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Author: Hemant Mahajan

5 Ways Technology Can Help Save Costs for Academic Institutes

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The growth of educational resources and online courses being offered today are a clear indication of the shift to technology and how it’s changing the landscape of the education industry. 

Every year there is an increasing number of students opting out of attending schools and colleges physically. With many study options available, a lot of which are online and comparatively cheaper, technology is playing a huge role in making education accessible and cheaper than ever before. Even long-distance or work-based learning, as well as apprenticeships, are becoming available online, which reduces the total cost of education by permitting interns to live at home and learn and earn. 

Today, when the world has been ravaged by COVID19 in an unprecedented way, education is one field that has managed to deliver, without any hiccups. Educational institutions all over the world have quickly moved all their teaching online and are making sure that students are gathering every bit of knowledge and learning that they would have, on campus. 

While online education may be the need of the hour right now, technology has always proved to be a gainful investment for educational institutions, one of which is saving on costs. 

Let us explore 5 ways in which technology can help save costs for educational institutions. 

1. Using the cloud instead of the copier

Educational institutions have seen the enormous potential of the cloud and more and more schools and colleges are moving over every year. A market research report had predicted a 26% annual growth in cloud computing in schools through 2021. Needless to say, with the ongoing pandemic the numbers would inflate too much more than that. 

Cloud technology has plenty of instant benefits to academic institutions like –

  • It does away with the need to buy expensive printed textbooks, which become outdated quickly. Using digital content allows easy regular updating as and when necessary, which also saves cost substantially for the school. 
  • It minimizes the requirements for expensive hardware like servers, which call for ongoing server room cooling, maintenance and a huge amount of space. 
  • It reduces the use of toner and copy paper, along with saving the time spent on making copies every week, while also reducing carbon footprints. 
  • If there is ever a loss or a need to track down a paper trail, a cloud system will give easy access and swiftly recover data.

2. Taking advantage of the VoIP over the traditional PBX

Switching over to the VoIP phone system has helped schools and institutions to cut down costs by lowering phone bills and having access to new automation features to further boost productivity. 

VoIP providers often offer free internal calls making it possible for teachers, administrators, and anyone with a phone connected to the phone system to call each other without any charges. Larger schools and institutions can save a substantial amount by using a VoIP phone system since all the frequent calls made within a school system are considered in-network and will be free of charge.

A VoIP system is cheaper to maintain than a PBX system. It can be installed quickly with adding and removing of phones done simply. A hosted VoIP system comes with free 24/7 support staff. 

3. Opting for the digital platform over manual  

In this age of technology, it is a challenge for educators to constantly keep the learning environment engaging and relevant. It is important for them to keep the communications and information flow of the school community completely smooth and secure.

While it may seem migrating to a digital platform would require huge budgets, truth is, it is the crucial factor that can actually cut costs, boost productivity and save time which is otherwise wasted on administrative tasks. With digitization, teachers and administrators do not have to spend time with old machines, including outdated computers, printers and slow networks; and could use their time for more productive work. Teachers have the advantage of using technology to produce more creative learning opportunities for students. On the other hand, students get accustomed to technology at an early age and learn valuable skills which will sustain them for life. 

4. Using special-purpose applications for better efficiency

Educational institutions have started to see the utility of application that can help them manage a lot of departments better. Since educators know they have the responsibility of building the careers and lives of a whole new generation, they understand there is no scope for mistakes. Switching over to digital helps to make sure there are no errors in statistics and work flows smoothly as programmed. They are moving to the use of specifically created applications to better manage food services, school buses, utilities like electricity and cooling/heating, textbooks, etc.

Besides the smooth functioning and management of various departments with the use of various applications, educational institutions are also saving money by eliminating the need of human intervention and physical work.

5. Availing digital documents over physical material

One important aspect of knowledge is, it needs constant updating. Going digital helps to quickly and efficiently update new material online with adaptable changes. Content changes and delivery, digitally, lowers the cost of printing the new material and also gets rid of the reliance on physical printed content and copy.

While education institutions wake up to the importance of technology and seek to empower themselves with the latest, it is the SIS (Student Information System) that has proved to be the groundbreaker with the advantage to connect, teach and manage better. One of the most important roles technology plays is to handle evolving requirements and efficiently manage multiple modes of communication. 

Academia SIS has been specifically developed to suit the current and future needs of growing higher education institutions. It is a unique multifeatured solution for Group Institutions, Business Universities, Colleges, Schools, etc. and automates the complete student life cycle.

Undeniably, the best technology solution to successfully lower costs while providing an edge by enhancing connectivity among students, teachers and parents.

For the education institutions, while adopting technology helps to cut down costs, it also works for students as the expenses go down considerably with online course materials and other associated expenses. Hence, a win-win for all. 

