Frequently Asked Questions about School ERP
A school ERP is a software system designed to digitize an institute’s day-today-operations. It is a powerful enterprise solution that adds lots of value to an educational institute by simplifying various complex tasks and reducing the burden on the school community.
In today’s world, to provide quality services to the school community, it is essential for every educational institute to digitize its daily tasks by implementing a school management solution.
School management applications have proven their benefits by making a student’s education better and boosting the productivity of an organization. These are the reasons why most schools have already implemented school ERP systems.
Choosing and implementing school ERP solutions can be intimidating, as there is some confusion around the usage and benefits of this software. Here we’ve covered the most frequently asked questions on a school ERP system.
Please keep on reading to understand the crucial details regarding a school management system:
1. What is a school ERP system and how does it work?
A school Enterprise Resource Planning system or a school management system is an application designed to plan, control, and manage various operations of a school that can include, but are not limited to; administrative tasks, billing & accounting, student & staff attendance, payroll, student information, staff information, fee management, sports management, transport management, and library management.
School enterprise solutions are designed to meet the needs of various stakeholders such as students, teachers, parents, admins, and staff. The system offers multiple customizable features as per the preference of an institution. Additionally, it also brings separate login options and access control according to the type of user.
2. Is the school management system suitable for all forms of schools?
The software is compatible with institutes of all types and sizes. It can meet the needs & varying demands of institutes such as playschool, boarding school, kindergarten, high school, special school, and more. Similar applications are also designed to support the administration processes of higher educational establishments like colleges and universities.
The school management applications are built to scale up or down according to the requirements of school authorities, students and parents. It also offers features that can be used and shared between different organizations (which will be an added advantage for organizations owned by a single group or management). The admins can also add integrations and customization options required for their institution’s work.
3. Is the School ERP system, an application designed for the PC?
School management system software comes in two major forms: self-hosted and cloud computing (which can also be in the form of SaaS, i.e., allowing applications to be built locally and deployed to a local server). The solution is always compatible with various devices such as desktops, laptops, PCs, smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices.
Choosing a web-based solution could be more beneficial as the application offers instant access & communication at any time. Additionally, cloud hosting also provides access from anywhere, better data security, and compatibility with different devices and browsers.
Smartphone-based applications also bring the advantage of easy operation, especially for teachers and parents. It smoothens the communication between the stakeholders and ensures instant updates on events and reports.
4. How does the school ERP system benefit students and parents?
School ERP solutions help to boost student performance by digitizing and simplifying their daily tasks. The application helps provide personalized education to each student, according to their learning capabilities. Students also receive access to a variety of e-content that helps in increasing their productivity.
Parents can get instant updates on all the information regarding their wards such as student behavior, attendance, grades, results, progress, fee payment, exam schedules, etc. through various modules included in the application. The regular and instant notification setups immediately notify parents regarding this information.
Parents and students enjoy the privilege of simplified bill payments, the admission process, and quick communication.
5. How does the school ERP system benefit teachers, admins, and staff?
A school management system helps in automating and streamlining several day-today-tasks so that the school can manage to do more tasks in less time, in an error-free way. The top management can generate various reports that help improve decision-making.
Several academic and nonacademic tasks can be completed with the help of a single platform.
The system is eco-friendly and requires less manual intervention, which results in saving time, effort, and a lot of paper and other resources.
Teachers can reduce their time and effort spent on academic tasks like attendance management, admission process, assigning tasks to students, timetable scheduling, etc. Students and teachers can collaborate beyond classrooms. The system allows teachers to utilize various online resources to prepare the lessons and also to keep track of individual student performances.
6. What are the costs of implementing a school ERP system?
The cost depends upon the type of package and the software provider. Free and open-source software is also available but might lack certain essential and up-to-date features.
The premium packages can differ based on plans, hosting options, and other aspects like deployment options, server resources, maintenance cost, custom plan, monthly plan, per student plan, yearly plan, etc.
Most software providers also provide several paid add-on features that the school can add to their default package.
In general, a school chooses the plan that fits its need by examining the institution’s available facilities, academic and non-academic requirements, the total budget, the number of students, etc.
7. How do smartphone-based School ERPs smoothen the communication between parents & teachers/admins?
Smartphone-based school ERP solutions are designed to improve communication and collaboration between the top management, teachers, staff, parents, and students.
Earlier, in conventional methods, parents needed to dial the front office, contact the teacher, or directly visit the institute for the admission process, fee payment, etc. But now, with the help of the school management system, all such tasks can be easily done.
A school ERP helps to provide instant communication in the form of emails, instant chats, instant notifications, group messages, private messages, audio conferencing, video conferencing, etc. Instant notifications are associated with a variety of activities and events like fee dues, behavior analysis, transportation schedules, grade books, etc., which allow parents to take quick actions, if necessary.
8. Can a school ERP solution help in conducting online classes?
Online classes can be conducted in a very smooth manner with the help of school management software. Unlike normal video conferencing apps, a school management application offers several additional features, especially for their mobile applications, for making online classes more effective.
Some service providers may offer school ERPs with modules specially designed to support online education. Most solutions also offer options to integrate your favorite video calling apps with the school software.
9. How to select a good School ERP?
Choosing the best school management system can depend on various factors. The important features to consider are data security, compatibility with multiple devices including smartphones, easy deployment, smooth operation, clear communication, user-friendly interface, integrations, add-ons & customizations, backup, terms of payment, maintenance, and technical support. Apart from these features, it is also crucial to check what type of solution you are looking for. Most software providers offer a free demo, or a trial version for a certain time period so that you can understand if it is fit for your organization.
10. Is it easy to use smartphone-based School ERP solutions?
School enterprise resource solutions are no rocket science. The applications are built-in so user-friendly manner that, with little patience, proper training, and practice, everyone including parents, students, and staff can learn how to use this system.
Features such as online payment gateways, chatboxes, SMS integrations, etc. will be familiar to the majority of the users, as these options are mostly similar to the same features of various other common applications they use for communication.
Today, the number of people who spend time on smartphones and mobile applications has increased. It is expected to keep on increasing further. The idea behind developing school apps for smartphones is to make them available for all users, increase accessibility, and enable instant communication.
When everyone is already spending enough time in front of their mobile phones, adding mobile apps with school management applications can solve many problems.
