Managing an entire school’s operations can be quite taxing, hectic, and chaotic, especially when you are using legacy management systems and dated practices to keep things running. There are so many areas that need to be handled with a great deal of expertise. Administration, admissions, accounting, marketing, student attendance, and security are just some of the things school administrators and operators deal with on a regular basis.
With so much going on, it is no wonder why many administrators, educators, and school operators are instantly hyped up with the arrival of the school management software. It’s basically a school ERP software, bringing all information, operations, tasks, schedules, and more into a unified environment, enabling users to fully optimize their processes and become more efficient and productive than ever.
But what exactly can a school management system do for your academic institution? The following are some of the glaring benefits.
1. Transition To Paperless Administration
School management software enables schools, colleges, and other academic institutions to graduate from paper-based school administration to paperless management. Users are able to move their tasks, information, communication, and other processes online and into the cloud.
Generating reports no longer means printing out reams of paper. Communication is no longer limited to notes and letters. Instead, sharing course modules can be done online. Accessing information is also a breeze as users can view the data they need via their desktop or mobile device. It eliminates the need to print files and store them in folders and cabinets.
As your school goes paperless, it dramatically minimizes its carbon footprint, which helps in sustaining the environment. Paperless administration also means huge savings for your organization as it greatly reduces your need for paper, printing equipment, and other supplies.
2. Capture, Track, and Manage School-Related Data
One can only imagine how tough it can be to manually collect, sort, and organize school-related information. Working with mountains of data from various areas such as student management, finance and accounting, faculty and HR departments, admissions, and more can be overwhelming, to say the least.
School management software enables you to automatically gather information from multiple sources and put them in a single place. Most school management platforms come with an inbuilt school information management system that helps you centralize and synchronize data across different systems and devices.
Synchronization and data updates are automated, which means you and your users work only with a single version of truth. Information access can also be tailored according to user roles and permissions. This ensures that everyone can view and retrieve the information they need while protecting other data from unauthorized access.
3. Enhance Communication and Collaboration
Since everything is centralized and transparent, communication and collaboration are greatly enhanced. Many school management solutions come with internal communication capabilities to streamline interaction between staffers, teachers, and departments.
Specific portals and online communities for students and parents are also provided to speed up the delivery of news, updates, and other messages. Said capabilities encourage interaction and participation as well.
In a few clicks, school management can quickly send emails, newsletters, and SMS messages to all parties. In some instances, push notifications are deployed to make sure all parties are alerted. With that, everyone is virtually in the loop.
4. Increase Productivity
With a school management platform, accountants can quickly access information from other departments and generate comprehensive reports in minutes. Faculty and staff can submit leave requests digitally, without having to fill out paper forms and physically pass them to their superiors.
Meanwhile, students can open their online accounts and view their assignments, open their course modules, and submit essays using their mobile devices from anywhere and at any given time. Administration staff can peek into their inventory and confidently make decisions without having to physically check their stock.
Every person in your school will see their productivity increase significantly. Having a school management software running in the background enables you to function with full confidence and motivation because you know the information you are working with is reliable and updated.
Automation speeds things up so you don’t have to waste time and resources on repetitive tasks. This means you can focus on other priorities and accomplish more stuff than ever.
5. Empower Students To Perform Better
Students need timely and immediate access to their courses and instructional materials, as well as unhindered communication lines to their instructors, fellow students, and the school administration.
School management software integrates with a plethora of learning management systems to help teachers create and share effective courses and training programs. Such integration allows for easy management and monitoring of students’ progress and performance.
Teachers can easily identify a student’s strengths and areas of concern, enabling them to devise learning programs that motivate students to achieve success and accelerate their learning process.
School management systems work wonders when integrated with LMS for K-12 and higher education. It enables schools to create a positive and lasting impact on their students’ learning capabilities at a young age and sustain it throughout their academic growth.
6. Improve School’s Digital and Premise Security
Working with tons of information, including sensitive details such as personal and contact data, financial information, and more demands top-notch information security. School management software has inbuilt security mechanisms and protocols to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and cyber threats.
While data is centralized and accessible by users via any device, the administration can place certain restrictions on users based on their roles, job description, and tier access, ensuring they only access data that pertains to their functions.
Aside from safeguarding information and other digital assets, a school management system can be used to bolster your school’s visitor management software. Data from your visitor management system can be uploaded and synchronized with your school management software and vice versa. When these two systems communicate and interface seamlessly, it adds another layer of security or protection over your school.
A 2016 research on school safety identified 12 technologies that will help increase security, particularly in K-12 schools. These technologies include ID verification, visitor management, and real-time communication between schools and law enforcement.
Features such as photo-biometric identification, visitor check-in/out, visitor monitoring, and automated photo ID verification dramatically increase the security of your school’s premises, keeping students, teachers, school employees, and other personnel safe from grave harm and danger.
7. Utilize School Resources Efficiently
Your school certainly has the equipment, vehicles, facilities, and other assets. All of which are designed to serve single or multiple purposes. The question is, are you able to really maximize the use of your assets?
With school management software, you have a complete picture of all your resources and facilities. It allows you to make viable schedules for their use as well as maintenance and repair. This means you can optimize your resources, get great value for your investment, and prolong their service lives until it’s time for replacement, disposal, or renovation.
Expert Advice On Picking The Right School Management Software
The school management software market is teeming with great products and packages. In fact, it is a growing industry. Research firm Markets&Markets published a 2016-2021 forecast on the Education ERP market, predicting a massive 15.9% CAGR within the said time frame. The industry was pegged at $6.77 billion value and will grow to $14.19 billion at the end of the forecast period.
There are several considerations that you need to mull over before making a purchase decision. The school management software price, its features, versatility, and scalability, among others, are among the many factors that will influence your choice.
Before you dwell on these aspects, you need to determine first what your school needs. Look deep into your current system and evaluate for yourself its flaws and how you can address each hole. As your ideal school management system takes shape, you will want to talk to a vendor or provider for expert guidance.
