Managment of Universities 1a

MANAGEMENT OF
EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS IN
THE 21ST
CENTURY

We live in an era where technology can play a key role in
turning vast amounts of raw data into usable knowledge
for managing and guiding the educational process.
Educators must understand that advances in Information
Technologies not only provide the tools needed to meet
today's requirements, but that these tools also provide
access to relevant information to shape daily instructional
practice and advance the potential for learning and
achievement for their students.
A Comprehensive
Guide for Vice
Chancellors, Principals
and Administrators of
Private and Public
Educational Institutions
Aurangzeb (Zeb) Bhatti
CEO
NovaQuest / Digital
EduQuest

1 | P a g e - H o w t o M a n a g e a n E d u c a t i o n a l I n s t i t u t i o n C o p y r i g h t N o v a Q u e s t P v t . L t d . -

HOW TO
MANAGE AN
EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTION
BY AURANGZEB (ZEB) BHATTI, CEO, DIGITAL EDUQUEST
USING INFORMATION TO PROPAGATE LEARNING
Common sense dictates that in the 'Age of Information' you need
Information-Age tools to do your work. We dont need studies to find out
why our educational institutions are in such bad shape. You simply can't
run Schools, Colleges and Universities efficiently and effectively today
without the help of Information-Age tools, and in an academic institution
those set of tools are tethered to a reliable Educational Management
and Information System ('EMIS'). This paper examines the role of
an EMIS in managing the affairs of the departments that collectively
makeup an Education Institute in the 21
st
Century.
EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION?
Success of any educational institute will depend on how well the institute
adapts to the rising population and knowledge demand in the
Information Age. Effective & efficient administration is the number one
factor that will differentiate academic institutions in the 21
st
century.
Information Technology thus now has taken a front row seat and is the
driver of success. In fact, adopting Information Technology is also a
necessity for staying competitive and surviving in all other industries as
well. In the education domain for example, without a reliable and
efficient Educational Management Information System (EMIS), an
educational institute of today and tomorrow cannot function effectively.
Yes, they may continue to exist, but so have Tongas and Bullock Carts in
the age of Jets. If merely existing is an institutions goal, then this paper is
probably of little value to the institution. But if the desire is to succeed
and meet the growing challenges of our time, then you will find extremely
valuable information information that can help you catapult your
institution into the future very quickly.
Simply having a good idea for improving
an educational institution will not, of itself,
make the change happen For change to
occur, it must be led relentlessly
FROM IT TO EMIS
One of the main goals of effective
and efficient academic
administration must be to
integrate all disparate processes
and existing systems into one
cohesive and mighty
'Information Machine'. Once you
have streamlined the data
acquisition, data collection and
data disbursement for this
powerful engine, you can then
accelerate your academic and
business processes and leverage
your assets to teach more
students with existing resources.
Simply stated, an effective EMIS
will enable your institution to
teach more with less!

Digital EduQuest Empowering Educational
Institutions to become more efficient!


A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP!
All journeys start by taking the first step. So start thinking and answer some hard questions. This single step will
become the beginning of our journey. There are many key questions that Administrators must ask themselves. For
example;
Do your decision makers have access to reliable, accurate and timely data on the performance of teachers,
students, administration staff and other support staff?

Are you meeting the challenges of rising population, rising costs, changing demographics, constraints on
funding and limited resources?

Are you monitoring your expenses against prescribed budgets and receiving accurate budget variance
information against departmental budgets on a regular and timely basis?

Are you taking advantage of the lessons learned and proven best- practices implemented by the most
progressive and effective Colleges/Universities around the world?
ARE YOU PRACTICING WHAT YOU ARE TEACHING?
It is no surprise that there exist today many Colleges and Universities in Pakistan that are not taking advantage of
innovations in computer technology to manage and improve their institution. Ironically some of these institutions
even profess to deliver Master of Science Degrees in Information Technology but their own management information
systems and processes are paper-driven, manual, inefficient, archaic, full of redundancy and duplicity and prone to
unintentional errors and intentional fraud. Manual and disparate ad-hoc systems are not compatible with todays fast-
paced economic activity, a rapidly increasing population and subsequent demand for more education?
BE BOLD AND IMPLEMENT A MIGHTY INFORMATION MACHINE!
One of the main goals of effective & efficient administration must be to integrate all disparate processes and existing
systems into one cohesive and mighty Information Machine. Once you have streamlined you data acquisition, data
collection and data disbursement for this powerful engine, you are then ready to accelerate your academic and
business processes so that you can teach more students with fewer resources in other words, become more efficient
and productive. You will be amazed at the savings that a streamlined system can create. Those savings can be spent on
building more classrooms, modernizing infrastructure and equipment, granting more scholarships, adding more
books to the Library, and so on so forth. As our population increases, increasing demands to accommodate more
students and improve educational quality and services without additional funding is going to be a constant and
ongoing pressure. This challenge cannot be met without computerization and streamlined processes. It is going to be
simply impossible to manage your institutions resources, increase capacity, improve facilities and maintain student
services levels without an EMIS. Ending waste and saving money wherever possible is no longer an option it is an
imperative. You can achieve these goals only by fully computerizing your institutions operations as a top priority.
ADOPT ESTABLISHED BEST PRACTICES
Best practices are methods or techniques that have consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other
means and are used as a benchmark (best practices can also be viewed as lessons learned from mistakes of others).
Therefore, best practices must be embedded in an institutions systems processes even if this requires some degree of
modification of existing practices. One simple analogy which is frequently used is that when humans moved from the
horse-driven carriage to an automobile, there was no need to have a horses harness strapped on to the automobiles
engine. In other words, there is stuff you must give up because you dont need it anymore. Would you believe if I say
that in the initial stages of the automobile, there were some drivers who insisted on carrying a whip to get people out
of the way even in the presence of an installed horn? This is true as this actually has been the case.


