Educational institutes usually have multiple departments, courses, staff and facilities like hostels, transport services, seminar halls, libraries etc. Managing these is a very difficult, hard, and expensive task. An ERP system can help in integrating and streamlining these operations from a single platform.
In this blog post, we’ll tell you why an ERP system is essential for educational institutes and how to implement the software efficiently.
Technology has touched every part of our lives. Public and private organizations recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic are rapidly adopting new technologies to return to normalcy. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, originally developed for the manufacturing industry, has expanded its user base to other sectors, including education.
What is ERP Software?
Think about all the processes needed to run a school or college. These include staff, and student management, admissions, classrooms, finances, and others. An ERP platform integrates all these core processes into a single system. It provides a set of tools to help schools, colleges and other educational institutes in the planning and management of their processes, such as student admissions, courses, library, salaries, finances, etc. The system streamlines and automates processes to drive operational efficiency, reduce the cost of operations and enhance Return on Investment (RoI).
If you need expert assistance in selecting, implementing and customizing ERP applications, Gemini Consulting & Services can help. We have a decade long experience in working with private and public organizations and helping them leverage ERP. Get in touch with us to avail customized services to select and deploy ERP.
How ERP Benefits Educational Institutes
An ERP system can significantly improve all the processes.
- Admission Process: The student enrollment process is very important but can be complicated and lengthy. Generally, schools and colleges devote a lot of resources to it. An ERP system can simplify and speed up the process by automating various activities such as admission inquiry, application submission, application status, fee collection support etc., so much so that the entire process can be made online and conducted with minimal manpower.
- Course Management: Educational institutions have multiple departments offering a number of courses. Managing all the programs, courses and students can become challenging. ERP software can help schools and colleges in managing all their programs and courses effortlessly. You can map programs with courses, students, attendance, credits, etc., and get complete visibility. This will help you manage these activities better.
- Staff Management: Schools and colleges also have staff, including teachers, educators, service managers and other support staff. You need to manage their salaries, attendance, leaves, and timesheet. ERP system can help you automate all these processes so that you can effectively manage the human resources without any hassles.
- Transport Management: Generally, most schools and colleges offer transport services to their students. They have buses, drivers, routes, schedules, tracking systems and maintenance of vehicles to manage. ERP software can help you manage your transport services easily. It can help you in planning routes, scheduling drivers, planning vehicle maintenance etc. It can also facilitate real-time tracking of vehicle location.
- Financial Management: Managing the finances of schools and colleges is not easy. Fee collection, grants, scholarships, bills, staff salaries and other operating costs take a lot of resources. ERP software allows you to manage it from one place. It also supports data synchronization and automation of bill generation, invoice payments etc. For example, as soon as the admission department enters the record of a new student, a fee invoice would be automatically generated. The finance department doesn’t have to again enter the details of the student.
- Information Flow: Educational institutes have started to break silos and are taking an integrated approach to drive efficiency in their processes. This requires smooth sharing of data between departments and seamless communication flow. ERP facilitates data sharing in a secured manner and enhances information flow across the organization by playing the role of a centralized platform. All the data is uploaded to the ERP system and from there it can be accessed by other departments as per the access rules and protocols pre-defined in the system.
- Analytics & Insights: Data is the new oil. But data needs to be processed to extract reports and insights. These insights can help you identify gaps and opportunities in your processes and improve. For example, an ERP can alert you when the dropout rates become unusually high and help you identify the reasons behind it.
ERP Implementation Tips for the Educational Institutes
- Prepare your organization for ERP. ERP software will change the way you work. So, start by understanding its impact and prepare your people for it.
- Understand your needs before shopping for the ERP. Start with a detailed analysis of your business requirements and future needs to identify what you want from the ERP.
- Determine the total cost of ERP. You will not only be paying for software licenses but also on implementation and maintenance.
- Test the system rigorously before going live. Failure can lead to reputation loss and inconvenience.
- Start small and grow big. Implement ERP in phases. Start with one process or a department and later go organization wide.
