requirements of a higher education institute in Saudi Arabia from an ERP 

 

S.No. Add. Functionality S.No. Add. Functionality
1. Integrations 5.  Customer Support
2. Interoperability 6.  Statutory Compliance
3. Configurability  7.  Cloud-based infrastructure
4. Data Security & Management 8. Scalability

Importance of Implementation Strategy

Implementation of the product is key to success. If you fail to follow the project management principles, even a great product may not be meeting your expectations. You need to understand, having a robust and feature-rich product is only a part of the dream, to make it come alive you need an implementation process that provides you more control over the product. Hence strategic software implementation is important. 

  1. Planning 
  2. Business requirements & software configuration
  3. Testing & Refinement
  4. Training & Deployment
  5. Maintenance and Enhancements

Wrapping It 

We are not denying the fact that there are a thousand education ERP solutions available on the market and each is unique in its own sense. But, it is not a competition of what is the best education ERP solution. You must stick to the goal, and define your own priorities while hunting for the right education ERP solution. 

Education organizations in Saudi Arabia have a very unique education system and they need specific academic functionalities to meet their goal. Also, it is not merely about acquiring an ERP application. It is important that the app provides you with tailored solutions to address your needs. 

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Kuwait Higher Education System and role of College Management Software

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Principles and general objective of education in Kuwait

Education is a right for all citizens in the State of Kuwait. The overall goal is to prepare individuals to be participants in society and are active and thoughtful in both private and public life. 

The state defines the role of education institutions in developing the above-mentioned qualities and training individuals that serve as a big pool of skilled human resources. 

Education is viewed as a primary tool to build a high-performing society at institutional, cultural, economical, and social levels. Hence, it is very important for education institutes to 

  • Strike a balance to preserve the cultural identity and prepare the citizens to meet the changing needs of the country at regional and international levels
  • Provide basic skills
  • Prepare citizens to stay abreast with international technological advancement
  • Prepare students to have a strong moral and intellectual fabric to face the general challenges life throws at them. 
  • Prepare youth to become active members of society

Apart from these long-term and short-term goals, there are some current priorities and concerns of the nation that are to be addressed urgently. 

Current Educational Priorities and Concerns

The world around Kuwait is making technological and scientific advancements in leaps and bounds. The ministry of education in Kuwait is aware of this fact and is constantly defining and redefining the role of education in Kuwaiti society. And hence, they have outlined a few priorities that have to be addressed on an urgent basis:

  • Developing a new curriculum
  • Developing new teaching methods
  • New literacy programs 
  • Special programs for gifted students 
  • Special programs for students with special needs
  • Student performance analysis and management
  • Target for higher student outcome 
  • Adding sciences and information technology to the curriculum
  • Developing school libraries

Orientation

To guide the direction of education Ministry of Education has formulated a few changes at all levels of education. Rather than discussing them all, we would only be focusing on higher education. Ministry of Education objectifies higher education or post-secondary education to prioritize:

  • Specialized human resource training and development 
  • Respect society’s values and traditions
  • Have leadership qualities to guide society
  • Follow and contribute to the scientific progress for economic, social, and cultural development
  • Serve society
  • Achieve development while safeguarding society’s values and ethics
  • Strengthening Arab / Islamic cultural heritage
  • Contributing to Arab civilization with scientific research and development 
  • Development in arts and culture 
  • Infusing international standards in the areas of science and technology, and arts

Primary Concerns

One of the biggest challenges faced by the education system in Kuwait is the shortage of teachers. Also, the participation and inclination of males in society is very less towards the teaching profession. This elevates the concern as according to research, female teachers have a very high early retirement rate, wherein they are likely to exit the profession between the ages of 30-40. 

Males are highly reluctant towards joining the teaching profession. This becomes a challenge in front of the Ministry of Education as they have to address the challenges pertaining to teaching skill development, increased programs, and the addition of new curricula for science, arts, and information technology. The country has launched a variety of programs to motivate Kuwaiti youth to join the profession, professional training, and elevate the status of teachers in the country. 

