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5 Common Higher Education ERP Implementation Mistakes To Avoid

Technology is playing a key role in today’s era. Every segment and industry is shifting to opt for technologies that can upgrade and help them in being the competition. Looking in the education sector, it is now important for educational institutions to opt for technologies like ERP/SIS that can eventually help them in associating and operating the day-to-day operations of the institute. A better and robust ERP system can eventually help educational institutions to manage all the administrative and academic operations of the institute.

But educational institutions must select a good ERP platform that can help institutions in attaining growth along with fulfilling all the requirements. Even after selecting a very good ERP, institutions sometimes make mistakes that should be avoided while implementing an ERP system in the institute.

Let’s take a look at a recent interview of an ERP specialist taken by an educational media interviewer. In this, he asked about the common mistakes that can be avoided by institutions while having an ERP implementation.

Question 1

How can the institution prepare itself for digital transformation?

Answer by ERP Specialist: 

Digital transformation is considered the new need for educational institutions, it helps in streamlining and managing all the academic and administrative operations. But in my opinion, there is a proper process that institutions need to understand before thinking to opt for digital transformation. Different educational institutions today are at different stages of digital transformation, hence, they all need customized paths to achieve 100% digital transformation. These stages or situations can be majorly classified into 3 major categories:

  • Situation 1:

Manual Interventions in the institution

I think there are more than thousands of institutions that are still working using the manual process in their institutions. I do not regret the point that manual intervention can also help institutions to grow but the fact is its slow growth and which in today’s time is considered as no or less growth. Let’s take the example of the admission process of an institution using the manual process. It starts from a long queue for the admission form and ends with a lot of documentation from both ends for enrollment, right? It becomes a hectic, long, and confusing process for students, faculty, and staff. So it is the right time for institutions that are still operating with manual processes to understand and choose to move towards automation of each process in the institution.

  • Situation 2 

Semi-Automation

In my opinion, there are various higher education and K12 institutions that have opted for semi-automation. Semi-automation is considered as the situation in which institutions opt for individual software to automate some of the processes of the institution like the Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance the learning experience of students, Tally to audit databases, and various others. I think this eases out the work but initially, it increases the chances of more confusion among the administrator and faculty as multiple software increases the need for multiple hands to operate and track each data.

Institutions must opt for an ERP along with some of this software, as it helps in storing and tracking all the data from one single software that can be used by any of the administrators, faculty, or staff members. A good ERP system also avails interoperability of other software along with the ERP. It manages all the operations from admission to the alumni and the student giving easier and more efficient access to everyone available in the institute.

  • Situation 3 

Having an inefficient ERP System
Once I visited a higher education institution, they already had an ERP system that they were using to operate several tasks like admission, fee, examination, and many others, but to my surprise, I found that they have witnessed the same growth even after using the ERP system for their academic and administrative operations. Then I checked with each team who was operating the system what was the issue, it amazed me more when I found the real issue was the ERP itself. It was hard to understand for a normal faculty or student, it was not easy to operate, and it does not even have a mobile app to provide easier access to students.

So as per my experience, it is most important for educational institutions to choose an ERP system that provides them with complete functionalities, no or very less code language, proper training, systematic implementation, and all other important functionalities that a good, robust, and flexible ERP should have.

So this way, institutions have to analyze their position before seeking digital transformation in their institution.


Question 2

Interviewer: 

What is the training process that institutions should opt for while implementing an ERP system?  

Answer by ERP Specialist: 

Hmm, the answer to this is also quite interesting, because various institutions opt for an ERP system but fail to seek a proper training process for administrators and faculty which leads to the unsuccessful implementation of the ERP system. Institutions must choose a perfect ERP system leading to proper training from the implementation team of the ERP vendor company. 

An institution must check every detail before seeking for implementation of the ERP software, the training and implementation team will include these steps:

  • Firstly, the ERP implementation team should visit each campus of the institution to analyze the current working process and the needs of the staff and administrators. 
  • After understanding the needs and working process of the institute, the institute must focus on initiating the training process of the administrators and staff who are going to operate the software in the future. 
  • As the last step, the training and implementation team must check that everyone in the institute is comfortable with using the software and is initiating all the processes like the admission process and all the other processes effectively using the software. 

Question 3

Interviewer:

Is change management important or should it be avoided? 

Answer by ERP Specialist:

I think this is high time for educational institutions to opt for change, and a good ERP system can help them in initiating this process. Although institutions must opt for the proper change management process before initiating any kind of new implementation in the organization. 

Now, if you are thinking about what change management is and why it is important, let me help you understand it properly. Change management is an art, that requires a careful balance between faculty, processes, and technology in the context of an educational institution. It needs continuous judgment, evolution, and strategic decisions at each end, and the first one to implement is choosing a good and best ERP software. In my opinion, Academia ERP is one of the best, most flexible, and scalable ERP software that provides the best technology adoption to institutions who even are far away from advanced technologies in their institute.

Question 4

Interviewer:

Is inadequate budget can also be a problem while implementing an ERP system? 