Top 4 Features of Academia Student Information System that Educators Like

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

For modern educational institutions, it is important to adopt technologies like student information systems, whether a university, college, school, or training institution, a student information system can be a good choice for maintaining any day-to-day tasks. 

Academia by Serosoft is an award-winning Student Information Management System that is benefitting 300+ institutions around the world, providing and powering education leaders to bring a better, faster, efficient, and productive education system to the institution. 

To enhance the experience of our clients, we have extracted the most used and favorite modules that are providing enormous benefits to education institutions. 

Here are a few of the Academia SIS modules that they like the most:

1. Online Admission Management

Admission season is one of the most important sessions of any educational institution, it needs to be effective and efficient in any sense. It involves various tasks from admission inquiry, form sales, and student registration, to the enrollment process. 

The Academia admission management system provides a systematic approach to solving all these problems. It manages the complete admission process simply, effectively, and efficiently. 

Benefits of using an Academia admission management system:

  • Manage Admission Inquiry Online

Admission starts with the most prominent step called pre-admission, pre-admission involves inquiry and ends with admission. So having a proper and effective management system like Academia for the complete admission process helps in resolving the query of applicants following the next steps for admissions. 

  • Easy payment processing

The Academia admission management system provides all the processes of fee, registration, fee, enrollment, etc. It provides seamless management of all the records, without any human error. Admission management system using Academia helps in streamlining easy payment processing making it less time-consuming and efficient. 

  • Applicant Status Setting

It is also one of the prominent steps as after applying for admission, students and their parents get eager to check the application status. 

They have to call or even come to the institution over and over for updates, which sometimes becomes so inconvenient. 

The Academia management system provides features by which applicants can check their application status. Academia applicant portal exclusively can be used to check status, upload and download documents, applications, fee payments, and all other things. 

  • Improved Communication

Communication is the key to effective management in the organization and sometimes having mouth-to-mouth communication in manual intervention creates gaps, chaos, and confusion. Academia admission management system helps in all-around communication by having facilities like chatbots and various other communication functionalities that help in improving communication between applicants and institutions. 

  • Uniformity in admission across multiple academies

Various educational institutions own multiple academies. So having multiple academies, it becomes difficult to manage all the processes of admissions effectively. Academia owns the capability of managing several institutions simultaneously providing all the processes related to admission like inquiries, payments, bills, etc. through a single system efficiently and effectively.

2. Report management with Smart Analytics

Educational institutions usually have endless paperwork, reporting, documentation, etc. There is no way to stop it, but there is a way to manage it. With the digitization of academic processes, it becomes way more comfortable and time-saving to generate reports and keep track of every document whenever and wherever needed. 

Academia SIS enables educators to organize that reporting system seamlessly. The integration of the smart analytics system assists staff to generate reports within a few clicks. As it is a centralized student database system, it becomes super convenient to use some filters, gather data from other departments, and generate reports within seconds—no need to do data entry for hours. The reporting system of Academia is available in different charts & bar graphs, which helps education leaders analyze and thereby faster decision making.

Benefits of analytics and reporting for educational institutions:

  • Understanding and recognizing the demographics and behavior

Using advanced analytics, education institutions can seek transformation along with having an understanding of constant demographic trends and behavior in pursuing administrative services and managing effective and efficient institutional management. 

  • Optimizing the use of resources

By implementing an analytics and reporting engine you can optimize and achieve your desired targets in a better way. Institutions choose to adopt a well-designed and systematic approach through an analytical system that can capture, manage, share, and store any information easily along with solving and de-escalating any problem effectively. 

  • Recruitment of students

Higher education institutions, colleges, schools, or even any educational institution often face various complications following various modes. Having proper analytics and reporting, it can become easier to recruit students in a systematic manner. 

  • Helping the students to learn things more properly

Educational institutions that choose Academia get effective, proper, systematic, learning to the students, as having the power of modern educational systems enables faculties to get more insights related to the student’s performance along with having the opportunity to grab and learn. It gives them a chance to learn according to their pace and convenience, with courses, and facilities remaining one click away. 

  • Creating data transparency

In educational institutions, there are various operations that can be mismanaged by having manual interventions. Having a systematic analytical process, Academia provides the opportunity to access anything at any time creating data transparency for faculty members, students, and management. 

With data transparency through analytics, institutions can be able to take a snapshot of how students are engaged and how well they are performing, the management can also check the efficiency of faculty members and how excellent teaching and learning are. Using advanced analytics, institutions can maintain a clear and clarified data transparency.

3. Interoperability with multiple software solutions

Interoperability is an understanding of the software to work with other software programs now or in the future. It is useful in when

  • It is not possible to configure everything in one software.
  • A customer wants to use previous software with which they are familiar.
  • A customer wants some functionality that is not available in the current version.

