According to a 2019 industry report, most employees working on the ground level of higher education establishments without custom ERP solutions, reported in a survey that they do not believe that the institution that employs them manages back-office functions effectively, and they believe that efficiency is lost because of it.
Out of those who provided answers in the survey, approximately half of them said about their higher educational establishments:
- They still use multiple administration systems instead of one single system, which is certainly not a custom ERP solution.
- They do not believe that their current technology provides the necessary insights to improve decision-making.
- Their current system will not allow for the streamlining and optimising of important processes or that inefficiencies can be made obsolete.
As hard as higher education institutions cling to their outdated traditions, in order to stay competitive, they will need to transform their establishment to keep up with student and faculty demand.
What is ERP in higher education?
ERP, which is short for Enterprise Resource Planning, automates and integrates an educational institution’s core functions so that the focus is on efficiency and simplification for increased productivity.
An ERP combines the functionality around student information systems (SIS), school administration software, human resources, and financial management into one easy-to-use system that can be accessed across departments.
Benefits of a custom ERP solution in higher education
ERP systems are nothing new to corporations who have been using them for decades to manage their core business processes.
Higher education, however, has been slow to embrace new technology including ERP but many have made the move toward using the software in order to stay competitive.
Custom ERP solutions are beneficial to institutions by greatly streamlining operational processes, providing meaningful insights, enhancing the overall student experience, and simplifying faculty tasks.
Primary benefits of Custom ERP solutions include:
- One system for all operational processes, campus wide.
- Improved communications between the establishment, parent, student and faculty.
- Reduced or total elimination of manual processes, enabling a paperless facility.
- Enhanced decision making because you have insights, sophisticated data analysis and various reports at your fingertips, which leads to decreased business risks.
- Self-service functionality for lecturers and students.
- Improved record keeping and data storage, all in real time.
- Enhanced organisation and streamlined processes for maximum productivity and efficiency.
- Increased income and decreased expenses due to improved efficiency.
- Automation of student registration, and all the processes that go with it.
How to choose the right custom ERP solution
Whenever an establishment decides to make a transition, it is critical that the technology be chosen according to strategy instead of the system dictating the strategy.
Each college or university has different needs, and it’s important to find the right software to accommodate those needs, otherwise you won’t be doing your institution any favours.
We recommend getting together the relevant parties that work directly with your core operational processes and having a few brainstorming sessions that act as a “wish list” of how processes can be simplified and made faster.
Once it’s understood what features are necessary, and what your current processes are, as well as what’s necessary to fulfill them, then you can begin to research various technologies and software development companies to make comparisons.
What is of key importance in an ERP software solution?
- The features needed to not only perform but improve the current operational processes. Where software lacks a feature required, we recommend you look for technology that is customisable.
- Data security is essential, because not only do you need to protect the institution’s data, but that of students.
- It must offer the ability to be a custom ERP solution so that the facility gets optimal use out of it, and that it can be branded under the institution’s name. It must be flexible enough to do what you need it to do.
- It must be able to integrate with other software, so that processes can be streamlined and work in harmony.
- It must be able to upgrade easily without issues.
How Adapt IT Education’s ERP solution can be customised
Adapt IT Education are ERP developers that understand higher education. We offer a comprehensive ERP software solution to more than 200 tertiary institutions worldwide.
The difference is that our work with higher education institutions spans more than 33 years, and so we offer not only our ITS Integrator ERP technology, but we also have and keep developing a broad range of software and ad-on products that address the unique challenges of the higher education sector, unlocking more and more meaningful levels of performance for establishments.
Our ITS Integrator product suite, and a custom ERP solution where required, includes:
- Student Management System
- Financial Management System
- Student Finance Management Systems
- Personnel Management System
- Payroll System
Adapt IT Education’s ITS Integrator is fully customisable to enhance the functionality to meet an institution’s specific requirements, and we even offer custom ERP software development maintenance contracts to ensure that the technology is fully maintained and upgraded to later releases of the product suite, all without effort on your part.
Conclusion
The right ERP solution will transform an institution, and the result is increased profit and greater faculty and student satisfaction.