Higher Education

As scientific and technological advancements are a huge part of the plan, there are committees set up to administer and assess the efforts of higher education institutes. 

The Committee for Scientific Affairs has been set up and affiliated with the Bureau of the Kuwait University Director of Scientific Affairs. Its role is to review and update the curricula of the fields of specialization to stay abreast with the latest developments in educational resources in international universities. Kuwait University also does periodical evaluations of science programs. For this purpose, Academic Excellence Scheme has been launched in view to strengthen the education system to meet international standards in the field of science. 

Academic Excellence Scheme assesses:

  • The academic level of students during their study at the university
  • The performance of teaching staff 
  • Research and community services 
  • Scientific facilities and equipment
  • Administrative and technical support 
  • Efficacy of the administrative system 

Emergence of the College Management System

With increasing focus and efforts towards improving the education system of the State of Kuwait, it is well established that the committee and authorities in Kuwait are gripping the education institutes to improve the quality of education and increase student outcomes. 

They have strict and high standards, which are very important to meet for the institutions to survive and stay profitable. Given that, the implementation of college management system in higher education institutes have shown some great results. 

The software helps in resource planning and management and provides automation of tasks. It is very useful in monitoring and managing student lifecycle, along with student performance analysis and management. It also comes with advanced tools for administration and streamlining of internal and external operations. 

With better data management, higher education institutes can use the in-built reporting system in the college management system to generate accurate reports and produce them for the regulatory authorities for accreditation and compliance. 

Key features of a college management system help in:

  • Automation of the processes for higher employee efficiency and productivity.
  • Performance analysis of teachers based on student outcomes, feedback, student success, and other factors. 
  • Attendance management of students and teachers both
  • Human resource management 
  • Fixed asset management 
  • Resource planning, implementation, and management 
  • Digital operations: Admission management, examination management, attendance management, financial management, accounts management, fee management, resource management 
  • Financial reporting and tax operations 
  • Accurate reports for accreditation
  • Higher revenue generation and faster ROI
  • Increased admission rate, and more. 

In essence, 

The government of Kuwait is making some major changes in the education system to meet their priorities and prepare the youth for future opportunities. Numerous schemes and regulatory authorities have mushroomed to assess and evaluate the performance of higher education institutes and see if they are meeting the long-term and short-term goals set by the Ministry of Education. 

In this scenario, College Management Software can help the higher education institutes in Kuwait to meet standards set by the government and stay profitable. It is a feature-rich tool that optimizes the experience of all the stakeholders in the system while streamlining operations, providing tools for administration and monitoring to ensure higher student outcomes and success. 

If you are searching for a College Management System that does this all for you, you have come to the right place. Academia CMS is a dynamic tool, that offers you 30+ modules to digitalize your operations and provide you with the above-mentioned to fulfill the high standards set by the Government of Kuwait.

The Benefits of Edtech Partnership – Education Technology (UK Edition)

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education institutes in the UK continue to adapt to education technologies in defense of the extraordinary challenges that come their way. Apart from some initial hiccups, it is remarkable how the sector has dealt with the return to classrooms to campuses in the tumultuous economic environment. 

As we move towards the end of the year, it is only relevant to inspect some of the themes that have governed the education sector all throughout the year. Along with this, if these themes are here to stay, and get a permanent place in the education landscape of the United Kingdom. 

Learning Management System

The first thing that crosses anybody’s mind while talking about education and technology is the learning management system, a.k.a, LMS. It is only fair to talk about it, especially when the world is making efforts to return to the pre-pandemic order. So, would there be any more online classes? Would there be remote learning? Well, the likely answer is the hybrid approach. Institutes in the UK have shown a keen interest in blending learning and are likely to continue with the same approach. 

Need to invest in the right technology

As the wheels of change churn, education institutes have a growing interest in other modern technologies. What seems clear is the need to invest in Education ERP solutions, cloud infrastructure, mobile applications, data security measures, and other things. 

Strategy and tools to cover up for the losses during Covid 

It is no news, COVID-19 has made the education sector highly vulnerable. Even before COVID-19, there were some big educational gaps. In COVID-19, they have widened. Students and parents are expecting education institutes to fill them as fast as they can. 