Answer by ERP Specialist:

There is nothing like an inadequate budget, if a higher education institution focuses on bringing advancement and growth they can manage any circumstance. I mean, educational institutions need to understand that an ERP system is a step that can help them in achieving new goals along with more opportunities, it leads to systematic management of all the academic and administrative tasks in the institute. 

Institutions who are having a tight budget must choose a very good and reasonable ERP system that can provide them with bringing automation and digital transformation to their institution. Here it is also important that institutions must find a good ERP system, as in search of a reasonable software compromising the success that a good ERP software can provide can also become a mistake for an institution’s growth.

Question 5

Interviewer: 

What is the common mistake that most institutions make while having an ERP implementation?

Answer by ERP Specialist: 

Educational institutions need to understand that successful ERP implementation can help the overall educational institution with streamlining workflow, optimizing costs, and the systematic arrangement of all the academic and administrative tasks. But institutions must avoid these common mistakes:

  • Not able to explain proper requirements to ERP vendor
  • Not taking into account the end-users that are individual department heads
  • Implementing the ERP software just after one initial discussion
  • Not having regular maintenance

Last Conversation:

Interviewer: I hope this knowledge given to you will help educational institutions when they focus on striving for digital transformation in their institution. Any recommendations that you wanna give to our readers while selecting an ERP software vendor. 

Answer by ERP Specialist:

Yes, of course, I would suggest institutions opt for a good, scalable, robust, and flexible ERP system in their institute, they must need to be very careful while selecting the ERP software. I would recommend checking with Academia, it is one of the best and award-winning software that provides one of the best institutional management in all prospects avoiding all the major mistakes we have talked about in this session. 

5 Reasons Why ERP In Education Is the Need of the Hour

Education technology is paving the way for the digital development of several institutes. Students are the most important part of this chain. 

Catching the pace of students and their tech-savvy parents is now a crucial aspect of the education industry. Quality education, modern infrastructure, and a digitized management system are some of the crucial aspects they look for in education institutions.

Following this trend, the education management system or education ERP is now becoming the need of the hour. It helps streamline and integrate the complete administration processes of institutes.

What is ERP in Education?

ERP in education, usually known as a Student Information System (SIS) is an enterprise software solution to manage the complete student life cycle. It is also integrated with multiple software programs to manage departments of educational institutions.

With the help of Education ERP, it is possible to manage complete admission processes, enable online payments, monitor student records, handle human resource management, and much more.

Check this out to know more in detail about education ERP.

Here are 5 reasons why Education ERP is the need of the hour for the education sector.

1.   Prompt decision making

Imagine you have access to all the information about your business, and you can see whatever you want whenever you want. How helpful that can be!

Now you can take decisions faster, solve product, service, or employee issues more efficiently and track your business data at the click of a button. 

Just like business enterprises, educational institutes including schools and colleges also have many processes that include not only managing students and classrooms but also all sorts of administrative activities. 

With Education Management Software, the heads of institutes can take decisions quicker than with manual reports. A key feature such as generating thousands of reports with a display of data can help an institute scale rapidly and effectively. 

2.   Integrated management

If you are from the accounting department and you want to know if a student has submitted the hostel registration fee at the time of admission, you would ideally send an email or dial a number to check with the corresponding authority for details.

Ever wondered how much time gets lost in this simple process, especially while tracking thousands of students and their records?

Whichever department you are from, this software offers you the privilege to access information, you can check all details and more without any hassle, helping the staff utilize time better.

Not just the administration, but the faculty too is able to save time in attendance records management, exam and result executions, which ultimately helps them focus more on their teaching.

3. Smooth processes

This is one of the most important benefits of ERP in education. With multiple integrations of software systems, it becomes easy to regulate all the processes on a single platform.

ERP impacts all the functions across departments and removes manual intervention as much as possible. This, in turn, makes the execution of processes smooth, leading to increased efficiency and greater control of the system.

It gives the admin the power to connect and maintain data in the most efficient and effective way. Moreover, it also helps in improving communication and ensuring transparency.

4.   Increased communication

An education institution consists of three important pillars i.e. students, teachers, and parents. To run it successfully, it is important to enable strong communication between all three of them. This helps them stay updated on the activities as well as understand their expectations from the institute.

Student Management System helps institutes execute this. With a portal that has students, teachers, and parents together, the information becomes easily accessible and shareable.

Teachers can distribute assignments and check an individual’s performance via their portal anytime they want. They can also keep records on attendance, and overall performance and help students perform better wherever they lack.

Students, on the other hand, can stay updated with events, attendance, fee details, and other circulars. Similarly, the portal can help parents access their child’s progress from time to time.   

5.   More transparency and trust

It is a fact that fair communication brings transparency among people leading to an increase in trust. If employees and other stakeholders are updated with the information on a real-time basis and informed regularly, it builds their trust and respect towards an organization. 

The same goes for educational institutions. With the help of ERP, it can easily update teachers, students, and parents with relevant information. Automatic information on exams, events, circulars, assignments, and more increases the productivity of the institute.

What is your reason to use ERP in your institute?

Want to know more about ERP? Talk to us now! 