Whats in it for me?
People can be stubborn and resist change but these are hurdles that you must be prepared to overcome. Humor such
as the one above and more similar examples can certainly be used by IT project drivers to thaw the resistance and
motivate the staff on accepting the change. Managing and accelerating change is managements biggest challenge.
Simply having a good idea for improving your educational institution will not, of itself, make the change happen - for
change to happen, it must be led relentlessly from top down. Humans are a creature of habit and easily settle in a
routine. Only the bold, extremely passionate and driven go out of their comfort zone and embrace change. The most
difficult task for senior management is to convince their staff and managers of the necessity of change. Even if deep
down some people know that an integrated EMIS will be good for the institution, they will still have all kinds of
resistance and barriers which are reflected in visible and many times silent and personal interests. Some commonplace
arguments you will hear are; I am not getting any extra pay for doing this; Why should I spend extra hours to learn
the new system if it will not help me in my promotion; If attendance is computerized and automated, all my late and
absentee information will become transparent; By computerizing the tuition fee collection process, my discretionary
powers will be taken away; If the Merit list process is computerized, how will I be able to give favors to my relatives
and friends; If staff hiring becomes transparent, it will remove my discretionary powers which is the only thing I
enjoy at this job and scores of mores such resistance.
One proven 'best practice' for a smooth EMIS implementation is to
establishing a steering committee comprising of all departmental heads
that meets regularly to review system implementation progress, identify
bottlenecks and quickly resolve issue that become show-stoppers
Convincing your staff and management of the benefits of the new system requires a well thought out and written script
that must be shared with them frequently. You start by convincing the department heads and then use the department
heads as your spokespeople. From then onwards, it is the department head whose job is to enlist support for the
proper implementation of the new system. One proven (and thus best practice) for change management and a smooth
system implementation plan is to establish a steering committee comprising of all departmental heads. The steering
committee meets regularly to review the system implementation progress, identify bottlenecks and quickly resolve
issue that become show-stoppers. Sometimes the steering committee also comes up with carrots and motivation ideas
to soften the hardened change resistors.
SELECTING THE CORRECT SYSTEM AND THE RIGHT VENDOR?
Domain-Specific Knowledge vs. Domain-Independent Knowledge
Would you be comfortable to have an Automobile Engineer work on your Aircraft Engine? Of course not even though
both are engineers and both work on engines. Since the Aviation Domain is very different from the Automobile
Domain, it is only common sense to pick someone who understands aviation to fix an airplane. Domain knowledge is
valid knowledge used to refer to a specific area of human endeavor or other specialized discipline. In software
engineering, domain knowledge is knowledge about the environment in which the target system operates, for example,
a company that has been making software for only Banks most likely will have a deep, sharp and crisp understanding
of all aspects of Banking. This is called Domain specialization. Domain specialization is important because it usually
is learned from end-users in the domain (as domain specialists/experts), rather than from software developers. The
knowledge that Domain experts possess is transformed into computer programs and active data, for example as a set
of rules, processes and knowledge bases in a system. Communication between end-users and software developers is
often difficult and Domain specific expertise encapsulates this communication in the form of software code complete
with rules, options and other variables. Domain-Independent knowledge on the other hand is knowledge which may
be valuable and efficient in every domain, for example software coding techniques, logics, formulas and mathematic
routines etc. Domain-independent knowledge is often misunderstood and many system installations fail despite good


software coding practices because Domain-Specific knowledge or the knowledge of a particular stream to get things
done is absent, incomplete or incoherent. Software systems should never be purchased without the assurance that the
vendor has deep Domain Knowledge of the industry in which the software is being used. In my years of experience in
the software industry, I have learned that it is impossible for a software vendor to be an expert in multiple domains.
For example, it is impossible for someone in the Banking Domain to be equally good in the Education Domain as well.
These are two separate worlds and years of experience go into understanding each Domain. The age old term Jack of
all trades and master of none sums it all. I have run into numerous vendors and developers who are simultaneously
working on multiple domains just as I have run into people trying to chase multiple rabbits at the same time and
dont catch a single one.
A domain expert is someone who is widely recognized as a reliable source of
technique and skill whose faculty for judging and deciding rightly, justly,
and wisely is accorded authority and status by his/her peers in a specific
well-distinguished domain.
Since a Domain expert has extensive knowledge and ability based on research, experience, and occupation in a
particular area of study and that the knowledge comes by virtue of credential, training, education, profession,
publication and experience, selecting a Vendor who has appropriate Domain-Knowledge makes a lot of sense.
Selecting a vendor who has developed Domain-Knowledge guided systems in your specific domain is one of the most
important criteria that will enable your institution to achieve success and implement a high-performance system very
rapidly. So, dont overlook this highly critical aspect.
THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS?
In the process of implementing an enterprise resources planning (ERP) system infinite number of things can go
wrong. A successful implementation depends not only on selection of the right vendor and correct application, but on
the quality of the communication between you and your application vendor or implementation consultants.
ERP implementations can be disastrous and go well over budget and take years to complete. Many times this is
blamed on the complexity of the system being implemented or sometimes the blame is perceived as unresponsiveness
of the implementation consultants. The fact is that the success of the implementation often depends on the customer
organization and the project management ability of their internal implementation team. Those on the receiving end of
an implementation are in a very challenging position because in many cases, none of the team members have been
through an implementation before. Ostensibly, the team representing an application vendor or implementation
consultant should be more experienced and professional, but major blunders on their part are not unheard of either.
There is no shortage of advice about what best practices can lead to success in white papers. But equally important is a
thorough understanding of the worst practices, or those practices that should to be avoided during an implementation.
Problems during implementation are never deliberate but it is important to know what to avoid unless one wants to go
out of the way to cause their implementation to fail. Here are four common ERP Implementation mistakes and
practices that your organization must avoid. Following this advice will save you a lot of trouble.
1) Underestimate the strategic importance of the implementation process.
This is a very broad topic, but a failure to understand the various ways that an enterprise application implementation
is strategically critical to your business can cause a number of problems. But perhaps the most common result of this
cognitive failure is reflected in the type of people an organization might assign to an implementation team and the
problems that naturally ensue.
Some organizations are understandably reticent to devote their most valuable human assets to a months-long
implementation process and instead, assign more junior and inexperienced people to the team. This tends to create