Funding 

Another challenge is to close the skill gap. It is important to ensure the country has a workforce with the right skills to contribute to the changing government’s stated goals post-Brexit. With reduced access to labor from the EU, there is no other option but to create a high-skill, high-wage economy, and thus, it has a huge budget planned for the education sector. 

The schools are lined up to get an extra £4.7 billion by 2024-25, and nearly £2 billion of new funding to help institutes recover from the effects of the pandemic. Higher education institutes too are going to be emerging from the pandemic with more cash than ever before. 

In essence

Schools and higher education institutes are ready to make their investment into education technologies and meet their modern challenges. However, they are still one step short of making that leap. 

With cash reserves planned to make the necessary investments in technology to meet the needs of the time, they also need the right vendor. 

This is where you and we come into play. We bring a globally recognized education ERP solution and are here to offer you a channel partner program to get an early-mover advantage in the market. 

With an intent to deep penetrate the UK market with our award-winning product, we are seeking professionals that have a knack for sales and project management. We are looking to partner with individuals and companies. We have 3 models in our partner program. Each one is targeted toward generating high revenue. 

Given the need of the hour, institutes in the UK can be highly benefitted from our product. If you are willing to partner with us and use this opportunity as your leverage, contact us here. 

Take your Student Retention Game to Next Level With Education ERP: US Edition

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Student retention may not be a primary focus for many colleges, but it would shock you that 1 in 4 students in the USA is dropping out to study somewhere else or nowhere. This is a statistic from a report published by National Student Clearinghouse earlier in August this year. Approximately, the retention rate in the public-funded higher education institute is only 76.3%. 

Having said that, student retention should be a primary focus of colleges right now. Trends are being reported on a regular basis indicating the number of students dropping out of higher education institutes is going to dip lower. 

Now that an applicant has come and enrolled in one or many of your programs and courses it is time to pull up your socks and gear up for the battle of student retention with full force. To help you in your course, here is a comprehensive blog on education ERP / Student Information System (SIS) and how it can help in a significant increase in student retention. 

  • Improving communication between students, faculty, and administrative authorities

If you have assigned an advisor to your students you must ensure the communication between the student, advisor, administrative authorities and faculty is clear and seamless. Just knowing the challenges that are stopping the student to continue their education can help you evade them much faster and put resources and services to offer support throughout the student lifecycle. 

Using an education ERP / SIS solution can thus serve as a key tool to manage the feedback of the students and track the process to resolve these issues. Also, administrative and non-administrative tasks can be speeded up through education ERP / SIS for improved student experience and communication. 

  • Guide the course selection process

Proper counseling can be provided to the students by effectively managing applicant enquiries and queries. Not only is an education ERP / SIS a great tool for automating enquiry management and streamlining the admission process but with a little effort from your end, you can ensure each applicant is given the due attention and is counseled well to boost their decisioning in the course selection process. 

  • Engage students the way they want

Personalized learning is no longer a fancy word in the education industry. Many institutes are doing it and are reaping various benefits. The education industry no longer runs on the notion of ‘swim or sink’. 

Technology can be used to learn more about students’ interests, and their mode of learning, checking their performance and engagement throughout the class and ensuring they are being engaged in the way they want to learn. Using education ERP / SIS you get a powerful student performance management system where you can generate accurate reports on their engagement, performance, and participation and plan lesson plans accordingly. 

  • Supporting each step of the student journey

At every stage of the student lifecycle, a student faces different challenges. As an administrator at your institute, it is very important for you to analyze these challenges and develop strong strategies to improve the student experience. 

First of all, the employees at your institute should be very focused on the primary goals of your college. Using a traditional management approach, and redundant software requires too much manual intervention and hence have lowered productivity and efficiency. 

Using Student Management Software with a centralized database would boost the understanding of your employees across all departments. Further, the automation brought along education ERP / SIS would free them up to act on powerful strategies and achieve the shared common goal.

