20 April 2023

Change is all around us, and it’s no different when it comes to technology and the IT systems that education institutions are using. Systems that, rather than support the organisation, hinder them. Staff are left spending far too much time managing multiple disparate systems and implementing manual workarounds to get the job done, leading to data inconsistency, a lack of transparency and reporting, and a poor user experience.

Today’s issues

It’s not uncommon to experience issues with your IT environment. We have narrowed down the key areas in which education institutions are experiencing the most issues.

Legacy footprint of core systems

Education sector users with legacy and “on Premise” systems are unable to meet their growing needs and struggle to keep up with demands, impacting overall growth and contributing to a high cost of support and maintenance.

Alignment with business objective

Aligning goals and objectives is difficult and critical to the success of any digital transformation initiative, but it is essential to avoid costly budget overruns.

Lack of skilled IT workforce

Education sector users often lack appropriately skilled IT personnel with the right experience to lead key transformation initiatives.

Adoption of new platforms

Although keeping up to date with the changes may feel overwhelming, new and emerging technologies are key to ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and reliability. However, adoption can be difficult and seen by staff as a threat.

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation initiatives can impact focus on day-to-day operations and are complex for a school or college to execute without the right support. The key here being the right support.

What tomorrow might look like

We envision that technology in the education sector will be driven by modernisation, improved user experience, automation, remote access, and enhanced productivity.

Modernisation

Modernisation of core systems helps to build a future ready state, delivering maximum value through digital investment providing a competitive advantage.

Improving user experience

By better understanding the behaviours of staff, students, and parents based on demographic, geographic and usage data, the institution can profile each segment and plan accordingly.

Automation

Automation reduces time spent performing manual tasks, the need to remember complicated processes, and significantly reduces the risk of errors in the data.

Remote access to skill

By outsourcing expertise, education institutions can maintain the focus on their core activities, streamline operations and reduce costs that will support growth opportunities.

Enhanced productivity

By removing time consuming, repeatable tasks through automation, institutions can instantly improve their employee’s experience, which leads to reduced staff turnover, higher levels of enthusiasm, increased capacity in their roles, and more.

Challenges in getting there

Below are just some of the reasons we have found as to why institutions are struggling to move to more innovative, efficient systems.

How can Findex get you there?

Application Assessment

Application Assessment provides a health check of current applications, identifying potential issues and highlighting areas for improvement and potential upgrade.

Application Strategy

Application Strategy assists organisations to ensure that its applications meet the required goals of the education institution and alignment with processes using emerging technologies, reducing costs and improve efficiency.

Architecture

Architecture reviews and optimizes the overall IT framework of an education institution, ensuring that its Enterprise, Solution, Application, Data and Security Architecture align with goals.

Digital Strategy

Digital Strategy provides access to research and analysis, industry ICT benchmarking data and toolsets to support the creation of the transformation roadmap to achieve its digital ambitions.

RFP Advice

RFP advice supports go-to-market and procurement of IT services, ensuring requirements are clearly defined and that a well-controlled vendor selection process is performed.

Find out more about how Findex can help your education institution via our website, and get in touch for specific advice for your circumstance.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the thought or position of Findex Group Limited.