problems of vision as younger, less experienced employees of an organization or those in staff-level positions tend to
have an excellent grasp of their own jobs but a lack of understanding when it comes to the organization's strategic
goals and operations as a whole. They may be more likely than their more experienced peers to be interested only in
making their own job easier, perhaps at the expense of others in the organization, skewing project resources
accordingly.
Another common error is to heavily load the team with Corporate-level executives. Granted these senior members may
have an excellent grasp of where the organization is today and where it needs to go tomorrow, so their buy-in is vital to
the project. However, senior executives are often lacking when it comes to the specific processes and activities that are
used within an organization. A hands-off manager will be at a loss when it comes to discussing precisely how things
are done within the organization today and how, on a granular level, it is reasonable and desirable for business
processes to be executed in the new software.
So who belongs on the implementation team? The best approach is to choose middle managers who are key users of
the software and have extensive knowledge of both company strategy and detailed processes. They must be
empowered to make decisions regarding the implementation, necessitating Corporate-level executive buy-in and
support, and will be responsible for determining how the application is used and dictating the business' process flows
for a long time.
Another way that a failure to appreciate the strategic importance of the implementation manifests itself is to assign
what might be the right team but then give them no time to work on the implementation. Once the team is chosen, it is
vital to make sure their regular jobs are backfilled so they have time to concentrate on the implementation. In too
many circumstances, I have seen situations where someone is assigned to an implementation team and are told they
still need to do their job and need to implement this ERP package on the side. That is not a viable situation as the
implementation will be starved for resources. It will either grind to a halt or will be forced to move ahead with
inadequate information, resulting in multiple problems at go-live.
2) Bite off more than you can chew.
There are two ways to try to do too much too fast with an ERP implementation. One is to try to implement too much
with regard to geography or sites all at one time. Some ERP vendors and implementation providers advocate the "big
bang," encouraging companies with multiple locations to take their entire organization live all at once. But often, that
proves to be too much for an organization to handle.
In many cases, it is better to implement an enterprise application at one or two sites at a time. This allows a company
and its implementation consultants to work kinks out of the business models and process flows that were decided
upon by the implementation team.
Another way to bite off more than you can chew is to make too many dramatic changes in your organizational culture
all in one big swoop. When you implement software, you are not only buying technology, but a way of doing business
that can improve the efficiency of your organization. In many cases, elements of an application's functionality may
represent business practices that you currently do not engage in, either because they have not been a part of your
corporate culture or because they are not supported by your legacy processes and system. Each of these process
improvements and best practices are likely good opportunities to move your business forward, but trying to implement
all of this functionality at the same time may prove to be too much for a business' management structure and employee
base to absorb.
In order to avoid disruption that can result from change that comes too quickly, it often makes sense to take a more
gradual approach. At the initial implementation, reach out to your functional leaders to see whether or not adding
various elements of new functionality creates too great a burden. Sometimes better to go live with functionality you
currently have in your legacy system, and then schedule add-ons when you are genuinely ready for them after an initial
stabilization period.


3) Replicate your legacy system on new software
While trying to change too quickly is one way to hobble your enterprise application implementation process, trying to
avoid change altogether can be just as damaging. Do not try to replicate your manual processes and legacy systems.
Some people just don't like change, and the idea of abandoning the way they have done things in the past upsets them.
These people, if they are part of an implementation team, come into the project with their own paradigms and their
own ideas of how things should work, which are often based on the old system. Oftentimes, it does make sense to go
live first on just enough functionality to replace the legacy system, but resistance to change of this nature can bring an
implementation to a halt. A fervent desire to replicate an existing environment can be very granular, and team
members may even have a specific idea of what screens they should see, what reports they should get and what buttons
they click. People who are reticent to move away from their legacy system focus on the functions of the software rather
than the business requirements behind those functions, and often request numerous modifications to the new
environment, which cause cost to spiral without real business benefit.
It is important for an implementation consultant to understand the current processes and how the legacy system is
being used. That is why a consultant will ask not only what processes are currently being followed, but what are the
underlying reasons for each of these process. Sometimes, these questions are asked to make sure that each process is
necessary, but this line of questioning can also determine the business need that process is fulfilling. An
implementation consultant or applications vendor should understand that anything their customer does in their
current process is likely done for a good reason, and it is their job to find what that reason is and then find the best way
to satisfy that underlying need in the new software. Their goal should not be to replicate the way things are done in the
legacy system. Indeed, most times, an implementation may bring a slightly different process flow, different screens
and different reports. People assigned to a company's implementation team have to be able to think outside the box
and realize that their business requirements are being met even if the screens and buttons are not exactly the same.
There is a relationship between the ability to successfully navigate this process and the degree to which the right
people were assigned to be a part of the implementation team. It is crucial that the implementation team be able to
look beyond the superficial elements of the legacy system, and see past the screens and reports to which they have
become accustomed. They need to envision how the new application will be made to meet their underlying business
requirements. Implementation team members must be comfortable opting for a slightly different approach or a
slightly different process in order to meet the strategic goals a new enterprise application is meant to achieve. In some
cases, team members should even be empowered and unafraid to suggest organizational changes outside the
application that will better accommodate a new process flow and make for a smoother implementation. Perhaps
certain departments should be merged, or people who had worked on opposite sides of a building should be moved to
better facilitate the new way things are to be done. With too great an attachment to the past, it is hard to realize a more
productive and streamlined future!
4) Reinvent the wheel
A fourth and final way to mess-up an enterprise applications implementation process is to reinvent the wheel by
disregarding established implementation best practices and methods. If you do not have an experience
implementation team in-house, you should get professional help. It is well worth the money. Regardless of who does
the implementation or the enterprise software system you choose, your implementation team should come up with an
implementation plan and method, with specific steps to go through in order to ensure success. This implementation
method must be around best practices, proven, and developed using experience at dozens of organizations before.
While methods of different implementation providers may vary, a viable method will generally include four distinct
steps:
Mapping: At this stage of the project, you should identify the business processes you will implement and determine
how, at a business process level, they will be handled by the software. You can use Business Modelers software for
documentation if necessary and document all business processes, rules at all levels. This exercise will ease the process
of finding functional gaps and working them through to a solution.