  • Build a placement network and manage it properly

One of the primary reasons for students to drop out of college is their financial problems or their sheer need to work. With an efficient placement network, you can manage paid and unpaid internships, jobs, and other earning opportunities for students better. 

This way, students would get relevant information to participate not only by just learning but using their hands-on experience. Finding a job opportunity would not become an added activity for them but would become highly convenient.

A good education ERP / SIS solution thus comes with a robust placement management center with all these qualities and makes things and information more readily available for the students to be benefitted. 

  • Don’t just collect data use it

The use of digital tools and software make it easier for businesses to capture data at several touch points. This makes strategizing easy. The use of education ERP / SIS and student mobile applications allows you to not just improve student experience but get real-time data about any declines in student count in any of the programs and courses. 

Also, the robust reporting system, allows you to consolidate data across various departments and identify the factors that are causing your students to drop out. Acting upon these factors would help you in improving your student retention by several folds. Also, predictive analytics and help you in forecasting student retention percentages. Any positive or negative change in the metric thus becomes easier to track and faster to act upon. 

Way Forward

In hopes that you find this blog informative and useful, you can consider taking a demo of our education ERP / Student Information System – Academia Education ERP which has all these qualities to increase your student retention. For more interesting information about education technologies, stay tuned. 

Get a higher return on investment by using school management software

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Return on investment is a very popular performance metric used for evaluating the efficiency or profitability of an investment. You can use ROI to compare a number of different investments and decide what to choose. 

There are a variety of ways to calculate ROI, but the most common one is to find the ratio of benefits you get with the investment to the cost of investment. Using ROI you can calculate if a product is going to make any difference in your business and whether it is worth it. 

Now that you have an understanding of ROI, it is time to calculate it. Here are some important factors that you must consider while calculating the ROI by using school management software. Although it is quite established that digitalization brings in a significant amount of change in your work, it is important to find out if it is worth it and if it is justifying the investment. These new technologies are transformative, and you can use a similar approach to calculate the cost of a college management system, a training management system, etc. 

  • Simplifies Manual Tasks 

One of the biggest challenges for teachers and administrators is to manage time and their tasks efficiently. It is a challenge because some of the repetitive tasks are time-consuming, tedious, and regular. For example, take attendance – it is an activity that eats up to 10 minutes of the crucial learning time of the students. Similarly, there are other tasks. 

You can use a school management system for bringing more speed into the operations and automate some of the repetitive tasks. This allows you to free up the productive time of your employees and they can focus on more important functions and operations. Thus, school management software allows you to simplify all your tasks. 

  • Reduces Manual Work

Manually managing tasks such as keeping records, data entry, data updating, etc. can be very time-consuming, as well as labor-intensive. Thus, you can try a school management system that centralizes all the data of your student, resources, and faculty and perform various tasks. The system would update the data in real-time and would be very easy to manage. Also, centralization of the data allows cohesive working between various departments. 

  • Paperless Working 

One of the biggest benefits of digitalization is that it supports sustainable development. Using a school management system you don’t have to invest in stationery extensively, especially to maintain records. The digital infrastructure would help you in managing the present data and also create silos for archived data just in case you need it for anything. 

  • Seamless Working 

As said earlier, the school management system serves as a seamlessly connected network for highly synchronized working between various departments. It ensures seamless communication and an easy flow of information related to records and processes. This also helps in optimizing the time and ensuing higher efficiency and productivity of your employees. 

  • Unique Profile 

Using school management software you can assign various roles based on the job profile of your employees and also set role-based access to the data. The flow of information thus becomes more secure and only relevant information reaches the people it is useful for. 

Each user profile can be easily created in the software. Also, it can be embedded with functionalities. You can also categorize the job profiles, and allow more efficient working within the system. 

Wrapping Up 

School management ERP software solution is one of the best ways to ensure a return on investment. The biggest advantage you get by implementing the system is better resource planning and management. With integrated solutions such as automated reminders, reports, analytics, and omnichannel communication, it becomes a one-stop solution to meet your all needs. 