Then, with the interoperability feature, vendors can integrate other software and fulfill customers’ needs.

Academia offers multiple integrations with software like Moodle (Learning Management System), KOHA (Library Management System), Alfresco (Document Management System), Tally (Accounting Software), etc. Moreover, it is entirely compatible with other software as per the requirements of customers. 

Benefits of using Academia Interoperability include:

  • Adaptability

Adaptability is one of the best advantages of interoperability, various systems take in information, and connect and distribute that information automatically and flexibly. 

  • Data Cohesion

Academia promotes interoperability features that have a proper and systematic arrangement of all the information that is managed effectively and controlled by all parties. 

  • Increased Growth

It is one of the most important benefits of using interoperability, it provides all availability of information associated with the value chain. Using faculty members and students they get the opportunity to operate cohesively along with managing academic and administrative processes ensuring all the information is available and accessible to all the students.

4. Inquiry management with Academia AI Chatbot

What if you could save the staff time from handling 24X7 hr questions from prospective students?What if it is not limited to only the working hours of your institute? Wouldn’t that be more productive?

All this and much more are possible with Academia AI Chatbot. Academia chatbot works on your institute’s website where students can ask whatever they want related to admissions, courses, etc. This chatbot will answer all the queries of students and save them in an excel sheet where you can keep track of it to take follow-up in the future. 

Benefits of using Academia Chatbot include:

  • Instant Action 

The Academia chatbot is responsible for instants actions on any of the queries that should be raised by anyone. It firstly provides an automated response to the queries along with providing a notification to the authorized person or committee about that questions or query to solve them immediately. 

  • Quick Response 

It is also one of the coolest features of Academia Chatbot as it provides a quick response to the queries providing a solution to the student, faculty, or any other associated person. 

  • Easy to use

It is easy to use and configurable as it can be seen on the website homepage having a simple box to write any of the messages or queries for the student, faculty, or any other inquiry-associated person.  

  • User Friendly 

As it may be understood now, the Academia chatbot is absolutely user-friendly and doesn’t need much effort, and can be used easily and conveniently. 

Bonus, 5th Feature:

5.  Academia-Whatsapp Integration:

Academia Educational ERP Software comes mobile-ready with Android and iOS apps. Following the addition of the ‘SERA’ voice assistant to our app, we now offer Academia-WhatsApp integration to keep stakeholders (students and parents) informed.

Conclusion 

Want to know what are the other modules of Academia ERP/SIS? You might find your favorite as well. Download our brochure or talk to our expert to learn the complete working experience of these modules. Book your free demo now!

What Are the 5 Advantages of Using College ERP in the New Era of Education?

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Education ERP software is gaining great momentum. But one thing that most certainly is missed out by college management is that their model is different than that of a school or a training institute. Thus, you need to ask yourself constantly, what is the most important thing for your institute, what problems you aim at solving, and how advantageous your investment is going to be. 

Today, we would like to use this opportunity to introduce you to the 5 biggest benefits college ERP software will bring you. Here are they: 

Advantages of the Education ERP System for a College

  • Simplified Admission Process: 

Admissions are one of the busiest times of the year, and they are painstaking. You have to be alert to every pre-admission and admissions activity and that can be cumbersome. A college management system comes with specific features for admission directors and the people responsible for the admission phase. 

A good college ERP system would give you toolsets such as managing enquires, converting enquires to admissions, planning and implementing fee structure, improving communication between college and applicant, and also, an applicant portal. This would successfully untangle all admission-related processes. 

  • Real-time Data Record:

You have various people working in your education organization and it is supremely important that they get the right information, at the right time to take the right decision. 

With a centralized database, you can allow role-based access to real-time data and information to all your stakeholder. It is a highly secure data management system that allows you to efficiently and effectively manage your processes and take data-backed decisions faster than ever before. 

  • Automated Fee Processing 

Easy integration of 3rd Party Payment Software would give your students and parents an edge over the fee system. It allows transparent and secure online payments through e-wallets, debit/credit cards, internet banking, etc. 

Furthermore, it allows you to track every transaction that happens in your organization. You can track even the oldest of your transactions that have happened online. Also, you no longer need a cashier to collect fees, it is a completely automated system that shares the receipts with the students and parents for their payments. 

You can also take this a step further and add automated reminders that send out messages to students and parents near the time of fee payments. 

  • Centralized Data Management 

Data management is a big task. Ask the person who has to add or remove data from the paper-backed record system. You can replace it with a digital data management system that allows you to store a vast amount of data about students, parents, exams, timetable, faculty, student performance, result, and even alumni. 

  • Prompt decisioning 

Technologies such as AI & ML are helping institutes utilize the data to develop a deeper understanding of the market trends and use it to develop profitable strategies. Using Education ERP software for college you can generate reports on admissions, fee payments, student enrollment, payroll, employee records, student accommodation, and more. 