Why ERP Software Became a Compelling Necessity for Education System?

Obviously, it had to be. In this growing world and on the edge of the internet, automation is more of a necessity than a luxury. Its pretty much clear that imparting of education has also evolved in a matter of years, definitely for better. Ease of communication, the speed of the internet, and automation provided by ERP have been a big part of this. Let’s discuss further over it that how these essentials elements are helping create a difference in the world and specifically in education sector all over the world.

why erp-how education erp benefits-how to choose erp for your institute-best factors of ERPManagement has always been a complex task. Technology can improve institutional management to help deliver a better learning experience to students. The perfect ERP solution can simplify and improvise the process. Here are some ways in which one might benefit and a look at some of the potential challenges.

1. Centralization

One of the best factors of ERP is that it will help you create centralization of the information of overall institute or university. Access to data of overall institute at one single place brings inefficiency. Institutes have started shifting towards this kind of management systems. Education ERP software makes it possible to maintain and share all the stored data across various departments easily. Information can also be updated in real time by faculties, students, or institute staff members, and can be accessed from anywhere. In addition to that, information can be managed more securely with an enterprise software since it allows institutes to provide controlled access to stored information person to person according to their designations. Education ERPs can also help you centralize the management of data for resources like your institute’s library, accounting etc.

2. Resource Management

Managing resources for institutes and universities is a big task to be handled which can be easily done by ERP solutions. It can allow you to track all the utilities available in the institute and therefore keep a real-time overview on it. Most institutes report that by using Educations ERPs the functionality of task gets optimizes. Not only this, but the automated generated reports give a clear and transparent view of resources and hence will help in management really well.

3. Simplified Accessibility

A common platform for all students and faculties to share assignments, task etc and submission as well. Declaration of results can also be done through this platform which helps in the ease of mobile access. It can further make tasks such as student admission, fee payment, course enrolments and registrations faster and less cumbersome. A side bonus is that by eliminating a lot of the paperwork that is involved, institutes are cutting down on mailing costs. And finally, many educational ERP software support online payments making an institution’s accounting more organized and streamlined.

However, it is difficult for institutes to transform their manual processes to complete automation but honestly, that is what is needed for an institute to succeed as of now. These ERPs are definitely a big and thoughtful investment but surely should be chosen.
Get a free demo by clicking here ERP Software Demo.

Why User Experience Matters in ERP Selection

User Experience or Customer Experience is essential in today’s age and world. Many organization is optimizing their user experience to meet customer expectations. Failing to optimize the user experience can harm your business and you may not be able to achieve expected results.

Education management system i.e. Educational ERP’s plays an important role in the overall process beginning from admissions, the inquiry goes via examination, transport, hostel to completion and alumni, etc. These functions are the core functions of an educational institution and therefore these require everyday updating and hence it is important for an education ERP to be user-friendly.

But the campus/college management system many times attract a bad reputation for not being particularly user-friendly. Densely packed interfaces, disturbing workflows, and the need for users to navigate endless screens to complete transactions result in confusion and frustration. Improving user engagement is key.

To ensure high user engagement it is important to have a deep understanding of user’s behavior, similarly, for enterprise applications, it’s also necessary to have an insight into their roles in their professional setting and the ease of use that the system can provide to them on a daily basis. Enterprise applications can also look to provide its users with a fresh, clutter-free User Interface which breaks away from the mundane settings and allows the user to interact with the system in an intuitive way.

The rapidly changing industry demands that stress is laid on end-to-end customer experience. This is important because the end-to-end experience covers all aspects such as how easy it is to learn the product, perform on the product, and also how the vendor responds to any customer issues and problems. All these factors matter a lot in the enterprise IT business as the usage of the product is constant and thus the support needs to be spot on as well. With new dimensions and new technologies kicking in the industry, user experience and purchase patterns have really changed and matured over time. The advent and use of cloud technology prove to be sizeable leverage for customers in technology purchasing decisions.

How to build better customer experience capabilities

  • What your customer feels: Know about the customer’s feelings if they are delighted or frustrated with the product or maybe the services provided. You will have to stand strong against your competitors in the industry and keep addressing any or all of the issues that are reported by your customers. Improving the end-user experience should always be thought of at first while decision making.
  • Find the right way out: As suggested that during the decision making the customers and their experience should be thought of first, therefore you should always fall in line with the alignment of the critical issues that are reported and competitive situations. You will have to continuously work upon it to bring in cent percent results.
  • Create a plan of action: Design a super awesome customer experience system by creating a closed feedback loop of current customers. The continuous effort of improving the end-to-end system and fixing all the issues will create customer loyalty and lower down the rate of losing customers which will ultimately result in overall benefits.
  • Change the mindset: Instill a business culture and create systems based on customer experience. Most companies in the IT industry follow a trend of promising a good user experience that is never backed up by an actual one, these will find it difficult to improvise. But the market is all set to roll now and these types of companies will not be able to cope up in the long run without perusing change.
  • Be patient: Recognize that it’s a long journey. Commit to bringing your customer experience in line with your promises.

To have an amazing user experience of our world-class education ERP, book a free demo now:

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