Modern technology further guarantees data security, with reduced reliance on your employees and pivoting tasks to automated intelligent systems you now have time to focus on your institute’s goals and productivity contributing to its growth. For more information about school management software, register for a free demo here and our ERP expert would get back to you in 2-3 business days. 

Must have features in Library Management System for Schools

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education ERP solutions are known for digitalizing every aspect of an institute, including libraries. As mundane and labor-intensive library management used to be, an advanced library management system can bring efficiency, accuracy, and speed to operations. 

You can consider the Academia ERP solution, an education ERP suite that comes with an in-built library management system for endless functionalities to do in-house operations. We are mentioning some of the most important features of a library management system to boost your understanding of library management system:

Important features in a library management system 

  • Catalog Management

No longer fishing through the bulky registers and searches through rows and columns to find which book is available. A library management system must have a catalog management feature that would do all these tasks in a few clicks and within a matter of seconds. 

  • Book Management

Managing the issuance and submission of the books borrowed by teachers and students is time-consuming. Furthermore, regularly a librarian has to track people that have borrowed books and missed the due dates. Then comes penalty collection which becomes another added task for the librarians that can keep them occupied for hours. A feature-rich library management system should digitalize this process end-to-end for faster and more efficient management. 

  • Barcoding Books 

Rather than numerically coding your books and resources in the library, you can go a step further and use the barcode system. As it is a digital tool, with a quick scan you can track the entire log on issuance/submission, usage, and even the shelf it belongs to. Also, barcoding books would make the book issuance/submission process much faster. 

  • Online Access

Students can easily access the ebooks available in the digital library. It would increase resource sharing and knowledge outreach. You can easily eliminate the scenario of book unavailability. Also, based on fee submission, and student records you can control their access to the books. You can anytime remove the access as well, and that too with just one click.  

  • Fee Management

Manage bills from vendors, and fees from students, collect late fees, define penalties, and a lot of other things easily through fee management. Without a fee management tool, a library management system is incomplete. 

  • High-end Security 

The safety and security of student data are very important. It is not just an add-on but is absolutely necessary as per many compliance organizations. Also, students and parents are very particular about data security nowadays and you must adhere to the international and national security standards of data management. Academia ERP is one such tool that is not just efficient but highly secure and has a GDPR certification. Learn more about the product here. 

>>Bonus<<

These were some basic features that a library management system must have. But you can easily make a few customizations to the education ERP solution to improve the efficiency of the product and make the library management system more feature-rich. Here are a few more features that can bring more efficiency to library management: 

  • Integration with LMS for quick allocation of books by teachers for assignments
  • Data analytics and reports 
  • Theft detection
  • Serial control 
  • Mobility solutions such as mobile apps
  • MIS reports and more. 

Way forward

Library management is seen as one of the most mundane aspects of school management. But you can easily change the situation given the wide availability of trusted education ERP solutions. Using this list, you can check the efficiency of the toolset and make sure you are attaining end-to-end digitalization of the libraries at your school. 

School Management Software Price in India — Things you must know

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

India is a price-sensitive market, and if price is a pressing issue for you in deciding the best School Management Software, let Academia ERP help you. Academia ERP is the best-of-breed education technology. With a strong presence in 21 countries, including the US, UK, and India we get queries on daily basis regarding the cost of our edtech solution. Consider us as your personal guide to understanding the world of education technologies, especially if you want to ensure the School Management Software you want to go with is value for money. 

What is School Management Software? 

To start with, you must learn how education ERP solution providers are placing prices on their software solutions. For this, you must learn what the software does for your institute. 

In general, School Management Software is an advanced solution that optimizes your institution’s internal and external operations. You would be surprised to know, in our experience, we have seen the magic happen wherein our own customers have reported a 70% hike in employee efficiency and student satisfaction after the implementation of Academia ERP. 

Apart from the in-built tools to automate and manage the tasks related to admissions, attendance, fees & finances you get out-of-the-box features such as resource management, reports & analytics, and other faculty and student-side features. 