Implementation/Definition: During the implementation/definition phase, the consultant and implementation
team should take the process maps and work through the details. There might be several rounds of work routine
documentation, modeling data migration to make sure processes are well-documented and they will work.
Testing: During the testing phase, the consultant and implementation team should tie all of the processes together
and test them to make sure they will work. One way to do that is to run several days of the organization's transactions
through the system end-to-end in a controlled business simulation environment.
Rollout: After mapping, implementation/definition and testing are completed, it is time to roll the application out to
users in the organization. This step involves training of the end users and ensuring that the IT infrastructure is in place
to run the application prior to going live. Do not underestimate the importance of a proper IT infrastructure. Your
organization should have a functional IT Department with individuals responsible for the Network, Hardware,
Software, Systems Analysis, Systems Security and Data Backup, Data Safekeeping and Restoration.
All of these steps are absolutely necessary. But sometimes, in a budget crunch or on a tight timeline, there is the
temptation to cut out some testing or cut out some mapping. Even if you are not trying to reinvent the wheel in its
entirety, it is not advisable to simply remove a few spokes to see how it holds up under load! Skimping on any of these
steps comes with a degree of risk that needs to be recognized. Straying from the established implementation method
creates the opportunity for things to go wrong at a critical time - during go-live week or after go-live as poor
preparation comes home to roost. Typically, problems that result from diverging from proven methods cost more to fix
than a more thorough and systematic implementation would have cost to begin with.
IS A CAPACITY PLAN NECESSARY?
The answer to this is Yes. Just as when you purchase a fleet of automobiles you, you must hire drivers. An Enterprise
System is no different. You either plan on running and maintaining the system yourself or you outsource the
operation. Either way you need fleet drivers. An institution with several thousand students wanting to computerize
their operation must put together a capacity plan for running and managing the system. Introduction of Information
Technology into the workings of an organization requires facilities, people and computer equipment. There have been
instances where a University with over 15,000 students was expecting to have their webmaster (the person who looks
after a website) host and manage an entire EMIS with a handful of full-time and part-time staff and a few existing
computers. Obviously the project failed miserably because the management did not grasp the magnitude of the impact
of computers and IT and also did not understand the importance of proper staffing and facilities. This is beyond
ignorance and recklessness. It is better not to computerize if you dont have a budget for a reasonable IT Department.
A single computer or a handful of computers are fine for maintaining a website and/or running programs such as
word-processing and spreadsheets, but if you are planning on automating your institution, proper capacity planning is
required. It need not be an elaborate plan, but at a minimum your institution should plan for a proper and organized
IT Department, a separate computer room, a project / conference room, and some area to store electronic data and
backups. A smart IT staffing strategy is critical to achieving even the basic business goals when computerizing. While
there is no single formula for determining how many IT employees your University needs, or whether to outsource a
part of your IT department, by following a few basic principles you can strike a balance between controlling headcount
and meeting business requirements.

To get a sense of whether your IT department has the right number of people, compare your current IT staffing ratio to
prevailing averages. Companies with 100 to 300 employees typically have four or five IT staffers, while those with 500
to 1,000 employees usually have 12 or 15 qualified people in their IT department. Be careful when using such broad
figures, however. Every institution is different. For example, rapidly growing institutions often need larger IT
departments as do institutions in technology-oriented fields.

An approach that I have used in the past is to conduct a benchmark study of IT staffing at similar Universities.
Consultants can help with such projects also, but less formal (and less expensive) research techniques can be effective,
too. Talk to peers from other Universities and professional associations about how many IT people they have on staff,


or ask your technology vendors how many IT people their clients typically employ. If comparable businesses
consistently use fewer or more employees than you do, you may have an over-staffing problem and vice-versa.

Even better, perform an annual analysis of your institutions specific requirements. Begin by estimating how many
hours of labor you will need during the coming year in each of these three categories:

1. Fixed demand: Planned IT projects, such as hardware upgrades and application rollouts.
2. Variable demand: Unexpected IT needs in response to emergencies or changing market conditions.
3. Maintenance and operations: The basic technical support and systems administration work that keeps your
employees productive and your servers and networks running smoothly.

Next, multiply your total number of IT employees by the hours in a typical work-week to arrive at a rough measure of
the work hours in your current IT labor supply. If that figure exceeds your estimated demand, then you are probably
overstaffed. Conversely, if the figure is lower than estimated demand, you may not have enough people to get the job
done.

Focus on efficiency before hiring
There are two ways to address understaffing: Increase your workforce or reduce your workload. Before hiring
additional employees, make sure your IT staff is as productive and efficient as possible by taking steps such as these:
Standardize processes: Organizations can trim their staffing needs by replacing ad hoc management processes
with standardized ones such as those in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, a popular set of IT
best practices.
Minimize customization: Supporting customized systems takes time and effort, so keep custom adaptations to
a minimum on all but your most strategic systems to help cut IT overhead.
Consolidate infrastructure: Using fewer, more powerful servers and network devices where possible not only
lowers hardware expenses but helps contain staffing costs too. A consolidated infrastructure requires fewer
people to manage it.
Centralize administration: Monitoring your entire infrastructure from a single control center reduces your
need for administrative staff. Many vendors offer tools that make centralized administration possible.