Summing Up

These were just the 5 top advantages of using a college ERP in the new era of education, but there is more. For more information, you can connect with our ERP expert and discuss in detail your needs. 

5 Amazing Benefits of Online Institute Management in Education Sector

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

The time has changed. The working style around the globe is changing, it isn’t limited to office premises anymore. With the changing dynamics of other working sectors, education is also following the same path.

It is noticeable that learning methods have also changed in the last few years. Video tutorials, online content, e-books, social media groups, global connectivity among students, teachers; all of this has expanded the horizon of education, its resources and distribution.

Along with learning management, institute management is also changing. Colleges, universities, and other higher educational institutions are adopting online student management (Education ERP) to manage their day to day tasks. It helps institutions to integrate all administrative processes in a single platform, brings seamless workflow, and ultimately enhances stakeholders’ satisfaction.

Considering the current scenario of the Corona pandemic, institutions have to manage their paperwork and other academic tasks remotely. They are using different platforms to deliver notifications and updates, which is quite tedious and time-consuming.

However, with the help of online institute management, it has been easier for institutions to maintain institutional continuity. Let’s see what benefits educational institutions can get with online education management software:

Reduced Costs

Educational institutions are full of paper works. They also need communication mediums to contact the student, their parents, teachers, and other staff members on a daily basis. For that, they need to partner with the third party to regulate these processes that increase the overheads. And that too fails sometimes.

With online institute management such as Education ERP, colleges and universities can reduce their stationary and communication costs along with other administrative expenses. It not only makes these processes more swift but it also simplifies maintenance of data and reports.

Academia Student Management System provides an internal messaging system to deliver notifications to students, teachers, or parents or to all of them with a single platform. Know how it works.

Institutional continuity

Many institutions have suffered a great deal of loss in the closures of educational institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has impacted students, teachers, and staff on varied levels. Due to internet connectivity, social platforms, and SMS & Email services, educators could only inform each other with the current status but the institutional continuity was compromised. As remote working became the only way to keep the business running, some educational institutions were not able to bring that on.

Here comes the role of online management. With the help of it, institutions can regulate most of their curriculum online. Assignment submission, fee payment, student marksheet distribution, syllabus management, and its distribution and much more can be done with automation in education.

Better Connectivity

Communication is the key to running a successful organization, and it would be ignorant if we overlook its role in the education sector. Proper communication is very important not only between teachers and students but also among all the stakeholders.

By bringing digital transformation in education management, the connectivity increases by many folds. Learning goes beyond the campuses. It provides exclusive portals for everyone where they can not only get the recent updates but can also manage their details and records. With Faculty and Student apps, it becomes super convenient to manage the day to day task, wherever whenever.

See how INIFD Indore getting the benefits of Academia ERP to increase communication.

Work alignment

College, university, or school all of them have various departments. Admin, admission, programs and courses, fee, transportation, hostel, logistics, and many more. Sometimes it becomes so scattered and tedious to manage records from all these departments and maintain the work alignment.

An education ERP helps to maintain these departments in one single platform. It simplifies the workflow brings alignment and increases productivity.

Error-free processes

To err is human!

Humans are prone to make mistakes, and there is nothing wrong with it but being an education leader, you can’t take the risk. One error can cause a series of chaos and that reduces the space for development.

Unlike humans, technology doesn’t make errors on its own. With a tool, we can not only make our work flawless but we can also save a lot of time. An online student information system like Academia ERP has many features that are designed to help teachers, students, parents, and management and allow them to manage their work efficiently.

The ultimate benefit

The most important thing that attracts educators to shift into a digital platform is convenience. It empowers all the associated members to operate their tasks whenever they want and from whichever device they choose. It breaks the limitation of growth and efficiency. It gives educators and management to think beyond bundles of paperwork.

6 Things Educators Need to Know for Schools Re-opening amid COVID-19

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

With the unlock phase, Schools are set to re-open after months of lockdown. However, the risk has not averted 100% and precautionary measures are a necessity.

According to the news on India.com on Thursday, as many as five lakh students took the Pre-University Certificate board examinations in Karnataka, rekindling hopes that educational institutes may resume operations sooner or later — when all precautions are in place. This is just one example, there many more students whose career is dependent on this school resuming.

Amid this delay in school reopening, institutes are also instructed to regulate virtual classrooms to fill the learning gap that occurred during the lockdown.

The upcoming session won’t be the same as it used to be. It will be peculiar for teachers as well as students. There will be a few measures that both have to take. Here we are discussing the six major things that educators must consider before the school reopening.

Bring Remote Learning & Online Student Management

Considering the main precaution to save yourself from CORONA spread, social distancing, remote learning has become extremely important. Institutions that were equipped with the latest technology such as Online School Management System and Learning Management System, could continue their school curriculum.