Solutions such as Academia ERP go a step further and offer student mobile applications and dedicated student and faculty web portals. This gives affirmation that School Management Software comes with definite solutions for all your stakeholders. 

Now, coming down to the pricing models. 

Pricing Models of School Management Software

Different solution providers have different pricing models. We are giving you an insight into the most popular pricing models from which you can decide which one is best for you. Also, do drop us a message, if you have any further questions about Academia ERP pricing, or features or would like to have a live demo. 

1. Per Student Pricing 

There are a couple of low-cost school software available on the market that provide you scalability based on the number of students you have in your school. Although it may seem a viable option at first, the solution tends to become a bit pricy if you are a big school with a large number of students. Also, the solution may not provide many important features which are necessary for meeting the needs of a brownfield project.

Going further, scalability in terms of features and functionalities is a miss, so if you need new add-ons you would have to reinvest on 3rd party toolsets and integrate them into the ERP solution. 

All in all, this solution is not very great for chains of institutes, or schools that have many students. If you are just starting, and are looking for a small solution, go for it. 

You would be required to pay the price for individual prices for each student. Some solution providers also bill you annually. It may be a pain to figure out how many users you need for getting the best pricing from the solution provider in negotiation. 

2. Monthly / Yearly Pricing

Unlike the pay-per-user model, you can go with a monthly or yearly pricing model. The price is unaffected by the number of users. So, no matter how many users you have, you pay the price based on the feature or functionality you choose to go for. 

This is one of the best pricing models and is most commonly preferred by big and small education organizations. Moreover, it is highly flexible, and you can scale the application as per your need. You can anytime choose to go for additional storage or functionality or any other added service you require. But you would be required to pay for it. 

Also, there would be a difference in monthly and yearly license prices. 

3. One-time Pricing 

The pricing model is usually used for legacy software. Legacy software solutions are built on old architecture and have various challenges when it comes to scalability, flexibility, and integrations. 

It is best to choose a SaaS-based education ERP solution as they are more efficient and provide you with the sheer benefit of scalability. Also, legacy software doesn’t come with many features and functionalities. Depending on the features and functionality the solution offers the price may vary.

4. Feature-based pricing 

If you are already using software and there are one or two features that are amiss in the software, you might want to go with some solution provider that provides plugins or add-ons for those features. 

The price as the name suggests is only for the individual features you are seeking to implement in the software. So, you only pay for the requested features. 

Factors Influencing the price of School Management Software 

This is very important to discuss as the above-mentioned pricing models for school ERP prices in India and everywhere else may get highly influenced by these factors. If you have talked to any vendor you would notice that the price that is first mentioned is only a ballpark figure considering the basic requirements of a school. The accurate price of School Management Software would only be given after a deeper understanding of the school’s exact requirements.

Also, the prices of the software vary from vendor to vendor. This variance is due to the quality of the software and the features that come in the basic package. In this section, we are mentioning the top factors that influence the price of School Management Software. 

  • Cloud offerings

There are various types of deployment methods, the most common three are Cloud, On-premise, and Hybrid. If you go with a cloud-based solution, the software is deployed on the vendor’s cloud and thus the maintenance and management become the vendor’s responsibility, ultimately resulting in a slight increase in the cost. However, cloud-based solutions are the more cost-effective solution as compared to on-premise solutions. You can check out our blog on on-premise vs cloud-based ERP solutions for a better understanding. 

  • Role-based login

The School Management Software is a feature-rich solution to manage all operations and support all the stakeholders in the system. Simply put, it is one solution to meet the needs of everyone in the education ecosystem. So, it becomes very important that there is a strict divide in terms of access to data and justified restrictions on actions to ensure the security of the data and optimal working. 

So, based on the number of stakeholders and organizational hierarchy, the software allows you to define users and roles to provide defined access. If you have a large organization, then a large team has to be given access, which would increase the cost of the solution. 

  • GPS tracking 

Tracking is a crucial part of any School Management Software. Be it progress or activities, students are under constant supervision and monitoring of the school management. Hence, features such as GPS tracking are important, especially if you provide a hybrid or online learning program. This way you can keep an eye on the student activity and location on the go. However, it is a very common feature and would not drastically affect the cost of the product. 

