Making adjustments to the existing campus SIS and ERP systems could save educators, faculty, and students a huge amount of time and peace of mind – it’s time to turn this goal into an operational reality.
When it comes to campuses around the world, virtually all education administrators and leaders want one thing – seamless productivity. And with the technology at our disposal today, this goal of ultimate productivity can easily be achieved, if only we start to monitor and rethink how our campus information systems operate.
It’s time for them to start working together as one. But before we go over how SIS and ERP systems can work together, let’s clarify what each one is.
What is an SIS?
SIS stands for “Student Information System” and is essentially a computer software system that houses and manages a range of information about a campus’s student population.
Authorized staff members of a school’s administration commonly use SIS to view, update, and report on student records.
What is an ERP?
ERP or “Enterprise Resource Planning” is a type of software that organizes and manages day-to-day administrative tasks such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management, and compliance, and supply chain operations.
A full ERP program can also include enterprise performance management, which is software that helps businesses or entities plan, predict, budget, and report on financials.
It’s About Time for a System Update
All too often, campus operations are outdated, time-consuming and an overall waste of human resources.
When we look at, for example, the inconvenient gap in data communication between registration offices and student admission departments, the problem areas become crystal clear.
Most administration offices use a variety of data input tools in order to manage students’ personal information.
But this data is usually not immediately shared with the respective registration office, resulting in campus faculty needing to transfer high volumes of data and ultimately doing a job twice, when it should be possible to finish the job in one fell swoop.
What an Integrated SIS ERP System Would Look Like
If campus administration staff has access to a fully integrated SIS ERP system, the workload could be nearly halved, saving everyone time for productivity in other areas.
A fully integrated SIS ERP system would have the capacity to attach an individual student’s personal information and current and previous learning milestones directly to their registration file.
Such information on hand could save educators and admins countless hours of data input, especially during the busiest times of the school year.
While most ERP systems today are responsible for housing campus operation data such as campus security, human resources, and financial management, it wouldn’t be impossible to seamlessly add on helpful SIS data as well.
The combination of both SIS and ERP systems would allow for easy communication between campus departments and hassle-free scheduling, done in real-time.
Integrating SIS ERP Systems & Helping Campuses Beyond Productivity
Productivity and administrative functionality aside, an integrated SIS ERP system could drastically improve the student experience. Which ultimately will help boost student retention rates.
Meeting Students’ Expectations
Investing in a campus’s digital network performance can be beneficial in many different areas. One prominent area is students’ high standards for things like internet speed and productivity.
Thanks to our world’s heavy reliance on the internet, young people today expect nothing less than high internet speeds and quick and easy access to their class schedules and administrative information.
Seamless Systems Make Learning Easy
When a campus has a fast and reliable internet connection in major common areas like the library, outdoor gathering spaces, and classrooms, they are much more likely to report students having a satisfying learning experience and are therefore more likely to meet their learning goals.
And when students’ satisfaction and performance rates go up everyone benefits.
How to Choose the Best SIS ERP System
For those that are ready to make the shift in campus system operations, there is usually one hurdle standing in their way – where to start and what higher education implementation company to go with.
Luckily, there are companies out there that specialize in exactly that – helping businesses and leaders get off to the best start possible when choosing an implementation partner.
LISTedTECH is “a market research firm that tracks systems used in education”. As stated on their website, part of their mission is to help colleges, universities, consultants, edtech companies, and private equity firms leverage data to understand the education world better and target future customers.
