What's a SIS?

A Student Information System or SIS is a student-centered software solution focused on a 360 degree management of students' academic life. It is designed to help the educational institutions to monitor the academic and financial behavior of students through their individual data and the information generated during their life in the educational institution.

A SIS is used as a central database for all academic operations. It manages mainly activities related to: the definition of the academic offerings, the planning of the activities, the admission of applicants, the evolution of their records and those proceedings required by students such as inscriptions, transfers, equivalences, etc.

Why choose a centralized system?

A suitable strategy of academic planning shows a fair relationship between students and teachers’ needs and the institution's resources. The idea is that students go through their educational journey in an optimal way in relation to training and time, that teachers have a coherent allocation of their class schedules and that the institution gets an efficient distribution of resources.

Also the SIS integrates all the tools associated with the academy to manage training programs, curriculums and their syllabuses. On the other hand, Administrative Systems include functionalities related to the management of products (training programs or study careers) offered to students, along with their commercial costs, discounts, promotions and scholarships, which can change from one academic period to another. This administrative management allows the combination of certain academic products, scholarships, with discounts that result in the creation of special promotions with different objectives. For instance, the generation of a special promotion granted based on the amount of admissions and enrollments on a certain period.

The Academic Record guarantees the consistency of the information, since it is the only place where the data from students' activities is stored and is made available for other system components that may require it.

As well, the Student Self-Service Portals allow users to perform several operations without the help of any technical area staff. In addition, Messaging Systems allow the centralized management of all kinds of notifications via email, warnings, participation in forums, chats, among others.

All these services and functionalities are centralized through the SIS, fostering efficient communication among each system.

What kind of systems can integrate a SIS?

Basically any of them. A SIS is the central component that is linked with the main systems that take part in the educational world: the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) from Marketing; the Content Management System (CMS) to manage institutional web content; the Learning Management System (LMS) where students access to training program content and attend their classes; the CRM of requests management and students support; the Assessment Management System (AMS) for examinations management; the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for administration and accounting; the FIS for teachers management and the **Business Intelligence (BI) **for the intelligence of the business.

Which are the advantages of implementing a SIS?

• It improves and facilitates the students' experience. The use of technology with a center in Students Experience (rather than in the Owner Experience) implies simplicity when using applications and solving people's needs, making them more autonomous and independent.
• Commercial and institutional competitiveness. Through the obtained data, the BI and Machine Learning Systems generate information that institutions can use to become more competitive in the market, offering training programs based on abilities and assuring financing opportunities to the public, marketing campaigns for sales or retention, mail tasks, among others.
• Optimization of the economic and financial resources. Every task in processes executed by students, teachers and co-teachers are recorded in the system. This fact allows institutions to audit these actions and carry out a follow-up on the academic performance of the courses taken and taught, of the academic programs, of the time, resources and human capital.

Use Case: Universidad Siglo 21

One of our main clients and partners that we accompany in all its processes and paths towards the digital transformation is Universidad Siglo 21 , an educational institution that constantly supports technological innovation, making education available in every corner of the country and with international projections.

Some data that fully describe this institution are: it contains to more than 80,000 students across the country, it offers more than 70 undergraduate degree programs and more than 30 graduate studies and courses. The virtual course modality is present in around 85% of the training programs. With presence in 23 provinces of Argentina including Buenos Aires, it has more than 320 University Learning Centers throughout the country and more than 1,200 teachers and researchers working in teams.

With Siglo 21, we work collaboratively in the development and implementation of the SIS according to their particular needs and the technological trends that best adapt to academic scenarios.

The systems that integrate the SIS are:

• A CRM (Marketing): A Marketing Tool for campaigns. -> Hubspot.
• A CMS: Content Manager that builds the institutional website, the e-commerce and any other micro site that is required by the educational institution. -> Strapi
• An LMS: Learning Management System where students can access the training program content and attend their courses. -> Canvas
• A CRM (Support): Requests Management Tool, Ticketing and Student Support Center-> Zendesk
• An AMS: A Management System for “Authoring”, “Delivery” and “Proctoring” of examinations. - > Q System
• An ERP: A tool on the accounting level, with functionalities used for Administration and Payment Methods - > SAP
• A FIS: Teachers and Faculty Management System, etc. - > HR Factor
• BI: Systems of Business Intelligence.
• An IAM: System of Identity, Password and Login management.

If you found this interesting…

If you have reached the end of the article and would like to deepen on the subject, to look for future possibilities for your institution or company, do not hesitate to contact us.

We promote projects with a thorough knowledge of processes and technology and accompany the digital transformation of organizations from start to finish. We help to accelerate the way towards innovation and modernization of the technological architecture of businesses, allowing you to obtain the flexibility, scalability and mainly adaptability to the near future world.

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