  • SMS & Email Alerts

There might be some additional charges for using SMS and email alert facilities since some software use third-party applications to enable such facilities. You can contact your vendor to learn about this feature more. 

  • Technical support 

The job does not end once you have purchased and deployed the product. Technical support is required throughout the product lifecycle to ensure optimum product performance and user experience. Hence, you would have to talk to your vendor about what is their technical support plan and how much is it going to cost you. If you don’t have an internal technical support team, this cost would elevate as not just product maintenance but, server management, and maintenance would also become an additional service and cost. 

  • Staff training

Meanwhile, most School Management Software provides you with staff training for free, some may charge you given the complexity of the solution and the duration of time to which the training would extend. 

  • Number of modules

As discussed, based on the number of features and modules you use the cost of the product increases. However, it depends on what pricing model you choose and how the vendor monetizes the solutions. If you need any enhancements to the existing features it would also be an additional cost.

Wrapping Up

I hope the blog will help you understand the various pricing models available on the market. Also, if you have any questions about Academia School Management Software or the pricing models we would be happy to assist you. 

6 Advantages of Implementing School ERP

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Learning management systems are gaining a lot of popularity in the school domain. But the biggest mistake that schools do is to stop there and not undergo a complete digital transformation. With LMS you have made a great move, but is it enough? What about the tasks that you have to perform on daily basis? Or how about taking the student experience a notch up? Or improving communication between teachers and parents? 

We are blasting you with all these questions because in this digital age it is very important to ponder on your processes and increase your efficiency. Competitive as the education industry has always been, digital transformation is edging toward you and you need to adapt fast. 

On the same lines, we would like to introduce you to a robust school management system. It is an app suite that allows you to perform, manage and monitor your administrative, academic, and non-academic activities on the go. You can go for either a license-based software or a modern cloud-based solution. It comes with dedicated solutions for faculty, students, admins, and super admins. Also, you can set up an applicant portal for streamlining the admission process. 

Here are some benefits of using a school ERP management solution:


Benefits of using a School Management System 

  • Increase productivity 

High productivity is hard to achieve because various factors weigh people down while they aim to perform well. These can be doing repetitive, regular tasks, unavailability of data to take faster decisions, useless dependency on people for minute things, delays in response, and other factors. 

School management software helps you solve it. You can automate some of the repetitive tasks, use a centralized information system to increase cohesive working and performing tasks faster, and data-driven operations for increased efficiency and accuracy. 

  • Student-Teacher Collaboration

We believe and have a strong faith in the education system. But there are gaps in it that cannot be ignored. Student growth, performance, and outcomes are not metrics that should be ignored. You must thrive towards improving your system, and your policies to accommodate the needs of modern students. 

School management software comes with a variety of academic reports that allow teachers to improve their strategies and increase student outcomes. It allows them to take a different approach because they have unlocked the doors to improve student performance individually and as a class. 

  • Paperless working

The world is moving towards sustainability and you too can embrace it. And you would agree to the fact that keeping records on paper is hectic and costly. With a school management system, you can keep your student records online. It is a secure system that is much better than keeping paper records which are very difficult to manage. 

  • Accessibility 

No more flipping of bulky files and mapping the enrollment no. to the records for small information. Go for a centralized student information system, integrated with the School ERP that allows easy and quick access to any data you are looking for and supports all operations. 

  • Transparency 

A school management system is not just a convenient tool for you and the teacher. Think about app-based solutions through which parents can track student activities, homework, performance, and participation. This transparency is what assures the parents their children are in good hands. 

  • Communication

Most school management systems come with omnichannel communication sources, including emails, chat, push notifications, and more. Communication becomes cheap and easy. Also, you can go for WhatsApp integration. 

Wrapping Up

These were the 6 benefits of implementing a school ERP solution at your school. If you have any more queries about the School Management System, please connect with our ERP expert. Also, take a look at Academia SMS (School Management System), a dedicated solution for schools that gives you all these advantages and more.

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