Use consultants and outsourced workers to fill in the gaps
Consider hiring contractors and vendors when you urgently need specialized talent but have trouble recruiting full-
time staff. Furthermore, outsourcing routine technical jobs helps keep IT departments lean. For example, a company
can use permanent staffers only for jobs requiring deep understanding of core strategies. You must make sure the
[full-time] employees in your information services department are first and foremost business process experts.
Still, critical technical skills - around legacy or industry applications, for example -should remain internal. That is why
many midsize companies are shifting responsibility for increasingly important functions such as security and business
continuity away from vendors to full-time employees.

In the end the trick to IT staffing is satisfying two sometimes contradictory imperatives. There is always pressure to
perform and pressure to keep headcount as low as possible. Meeting both demands is a challenging goal that every
business must pursue in its own way.

IT skills you need now: Think business, not technology
IT workers with expertise in security, disaster recovery, and storage are in high demand. But companies should
consider business savvy as much as technical knowledge when hiring, according to many analysts and consultants.
Here are three reasons why.

1. IT is becoming more strategic. With IT playing a growing role in providing competitive advantage, companies
need workers whose understanding of business processes matches their understanding of applications and
networks.


2. Communication is critical. Today's IT strategists work closely with business-people from across the company,
so they must be able to express technical concepts in terms nontechnical people can understand. Similarly, a
basic appreciation of business ideas is important.
3. Outsourcing is on the rise. As vendors take greater responsibility for keeping servers running and systems
available, the ability to supervise contract workers and manage partner relationships is fast becoming a must-
have skill for full-time IT employees.

It Department Outsourcing
Outsourcing a part or complete IT department frees up a company's valued IT personnel so they can support their
mission critical business processes. In addition many companies today are finding that they cannot take the risk or
endure the financial burden of running their whole IT department in-house. Outsourcing a part or complete IT
department can make financial and business sense to companies of all sizes. In many organizations, users demand the
highest level of service - both from a technical and a customer care perspective. This can be challenging for smaller in-
house teams to achieve as they are often so busy tackling the day-to-day issues, making it difficult to implement any IT
improvements.

Outsourcing IT department - What are the drivers?
Growing pains: Is your company growing so rapidly or making acquisitions? What impact is this growth on your IT
staff and resources? Outsourcing either a part or the whole of your IT department is now an accepted mainstream
solution.
Downsizing: Is your organization downsizing? What are the impacts of this on your IT service delivery? IT
department outsourcing is an option worth evaluating to save costs and improve efficiencies/
Infrastructure refresh: Are you coming to the end of your IT systems lifecycle? (Servers, laptops, PCs). This is
usually a 3 year cycle. This event is the right time to consider the options of IT department outsourcing
Business Start-up: Is your University in start-up mode? Getting IT right is important but probably not your core
business objective. Consider outsourcing IT to experts who'll support your venture from an IT department perspective
while you and your team get on with making your institution work.

Benefits:
Outsourcing a part or complete IT department may provide the following benefits:
1. Quick deployment
2. Flexibility in the choice of technology and modules
3. Improvement of cash flow management
4. Reduce the burden on internal IT staff
5. Efficient use of internal resources
6. Strong skills sets at lower costs - access to a mix of technicians with unique skills
7. Better risk management, especially those risks associated with unscheduled downtime due to major
disruptions.
8. Avoids expensive recruitment
9. Cost savings - eliminates the financial strains that necessarily go hand-in-hand with the running of an internal
IT department
10. Time savings - companies are concentrating in their own core business resulting in higher productivity

Risks & Costs of IT Department Outsourcing
IT department outsourcing can expose the company with associated risks that potentially have a higher costs than
benefits for the company. Some of those associated risks could be:

1. Loss of control over service quality
2. Possibility of service disruption due to instability of vendors
3. Increased complexity of managing and monitoring the outsourcing contract
4. Poor communication between the business and the third party


Outsourcing IT services to a third party potentially puts a company's reputation at risk - if suppliers or partners let it
down. Organizations in both public and private sectors need a process of regular assurance from their external
partners.

With a rigorous system in place, businesses can manage their external relationships and reputation more effectively,
while allowing legal and working arrangements to be adjusted as the partnership evolves. At the outset risks can be
minimized by ensuring that due diligence is undertaken on prospective service providers.

This is the minimum number of people a typical institution will need in its 'IT Department' at each stage of the EMIS
implementation and post-implementation stage. The chart below outlines the type of activity each person performs,
and typical titles you should expect to give. Salary depends on geography and talent supply/demand situation. This
information is for the purpose of planning and budgeting and should be used as a guideline to help you prepare and
plan for the appropriate 'Capacity'. The implementation and on-going use of the system depends on this capacity being
there, otherwise the system will not become functional as envisioned? These are baseline figures and will allow the
University to start using the EMIS effectively. Capacity Building should be started concurrently with the budgeting
phase, preferably at the Pre-implementation stage. An institution must make a provision for the minimum staff levels
in their proposed budget for any open positions.