Academia School Management System has helped many institutions to regulate their day to day tasks, distribute home assignments via employee portal and student portal/ app respectively. Online Institute Management Solutions helps the institute to maintain the continuity remotely. Educators need to find a way to reopen the schools in between full in-person to fully remote, and digital transformation of school management is one such solution.

Keep social distancing in the classrooms

There is no wonder that it’ll be difficult to maintain a social distancing concept among children. Schools are meant to engage students to bring social etiquettes and personality development along with academics. But it has changed now.

Now schools are also responsible for the protection of our children. Therefore they have to take proper action to implement basic precautionary measures in school while maintaining a stable environment for students.

Schools in other countries which have restarted the school have established the social distancing in sitting arrangement in classrooms, break rooms, etc. The administration is instructed to pause the assembly and sports activities until further notice.

Do Regular Sanitisation in School

The time has changed. Previous cleaning methods won’t be enough for the school. The administration will need to bring routine sanitization and disinfection for every corner of the schools.

Here are the advisable processes to look for routine cleaning during the COVID-19 school reopening.

  • Face shield
  • Door, doorknobs, and handles
  • Stair rails
  • Classroom desks and chairs
  • Lunchroom tables and chairs
  • Handrails
  • Light switches
  • Handles on equipment (e.g., athletic equipment)
  • Push-buttons on vending machines and elevators
  • Shared toys
  • Shared remote controls
  • Shared telephones
  • Shared desktops
  • Shared computer keyboards and mice
  • Bus seats and handrails

Keep Thermal Screener At the Entrance

A thermal scanner is a device that measures the temperature of a person while maintaining social distancing. As it is known that individuals with high body temperature are prone to CORONA infection or they already have come to grips with it.

Many institutes which have started in-person office working have installed either thermal scanner cameras or simple manual scanners that read the temperature of the person in front of it. Schools can also do the same. As in schools, there are always transaction people in and out, therefore, it becomes crucial for them to take every possible measure to save children and staff.

Aware Students with Current Scenario

Awareness is the key to handle this pandemic with rationality. Thanks to the internet and global connectivity, it is not difficult to get the information you need. But it is vital to get the correct data with credible sources. Many entertainment companies are making documentaries related to CORONA and how to handle this pandemic. To bring awareness in schools, teachers can add activity of showing these documentaries to children just to make sure that students are updated with the crucial information.

It will not only minimize the pressure of teachers but also will help students to become independent and take care of themselves.

Maintain Positive Environment for Students

After the lockdown and with the learning gap it will be difficult for students to cope up with the new environment. Wherever in the world, when students come back to school, they will need emotional support and a positive environment to get their life back on track. Hence the teacher, the school superintendent will have to be vigilant of the student’s mental situation and provide the needful support to them and their families.

Recently the Brown Center on education policy hosted a webinar that addressed how schools in the US should approach questions revolving around school reopening amidst the CORONA pandemic. Check here to know more.

Conclusion

The CORONA pandemic hit all of us. We can’t stay in lockdown forever, things need to move, and there is only one solution. Fight Against It. With the help of education technology and continuous collaboration, we can get back to normal once again.

Academia SMS is benefiting many schools and other educational institutions during this pandemic. Talk to us to know how it can help your institution too. Book a free session now!

4 Ways to Bring Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education using Student Information System

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

It’s the 21st century; an era of digital transformation. It becomes vital for educational institutions to make the best use of the valuable time of staff & teachers and to maximize return on investment while also meeting the needs of tech-savvy and increasingly demanding millennial and gen-z students. Traditional labor-intensive administrative systems and irregular manual processes no longer meet these needs. So why should you let them hold you back?

Automation in education is playing a vital role in not only transforming the institution management but also enhancing student satisfaction, bringing productivity, and improving the overall performance. With software like a student information system, the dreams of institutions are becoming true, bringing institutional effectiveness owing to its capability of managing the entire campus and handling the complete student life cycle.

Before you can learn the way of using software for your institute management let’s learn what institutional effectiveness is.

Definition of Institutional Effectiveness

According to the SACSCOC Resource Manual, “Institutional Effectiveness is a systematic, explicit, and documented process of measuring performance against the mission in all aspects of an institution.”

Or in simpler terms

Institutional Effectiveness is all about bringing quality to education, administration, management, and everything an institution stands for.

Fundamentally Institutional Effectiveness in Higher Education comprises of the following:

  • Extensive institutional research
  • Accreditation
  • In-depth review of administrative processes
  • Strategic planning
  • Student performance analysis
  • Assessment of planning and optimization

Nowadays many higher education institutions are gearing up to bring institutional effectiveness and trying to optimize their daily practice to meet the benchmark. It helps to gain a competitive advantage, makes better-informed decisions, aligns all administrative processes and requirements, improves student completion rates, and much more.

