The true value of school management software

A technology is as useful as the criticality of the pain point it resolves. A solution built from that technology may be state-of-the-art, but if it does not solve the purpose or isn’t aligned well with the on-ground objective, it certainly won’t qualify as the best technology that delivers.

Similarly, a school management software can have a thousand functions, but if the school administration just makes use of 8- 10 features, they are effectively paying for the remaining features that are not in use, thus perpetuating the cost per student (or user) of the application, depending on how the billing is structured.

The best school management software systems typically have a group of core features that are must use solutions by any school. The remaining features can then be upscaled as per the need – the complexity of the inhouse functions, the student strength of the school or institution, etc. Number of features as a passing criterion for a school management software has long taken a pass from the minds of business decision makers. It is often the support services, add-ons and ancillary advantages that come with the school management software that not only decide the fate of one’s purchasing decision, but also the overall performance of the solution in the market.

Many of the existing benefits derived from an academic management system can be summarised in the following:

• Productivity and efficiency: A school management software increases the productivity of teachers, students, parents and associated staff with on-demand access to educational material, effective & transparent tracking of evaluation, better student-teacher collaboration and better transparency with parents.

• Capture and maintenance of records: Electronic capture of attendance, transportation, financial and educational records releases the pressure on manpower employed for this purpose to maintain the documentation associated with these functions in a school.

• Communications and cost savings: Timely communications from a school management software about the academic progress and updates of a child through SMS, emails and push notifications on mobile leads to all stakeholders being on the same page with clear and concise understanding of the current position and desired benchmarks. It also reduces costs and logistics involved in communication on the institution’s end.

Along with the above, the best school management software systems value additions go a little deeper while ensuring the last mile data security, support with infrastructure and services and student’s data maintenance across its entire lifecycle. Let’s understand each one of these, one by one!

1. Data security: “Data is the new gold”. Evidently, laws and frameworks are built around data to ensure that information as critical as a student’s marksheet or his/her disciplinary record during their entire school year, voluntary services and extra-curricular records are given the adequate security. Laws like COPPA, FERPA, GDPR, etc. provide similar guidelines and only the best school management software systems in the market like Eduwonka can deliver this.

2. Support: Leveraging the maximum out of a school management software requires support on infrastructure and services coupled with its regular features. A simple SaaS deployment where members may access their assets through a simple login on a Web browser is the best, easiest and most accountable method where the provider may charge on a per user-license basis. Making the stakeholders understand the workflows, processes and methods through which how to best utilise the software at hand, is how the “support” brings out the true value of academic management system.

3. Maintenance & risk mitigation: To decide the best course of action for how long the data will last with the institution or where the back-up for the data will be built or what if the parental consent for the usage of their child’s academic data needs modifications, a school management software must fill in the last-mile gaps for truly outshining as an end-to-end solution for managing an educational institution.

With ever-changing market dynamics and the need to bring out the best value against a price, features alone might not win the game for you. It is the value-added functions of data security, support in services and infrastructure and maintenance and risk mitigation through effectuation appropriate data lifecycles, that a school management software like Eduwonka brings in true value for its client.