Position /
Staffing
Typical Responsibilities Stage of
Implementation
(Pre-During-
Post)
IT
Management
Typical Title; IT Manager or IT Director.
Reports to: Senior Management
This individual basically 'runs' the IT Department. IT Managers are
responsible for aligning the overall organizational business strategy with IT
resources. They are responsible for planning of IT resources, policies,
procedures and they interact with Senior Management / Directors and
Departmental Managers to understand their needs. They are responsible for
the managing, planning, executing and timing (sometime includes
budgeting) of all the Organizations IT programs, projects, IT security and IT
staff. Also responsible for all IT Staff, IT Assets and IT Service Level
Requirements and Agreements.
Pre-Install
- Systems &
Network
Administrator
Typical Title: Systems Manager
Reports to: IT Manager/IT Director

This is a very key and pivotal role. A Systems manager is responsible for
maintaining the systems, applications and also is responsible for all
integration of systems/services. This also includes the hardware, Local and
External communications networks, IT security checks and audits. Testing
of new systems and software, Data Backup, Safekeeping, Restoration,
Recovery and other operations for continuity come under this domain as
well. An often overlooked tasks, i.e. periodic testing of the backed-up data
and restored system is a mandatory role of this position.

All IT Infrastructure responsibilities, including hardware/software
procurement, maintenance, and up keep of the hardware and network is on
the shoulders of the Systems and Network Administrator.
Pre-Install
- Software
Development
&
Programming
Manager
Typical Title: Programming Manager
Reports to: IT Manager/IT Director
A Programming manager is responsible for developing the software systems
and programs. This position is only required if the software is developed in-
house.
Pre-Install
- Systems
Analysts
Typical Title: Systems Analyst
Reports to: Systems & NW Administrator or Programming
Manager
A Systems analyst works on the nuts and bolts of the system. They are the
mechanics who actually get thing done. Their role in systems developed
externally is to collect data, normalize data, create data entry processes and
Pre-Install


forms, testing of new software, debugging, maintaining and communicating
add/change requests and analyzing new requirements is also a Systems
Analysts job.
In internally developed systems, their role is more elaborate which includes
in-depth requirements analysis, software platform selection and
recommendations, programming paradigm recommendations, etc. in
addition to all others stated above. In most organizations, Systems
Documentation and Training functions are also the role of a Systems
Analyst.

- Data Entry
Supervisor
- Data Entry
Staff
Typical Title: Data Entry Operator / Clerk
Reports to: Systems & NW Administrator

This role varies based on whether the System is self-service or required
dedicated staff for input of data whether it is new data or changes to
existing data. In many organizations, the Data Entry Staff is often retained
to entry sensitive and confidential data. In any case, for new system
implementations, the Data Entry role is crucial and determines the speed at
which data is entered into the system. If the Data Entry Staff is large, then
smaller groups are created and the Data Entry Group Supervisor reports to
the Systems and NW Administrator. In larger organizations, like phone
companies and utility companies etc. where the volume of data is extremely
large, All Data Entry Group Supervisors report to a Data Entry Manager
who then reports to Systems and NW Administrator. Part-time help is easily
available to fill the positions of a Data Entry Operator.

During and
Post
- Training
Manager
Typical Title: Training Manager / Supervisor
Reports to: IT Manager or IT Director

Notice that this position directly reports to the IT Manager or IT Director.
The main reason is that besides training, the Quality Assurance and Help
Desk functions of the system also fall under the Trainers Domain. The term
Software is only as good as the user is a fair method to explanation of this
reason. Training Manager is a must where the user population of the system
users is large. This is true for most Banks, Insurance Companies, and even
large Schools, Colleges and Universities. In smaller organizations, where
only a single trainer may be required, the Systems Analysts assume this role.

Training Staff: These can be dedicated Staff or also be trained pulled from
the Help-Desk on an as needed basis.

During and
Post
- Help Desk
Supervisor
Typical Title: Help Desk Manager / Supervisor
Reports to: Training Manager

Supervises the Help Desk. A Help Desk is where a user can call and get their
questions regarding the system usage answered. Help Desk typically creates
a Frequently Asked Questions data bank with appropriate answers already
entered. This Data Bank is often posted online or used interactively to help
the users who call for help on the System. The Help-Desk Supervisors and
Training Managers works very closely with the Systems Analyst to prepare
User Friendly Documentation where required and also plan on-going
Training programs. In some Organizations, System Documentation (also
called Technical Documentation) falls clearly in the Domain of the Systems
Manager, whereas the User Documentation (Sometimes called The Help
Guide) falls under the Training and Help Desk Domain.

Help Desk Staff: Vary in number depending on the User Population of the
System. Help Desk Staff can also be trained as Trainers and Vice-Versa.
Post


As you can see from the above, you should allocated at amounts per month for a professional IT Department within
the Institution. Ill be happy to help you by assisting you in qualifying your existing staff, re-training them as necessary
or hiring new staff to fill these positions. Some positions can be filled by consultants in the interim but in the long-
term, you will need all positions filled as shown in the Post-Implementation stage.
MANUFACTURING SUPERIOR PRODUCTS (MINDS)?
The Universe of managing an educational institution is vast and can be intimidating for novices. But let us step back
and envision an educational institution as a manufacturing factory. In this case an education institutions product are
its Students as it is in the business of manufacturing minds. A progressive manufacturing company produces a
product and then tracks the quality of their product for the entire lifecycle. Without accurate and timely information
from start to finish, how do you know whether your products quality is being maintained, manufacturing resources
are being utilized to the maximum, there is no wastage and the product is being manufactured and delivered on time?
Without proper and most importantly accurate information, how do you know if your current planning and decision
making is effective? Thus being able to collect, access, review, analyze and compare results from relevant and
appropriate data throughout the entire students lifecycle at your institution is the only way to ensure that your
decision making is going to hit the mark.
Student information and Records Management to Trend Analysis
Maintaining accurate and relevant information on students is a time-consuming task but fortunately computers have
made this an easy task but only if you take advantage of their power. Without an EMIS, it is almost impossible to
accumulate complete and comprehensive data and analyze this data in multiple dimensions. For example, if you are
not able to track and compare grades by demographic background, subject, gender, class etc., and are you are not able
to identify learning and teaching trends in advance, how can you possibly improve them? How can you prioritize
resources and actions if you dont know what is going on? An appropriate EMIS should provide all relevant
information at your fingertips. For example, if math grades are falling for consecutive periods, you know the problem