Let’s find out how the best student information system can bring institutional effectiveness to your institution:

Complete roadmap of institution

Going digital in institute management gets you the complete roadmap of the campus and all the activities within that. With a centralized data platform, you get to see all the information. It helps to categorize the processes scoring to their priority and thereby you can make the proper planning of where you need to make most of your investment vis-a-vis Time or Money.

Review of administrative processes

The student information management system unites all the academic processes. With interoperability and multiple integrations, it becomes quite easy to manage, monitor, and control day-to-day processes. Being an education leader or decision-maker you can review these processes with a few clicks. This helps to take proper action to optimize the processes which are not aligning with your mission and vision.

Analytics report and decision aid

Nowadays, data analysis has become the power to understand, evaluate, and grow any business. It’s very much apparent that higher educational institutions are inundated with huge data information. Hence, sometimes it becomes difficult at times to keep track of every piece of information and manage them effectively. Thanks to the analytics & reports feature of student information management software, educators can generate categorized reports for all the departments they need. It gives them valuable insights into institutional processes and aids them in faster and more informed decision-making.

Return on investment and its assessment

Along with maintaining an effective management system, providing quality education, and meeting students’ & parents’ demands; it’s crucial for institutions to meet the target of return on investment. Shifting institution processes management into a digital platform not only gives seamless & efficient workflow but it also reduces expenses. Education leaders get a high return on an investment after the successful utilization of education software. It reduces paper cost, storage cost, printing & mailing costs and allows teachers and staff to utilize their time on other priority work.

Conclusion

Institutional Effectiveness is an ever-evolving process just like an educational institution in itself. But there are some fundamentals that need to be tracked, analyzed, and implemented at the right time. The above-mentioned benefits of a student information system are to give a broader perspective to learn how it can help higher education to achieve its mission and vision. There are more ways by which you can bring productive administrative management.

Give your teachers, staff, and students the time, clarity, and control they need to make a difference and build institutional effectiveness—with the Academia Student Information System. Learn more about it with a FREE demo. Talk to our expert now!

 

Academia by Serosoft Features in Gartner’s Market Guide For K12 Student Information Systems

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

After being featured in Gartner’s Market Guide for Higher Education Student Information System, we are thrilled to get featured in Gartner’s research in their report, Market Guide for K12 Student Information System, published on 2nd April 2020. 

As the adoption of digital transformation is increasing in educational institutions, being included as a key representative vendor of the Student Information System is surely a validation of Academia being one of the driving forces for creating changes in the education eco-system.

According to Gartner’s report, “K-12 education organizations continue to bring new requirements and expectations to this category. With such a long-term investment, K-12 CIOs and education leaders will want to understand the SIS marketplace and how it might influence future planning.” Institutions are migrating to SaaS-based solutions, which virtually every SIS vendor is offering now. It has been the impetus for many K12 institutions to shift to automation and move out of the conventional method of institute management.

The report also mentions that Student Information Systems digitizes administrative processes and streamlines many day-to-day tasks such as online enrollment, curriculum management, etc. Due to the interoperability standards that SIS software offers, institutions are relying heavily on automation for data resources.

The key features of Academia SIS:

  • Student data information
  • Registration and enrollment
  • Online registration 
  • Attendance
  • Calendar management
  • Grades and transcripts
  • Fee management
  • Health and medical records
  • Teacher portal
  • Parent and student portals 
  • Applicant portal
  • Administrator portal 
  • Standard and ad hoc reporting 
  • Data Analytics
  • Mobile app 

“We are thrilled to be recognized by Gartner as a key representative vendor of the K12 student information system. It’s overwhelming for us to be a part of the Gartner report for the second time in a row after being featured for Higher Education SIS last year. This places us among the top vendors in the world in the School Management System category. We are perhaps the only company from India to be on this list. Cheers to all the hard work put in by all of us, Serosofters!” CEO & MD Serosoft Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. is a global research and advisory firm providing information, advice, and tools for businesses in IT, finance, HR, customer service and support, legal and compliance, marketing, sales, and supply chain functions. Its headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. 

Founded in 1979, Gartner is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. With over 100 offices globally, it provides business leaders with vital advice, research, and tools to achieve their vision to build the thriving institutions of tomorrow.

Gartner Market Guides help organizations understand the digital market, trends, and the significant attributes that impact it. It helps chief officers and authorities observe which vendors have a good track record and which service providers can be trusted so that they can make informed investments in the right solution at the right time.

5 Ways in Which a Right SIS can Empower Higher Educational Institutions

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Higher education institutions must go through a paradigm shift with the modernization in the education industry. It is the right time to bring complete digital transformation and automation to the education sector. 

