• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Network Security

5 Tips for Airtight Enterprise Resource Planning

With data breach risks and high administrative demands, colleges should consider these features for their ERP systems.

June 1, 2015 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

Previous Slide Next Slide

Unifies your separate systems into one

With old system technology, colleges are sometimes stuck with separate systems to handle finances and students’ information. A good ERP system will offer features that enable a college to keep its data in a single “warehouse.” Organizing data in a single location will decrease stress and frustration, and will make information access quick.

Supports mobile devices

Even though a college’s data can be stored in a single location, a good ERP system will allow that data to be accessed from any laptop, computer and mobile device. This is especially useful for students, who use their smart phones to access personal data and school information, including financial aid, bills, and class assignments. These systems will enable college administrators to control which data is available to students, while students have the freedom to access that information on the go.

Provides adequate security

With data breach risks silently slipping into databases, colleges need to make sure their ERP system provides hefty support. Some ERP systems offer support via the help desk of their providers, and equip your college’s IT department with other support options. Other systems will enable colleges to utilize Cloud services to store data, alongside cameras, data encryption and other infrastructure entities to keep your data safe.

Customize your college’s needs

Good ERP systems often can be created to serve a college’s wants and needs. Some ERP systems are designed specifically for higher education, and will already contain the necessary features a college or university needs to function properly. Otherwise, ERP systems can be crafted to cater to the needs of the school and the school’s departments, including the registrar and financial aid.

Easy to navigate

More often than not, school administrators groan at the thought of learning how to operate new hardware. Good ERP systems can be implemented onto a college’s current hardware system. When old technologies are recycled, administrators don’t have to stress about learning something new; they will still be able to utilize the old hardware just as they did before. The only difference is learning how to navigate through a new software system, which is often custom-created with ease-of-use from the get-go. Plus, when a college uses recycled hardware with a new ERP system, they can save on future hardware purchases.

Whoever said to not put all your eggs in one basket has never used an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system before.

An ERP system is your college’s digital library of information. It stores thousands of files, from students’ personal information, billing and financial information, and employee data.

Many colleges are graduating from their old ERP systems, especially if the old technology has information spread out in different locations, low security features and were not user-friendly.

ERP systems are becoming more popular in compartmentalized forms, and often contain a college’s information in a single database. Colleges, like the Justice Institute of British Columbia, invest in ERP systems that are easy to navigate, equipped with encryptions and other security elements and are customizable to the institution’s needs.

Paul Cunningham, Senior Vice President of Customer Relationships at Ellucian says that a good ERP system will assist a university with increasing student acquisition, retention and student success.

“I think that’s important because at the end of the day, it’s about the institution growing or being at their enrollment capacity,” he says. “It’s about retaining those students and making sure that they’re successful and that they get everything from the learning environment that they want to get.”

Cunningham also says that a good ERP system will be able to support the multiple segments that make up a college’s framework.

“Some institutions are extremely complex when in terms of their structure,” he says. “Think about an institution that would have a law school, a medical school, a business school. They should make sure the system is capable of supporting multiple segments of the institutional operations.”

Cunningham says colleges that are looking to install a new ERP system should do a complete requirement assessment prior to the installation. That way, colleges can ensure their unique and required capabilities are satisfied by both the vendor and enabling technologies.

“That would include things like making sure the vendor has a complete and thorough understanding of higher education,” he says. “At Ellucian, one of our selling points is that we’re all about education, that’s all we do, that’s all we know, we’ve all come from higher education.”

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!

Jessica Kennedy
Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.

Tagged With: Data Backup & Recovery, Data Collection, Data Security, Higher Ed, Storage

Related Content:

  • MIcrosoft Entra External ID Microsoft Announces Public Preview of Developer-Centric Platform Entra…
  • China, Hacking, Microsoft, Routers, Volt Typhoon Microsoft, NSA Warn of Stealthy China-Sponsored Hacking Group…
  • Red Hat Summit, AI, Enterprise Linux Red Hat Summit 2023 Releases: AI, Automation, IT…
  • Windows 11, Windows 365 Boot, IT management, privacy, security, Microsoft Releases Windows 365 Boot Preview, Windows 11…

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • Download TechDecisions' Blueprint Series report on Security Awareness now!Blueprint Series: Why Your Security Awareness Program is Probably Falling Short

    Learn about the evolution of phishing attacks and best practices for security awareness programs to ensure your organization is properly prepared to defend against them in this report from TechDecisions' Blueprint Series.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

Download TechDecisions' Blueprint Series report on Security Awareness now!
Blueprint Series: Why Your Security Awareness Program is Probably Falling Short

Learn about the evolution of phishing attacks and best practices for security awareness programs to ensure your organization is properly prepared t...

Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces
Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces

From lobbies and shared spaces to conference rooms and multipurpose facilities, you need high-performing AV technology to effectively share informa...

ChatGPT, generative AI, enterprise, workplace
Blueprint Series: ChatGPT and Generative AI in the Workplace

This latest release of the TechDecisions Blueprint Series explores the new phenomenon of tools such as ChatGPT and how IT leaders should go about d...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!
Sharp Microsoft Collaboration HQ Logo

Learn More About the
Windows Collaboration Display

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Media Solutions & Advertising
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.