is either the teacher or a change in curriculum. Similarly, if grades in chemistry are falling for a certain segment of
students who come from an urdu-medium background then possibly there is a disconnect between the instructor and
those students, or there could be various other reasons. If you are managing a chain of institutions, then collecting,
consolidating, compiling and comparing information between them becomes even more crucial. A well designed EMIS
is a proactive means to avoid pitfalls normally associated with missing major trends and not reacting in a timely
fashion. Lack of proactive interference is the cause of most fires and putting out fires is time consuming, unproductive
and costly. If you do not collect and store student success indicators, teaching faculty success indicators,
administration staff success indicators and other pertinent data, then you cannot make decisions on merit a sure
sign of an institutions failure? A good EMIS should have proactive management and decision support features that
together with the appropriate technology, and critical data capture keeps on building for you an intellectual capital
reservoir. This reservoir together with data-driven decision-making is the key to improving student achievement i.e.
the quality of your product.
The student administration features of an EMIS must address ALL the key aspects of the student lifecycle not just
academics. On-demand student lifecycle management should be the ultimate goal and that is the only way to empower
student- centric institutions to drive growth, reduce costs, and meet accountability requirements.
Teaching Faculty Information and Records Management
Just as Students are an institutions product, Teachers and Faculty are its designers and engineers. Merely tracking
their salary grades, attendance and payroll information is not sufficient. A driven institute must constantly track the
credentials of their teaching staff, work on increasing their skills and knowledge, provide them with appropriate work
tools, resources and facilities and most importantly, acknowledge their work with rewards and merits. This starts with
recruiting on merit and utilizing their talent where they are best suited and can best perform. An EMIS must have
complete features for interviewing and hiring prospective staff, skills assessment and skill gap analysis as well as
tracking performance against these skills once they are employed so that promotions and rewards are given based on
merit. Wisdom states that you cant improve what you dont know. You can also easily manage the issues related to
increasing demand for qualified teachers and a decreasing supply by appropriate and effective planning and
scheduling and other factors mentioned above that only an efficient EMIS can enable you to do so.
Tracking teaching faculty qualifications and constantly improving them
together with measuring their effectiveness is one of the foundations of a
quality educational institution and is an insurance policy that no
institution can afford to overlook.
A good EMIS will not only provide you data to evaluate results/grades, it will also help you in getting feedback from
the students in the form of surveys as to their experience with the teaching staff and the appropriateness of the
curriculum. Use of an EMIS has a huge role in improving teacher quality and retention and curriculum improvements
in forward thinking institutions. In almost all instances where an EMIS is used, it has helped promote accountability
and aided in the progress on professional development of the faculty.
Just what is a Lesson Plan and why do I need one?
An EMIS must have integrated lesson planning features that can be accessed by the teaching faculty as well as
students. A lesson plan is a framework and a road map, which each teaching faculty creates using an individual style. A
good lesson plan is one that presents the big picture of what is to be taught and then gives details of information for
each activity in the learning process. Best practices mandate that you organize lessons plans in an on-line knowledge
bank and these plans are exposed to the entire faculty for sharing and idea exchanges. A good lesson plan is often
organized as a unit plan. Each unit plan covers a particular topic, and may be broken down into weekly and daily
plans. An effective unit plan should include the following at a minimum:


Objective(s): While easy to ignore, identifying objectives from the beginning vastly simplifies instruction
and assessment. For example, at the end of the lesson do you expect your students to just know what you have
taught or should they be able to practice what you have taught etc. (This is often very broadly defined as I
Know, I can Do and I can Teach others in terms of the level of knowledge that you expect the student to
retain.
Activities: This is the meat of a lesson plan this includes the various activities you use to teach students
what you want them to learn.
Time estimates: Including a time estimate for each activity allows you to divide your unit plan into weeks,
days and other smaller periods of time. For example, in the first week you cover chapters 1-3 and in the second
week you cover chapters 4-6 etc.
Required materials: Spend some time writing down exactly what materials you need for each activity so
that you will be better prepared for your lesson.
Alternatives: It is always wise to plan ahead for lack of resources, materials and absent students, especially if
a large part of your plan is a simulation that can be hard to make up for lack of material or those who miss it.
Assessments: Decide in the beginning how you are going to assess your students to help focus your
instruction on what the students actually need to learn. Remedial learning actions and other steps that
students can take if they fall below the expected levels is also sometimes (not always) suggested in the
assessments. I have seen some very effective courses where the remedial learning plan is actually fine-tuned to
focus on the exact concepts and areas that the student missed out after the assessment.
Unit plans are a good way of organizing teaching. The beauty of putting together a unit plan is that you can go back
and adjust activities as you get a better picture of the time needed for each weeks or day's lesson. The system
maintains this in its knowledge bank and this information becomes helpful to successive teaching faculty as well. This
is called building an intellectual asset bank.
A well-developed lesson plan reflects the interests and needs
of students. It incorporates best practices learned and
documented in the educational field. The lesson plan
correlates with the teacher's philosophy of education within
the best-practices sphere, which is what the teacher feels is
the purpose of educating the students.
The value of lesson planning cannot
be overstated. Lesson Plan Templates
prepared by the best subject matter
experts and constantly improvised by
teaching faculty is the surest way to
keep the instruction focused, effective,
on-task and on-time - period
Unit plans follow much the same format as a lesson plan, but
cover an entire unit of work, which may span several days or
weeks. Modern constructivist teaching styles may require flexible lesson plans. The unit plan may include specific
objectives and timelines, but lesson plans can be more fluid as they adapt to student needs and learning styles.
Educational institutes requirements and a teaching faculty's personal tastes, in that order, determine the exact
requirements for a lesson plan. Many institutions have built a repository of lesson plans and over time the best of
breed emerge and take dominance as a teaching aid. If an institute has a lesson plan repository, it can share lessons
plans with other institutions as well. The point is that computer technology and the Internet is a gift by the Western
civilization to all who want to utilize it. If Educational Institutes do not value these powerful tools and do not utilize
Example of a Typical Lesson Plan
Lets take a typical English program for example and
see what its lesson plan will look like. The plan for
example will usually center around four topics. They
are literary theme, elements of language and
composition, literary history, and literary genre. A
broad, thematic lesson plan is preferable in this case,
because it allows a teacher to create various
research, writing, speaking, and reading
assignments. It helps an instructor teach different
literature genres and incorporate videotapes, films,
and television programs. Also, it facilitates teaching
literature and English together. Similarly, history
lesson plans focus on content (historical accuracy and
background information), analytic thinking,
scaffolding, and the practicality of lesson structure
and meeting of educational goals.