It is the right time institutions should adopt technologies like student information systems to automate all the academic and administrative operations improving efficiency and effectiveness in the institution. 

Do you know how a student information system can empower your institution? Let’s discuss it in more detail and understand ways in which a right SIS can empower higher education institutions. 

What is the Student Information System?

A Student Information System (SIS) is software that is used for every facet of education. It provides complete management of all educational operations including admissions, applications, scheduling, examination, and other tasks. These can be managed using a single system bringing complete automation and digital transformation. 

5 Ways in Which a Right SIS can Empower Higher Educational Institutions:

  • Fostering collaboration

Communication and collaboration are crucial factors in any educational institution, it needs to be crystal clear at every stage. Students, parents, and faculties need to collaborate and communicate properly to manage things in a better and more organized way. 

A right Student Information System provides proper and easy management of all the academic and administrative information management fostering collaboration and communication in the best possible way. It provides a platform through which parents can contact the faculty anytime along with providing their feedback in the best way. 

It promotes healthy communication targeting more growth and opportunities for educational institutions. 

  • Easing students day to day operations 

Students are considered as one of the most important stakeholders of an educational institution. The right student information system provides students with complete access through a portal and mobile application that triggers a seamless learning experience automating and streamlining all the academic and administrative processes like enrollment, records, teaching, homework and assignment, library management, and a lot more.

  • Building student-faculty relationships 

Students and faculty are considered as two separate entities that are dependent on each other and who need to maintain effective relationships. A student information system provides connectivity and synchronization between faculties and students managing attendance, enrollment, admissions, examinations, and a lot more operations. An SIS allows faculty members to send notifications for students at any time and students also get the opportunity to contact faculty at any time whenever they feel the need. 

  • Effective financial aid and management 

It is the most critical part of any educational institution. With manual intervention, institutions often feel it is a complex process as it involves multiple transactions, long queues, more staff, and a lot of many things that sometimes create chaos and confusion. A student information system provides complete financial aid and management of all the fee-related operations providing students, faculty, and staff the accessibility to attain any fee-related transactions through the mobile application and the portal. 

  • Efficient examination and assessment management 

Examinations are considered as one of the most necessary seasons in any educational institution, it needs to be effective and seamless with all the functioning at all ends like exam admins, staff, faculties, and exam center manager. It requires frequent communication with all the members involved in the processes plus students, ensuring everyone is aware of the same information and last-minute confusion can be avoided. 

A right and effective SIS provides complete management of the examination process covering aspects from exam registration forms, exam execution, marking schemes, results, the printing of mark sheets, reports, and making it a seamless and efficient process. 

Closing Notes 

The Student Information System is a broader concept and it includes much more functionalities than the above-mentioned features. It also includes various features and modules that are built to help staff, faculty members, and students bring better workflow. If used, it can bring a high ROI with time. 

A right SIS like Academia can empower institutions to bring high productivity and efficient academic and administrative performance. So, are you ready to explore the fantastic features of Academia? Try it with a free demo. Book Now!

 

A Message To All The School Teachers And Educators For The Lockdown Period

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

Nobody thought that the day will come when the schools, colleges, and universities will remain closed for this long. We said it’s preposterous, and here we are, in our home, waiting for a CORONA free world. This CORONA outbreak has impacted everyone and everything that is existing in our world right now. No one is untouched. All sectors are affected, and among them are educational institutions also. All the plannings for the year 2020 will have to be redesigned from scratch owing to the unpredictability of these difficult times.

The time is tough for everyone, and therefore it becomes an utmost priority to take care of ourselves. But we can’t ignore the responsibility of educators towards their institutions.

In this article, you’ll learn what educators of schools, colleges, and universities can do for their institution management to handle the situation

For School Leaders

For you, it is of utmost importance that you stay clear, open, and transparent with your teachers and staff. They are also facing personal problems that can be financial or personal.
Thanks to the digital era, it is possible to connect and deliver the right message at the right time. You can inform them according to your government norms, whatever actions you are going to take for the new academic session.

If you are making any plan or redesigning every academic activity, make a proper team of your staff. Take a regular meeting via the various digital platforms (e.g., Hangout Meet, Zoom, etc.) to connect and collaborate. This can not only give a sense of positivity, but they’ll also remain engaged during the extra time they may have during the lockdown.

For School Principals

As we mentioned for the educators in our previous section, the same goes for school principals. In fact, the school principals will act as the bridge between school leaders and other staff, too make things clear & smooth.

You can use the mobile chat to connect & collaborate with teachers regularly. Keep them aligned with all the updates/changes in academic sessions.
As a leader of the school management, it’s the time to showcase your ability to maintain a level of harmony and hope among your staff.

