How universities can accelerate their digital transformations – CIO

University leaders have long understood that the future is digital, but there’s now added urgency to modernise. The pandemic is in part the cause – highlighting that true business resilience and digital transformation are inseparable. But there are longer-term factors at play too, including the expectations of digitally native students and the requirement to provide them with work-ready skills. For these plus other reasons, universities across Europe are looking to migrate to modern, cloud-based Student Information Systems (SIS) and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to improve user experiences.

However, there remain significant barriers to the digital transformation of universities. For one, many institutions have expanded rapidly over the past two decades, while their supporting operations have developed more organically. Often this has led to the particular proliferation associated with operational workarounds rather than a cohesive operating model. This challenge is exacerbated by the complexity of existing CRM plus SIS implementations as well as the usual budget challenges. Additionally , some universities don’t want to risk a wholesale digital change – there is simply too much at stake should something go wrong.

Fortunately, the concept of “composable” company presents educational institutions with an opportunity to overcome these barriers. As Gartner defines it, a composable business “exploits the disruptions digital technology brings by making things modular – mixing and matching business functions to orchestrate the proper outcomes. ” Composability enables organisations to structure and restructure in order to achieve results in face associated with disruption in a volatile world.

For colleges, composability means considering SIS and CRM functions as part of holistic business capabilities, rather than simply IT applications. The focus is on all key elements needed to deliver a required capability, whilst facilitating overall governance. Doing so reduces difficulty, breaks down data silos, and ultimately delivers a better user experience.

However , while composability de-risks plus simplifies digital transformation, it can be challenging to achieve. The types of challenges faced by organizations include:

• Complex requirements: implementation at universities can be complicated by the deeply ingrained legacy of educational institutions (e. g., complex hierarchies, strong rules, and the particular need for accreditation).
• Configuration-heavy systems: these can make updates and upgrades difficult.
• University cultures: decision-making processes can make adapting at pace trickier.

It is for these types of reasons that will working along with an higher education expert brings substantial benefits. For instance, Ellucian’s flexible, cloud-based student information systems (SIS) plus CRM solutions   are designed to support the simplification and adaptability of technology architectures used simply by universities, enabling them to evolve at pace. Meanwhile, the particular Ellucian Experience solution provides universities with the opportunity to integrate their particular chosen electronic services in one place quickly and easily.

Partnering along with Ellucian also significantly reduces the time to complete a successful digital transformation. With our modern execution approach, organisations are transitioned to the proven next generation cloud platform that delivers a modern student experience in just 12 months, which is more cost plus time efficient than the industry standard 36 months. What’s more, Ellucian’s solutions are based on the industry leading Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, which means that will universities benefit from a global, scalable, highly secure, and innovative platform.

For more information on how Ellucian can help drive change in your organisation click here. And to learn more about exactly how Ellucian’s cloud-based SIS plus CRM options can support your success click here .