For School Teachers

These are tough times, but you are needed more than ever. Your understanding of management is very crucial. Make sure that you’re following the explicit instruction of the institutions and updated with all the notification for upcoming sessions, holidays, curricula, and all.

Teachers can also use various tools to connect with students as well. If your institute is equipped with school management software, then it’ll become effortless to communicate with students, giving them various tasks to keep them busy. Teachers can also continue their curriculum delivering syllabus content through the software. They can mark attendance in using messenger such as WhatsApp, etc.

What’s next?

Times are unpredictable; there is no doubt in that. But there are always some solutions that come with time. During the lockdown, social distancing is prevalent, but it is still possible to keep your institution running smoothly. There are multiple ways to ensure this.

One of the ways is the automation of academic management. Many institutions are availing benefits of school management software.

With automation, teachers and staff can connect with students while being at home. They can give assignments, projects; check the homework, and update remarks. With the learning management system integration and online video call tool, teachers can also take online classes and provide study content as per requirement. Staff can collect tuition fees and other payments online. Parents can pay the fee via an online parent/ student portal.

There are many more benefits to the school management system. If you are looking for the smart start of your institute, you should start thinking about the automation of your school.

Want to know more benefits of a School ERP? Talk to our experts with a FREE demo session. Book A demo now!

7 Best Tips for Successful Implementation of School ERP

Posted on by Hemant Mahajan

If you are aware of how to use any technology, then it can benefits manifold; however, if you don’t know how to use it properly, then it can bring chaos and failure. School management software is a technology that helps to deliver productivity, efficiency, and revenue in school administration. Still, due to the lack of proper implementation, many schools fail to see the real result and end up wasting their time and money. They jump from one software to another but goes through all the complications all over again. That not only bring inconvenience for school management but also shake the confidence in education technology.

In this article, you will 7 tips that will help you how to implement a school management system effectively.

1. Prepare your staff

In today’s’ digital era, it has become essential for the staff of any organization must have the basic knowledge of computers and its operation. Before switching to the digital transformation of your institution, prepare a team of staff, teachers, and parents who have excellent computer skills. Most of the school uses only IT guys to manage their School ERP implementation, which is not a smart way to transform school administration digitally. As most of the work will be done by teachers, admin staff, parents, and students will also use the software. Therefore, your decision-making team must be composed of keeping all the benefiting pillars of your school.

2. Do market research

If you search the market, there are lots of Education ERP providers. All of them come with multiple features, various modules, and promises smart digital administrations. Here comes the benefit of your team. As your team is composed of different types of users, they will understand what they need and if a particular software capable of meeting all their needs. Market research is vital before choosing School ERP.

3. Take free demonstration more than once

This step basically comes under market research. Many ERP vendors provide free demo sessions to get you a fundamental understanding of what their software can do and how it will benefit your school. Some of them also offer 2nd level and 3rd level demonstration as per your convenience to get an in-depth knowledge of the product. And this is the best step to know the software and its functionalities. After the 3rd (or more) demonstration, you’ll have a clear understanding of the software if it is capable of meeting the requirements of your school and its stakeholders or not.

Take a free demo now from experts of Academia School Management System, if it offers your school what it needs.

4. Always check the case studies and reference of other schools

After the demo, it’s imperative to check with the current customers of the ERP vendors. Most of them provide case-studies, success stories, and recommendation letters on their website. You can read them to know how this School Management Software is benefiting these institutions. You can also send your pre-formed team to other institutions to check the working of software and to understand from the user directly about their experience with the software. This is one of the best ways to know how competent and credible is the vendor.

Check out the recommendation letter by Appl Internation School, Dubai who has been using the software since 2011

5. Keep your priorities clear

This software is a tool that is designed to automate the entire school campus. A school campus can have multiple departments such as admissions, student management, employee management, fee & payments, hostel, transportation, etc. Your school might have more or fewer departments according to your needs. It might be possible that you don’t want to automate hostel management or any other department. If your team is clear with what are their priorities and needs, it will benefit you to make an informed and better decision. It will also save time & money during and after the implementation of the software.

6. Take proper training

As mentioned above, without the knowledge of the appropriate functioning of any technology, it can’t bring the results that you are looking for. Best School ERP providers such as Academia provides thorough training for your staff along with 24*7 customer support to make implementation seamless and successful.

7. Set the budget and ROI target

Having a budget and ROI target helps you to analyze and see the clear picture of the benefits of school ERP implementation. It will be beneficial to have a goal for 3 to 5 years ahead and make your decision accordingly. The software implementation for school management is the one-time investment, but it has the potential to save time and money in the long run.

Know-how education ERP can bring high ROI in your school.

Conclusion

The digital transformation of your institution is not an easy process. Let alone the selection of perfect solutions for your institution is a multifaceted task. But with the use of these seven best tips for successful implementation of school ERP can help you to reach half of the goal.

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