these tools, they are doing a disservice to their students, faculty, community and the most damaging disservice is being
done to future generations.
RESEARCH MANAGEMENT
Research activity is the forward scout in an educational institute. It should go beyond just tracking current and
previous publications of faculty. Research is a vital component of graduate study, whether or not students are enrolled
in a degree program that requires a thesis or dissertation or faculty members are tasked to perform new research
under a grant or scholarship. Many Universities and Higher education institutes take seriously their obligation to
implement and support best practices in their research efforts. Research management should be an embedded feature
of an EMIS for higher education and research institutions. The EMIS should have all the various aspects of research
management. In case of awards and grants, both pre-award and post-award functionality inclusive of Responsible
Conduct of Research (RCR) for audit purposes should be an integral feature. Furthermore, these facilities must be
scalable, modular, powerful and easy to use. Issues addressed in the research management module should include
research project management, research data management and ownership, mentoring, publication, peer review,
collaborative reviews, research misconduct, and the compliance areas which have now become a problem area for
many institutions (as hundreds of cases of plagiarism in research are reported frequently some even from well-
known institutions). I have seen systems that promote research features but are missing essential elements such as;
day to day Research Project Management, Research Grants Tracking and University Fund Accounting (which includes
department funds, individual grants, state funds, contracts, endowments, other hard money, etc.) for both internally
and externally sponsored research. So if these important features are missing than how can you call these systems
Research Management Systems? Basically these are just documents management systems being pushed as research
management infrastructure. This illustrates another example of lack of Domain-Specific knowledge. For externally
funded research projects, I strongly suggest adding essential features in the EMIS to track information such as:
proposal type (new, continuation, competitive renewal, no cost extension, etc.), award type (research, career
development awards, research training and fellowships, specific program grants, etc.) and publications generated.
MANAGING YOUR LIBRARY
Just as the blood flowing in a human body takes nutrients and oxygen to the human brain and vital organs, a library in
an Educational Institution is the conduit for knowledge and wisdom for the faculty and students mind. I think Cicero,
the famous Roman poet said it best; To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul. Educational Institutions
with a Library must have a tracking and monitoring mechanism for all library assets such as books, cds, research
papers, technical documentation, periodicals, videos, magazines, newspapers, etc. Not only is a there a need for
cataloging library assets, an even larger responsibility is to track the whereabouts and utilization of these valuable
library assets. Creating a true 'knowledge and wisdom hub' at your library by using a librarian-driven software design
will empower your institution to meet the demands of the 21
st
century inter-connected learning learning, sharing
and exchanging knowledge and reference materials with other academic institutions using the internet.

The principal goal of educational institutions should be to develop the mind.
The mind should be a thing that works and creates people who are
capable of doing new things, not simply repeating the same things what
other generations have done.
A complete integrated Library Management System has proven with time to increase the efficiency of library staff and
to enhance the value of the library to their users, organization and community. Streamlined processes allow library
staff and users to easily make reservations, update or cancel reservations/bookings for books and other library assets.
At a minimum, the library system should provide the following;

Catalogue of existing and newly purchased library assets;


Access to book ratings and review information as well as the facility to share their own opinions with the wider
library community;
Reports on most frequently read books, least frequently read books, missing books, damaged books etc.
Provide cover images, series information, book reviews, table of contents, first chapters, and more such
information on-line;
Inter-library Loans accountability;
Configurable lending rules & charges, late charges, outstanding asset notices and comprehensive lending
matrix;
Quick & easy check-in / check-out of library material using Bar-coding;
Lost, Damaged, Replacements claims and other subscriptions processes;
Notifications via cell-phones and email of new arrivals, over-due material and outstanding fees;

Advanced knowledge & reference management tools that exist today can be incorporated into the Library Management
System which will empower the development of a dynamic knowledge base by facilitating the management of research
inquiries, solutions, information resources, and related documents throughout your library or organization. Enabling
easy access to a huge repository of existing information source and showcasing and promoting titles within your
library collection, encourages students to utilize the library more often.

Many institutions are maximizing their library investment by utilizing the library assets data to determine trends in
student thinking and consequently student behavior and proactively taking appropriate step to educate their students.
For example if too many books promoting a certain idea are being checked out, you know there is a trend developing
of that idea in your institution.
Smart institutions are maximizing their library investment by utilizing the
library assets usage data to peek into the minds of their students to
understand the trends in students thinking

Similarly, if too few books of a progressive writer and / or idea are sitting idle in your library, you can promote those
assets by improving their display, encouraging teachers to share them and so on so forth. A good library management
system with sophisticated yet simple data analysis features gives the institution a view into the minds of its engineers
and products or lets the institution administration know what its students and teachers are thinking. One last note
on libraries - Libraries are not made; they grow. You can grow your library conveniently and easily only if you can
manage it. If you cant manage it it simply wont grow.
MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF YOU ASSETS
Facilities and Assets Management
Facilities and Assets must support and enable the overall academic institutions mission. Many of the worlds known
institutions spend a great deal of effort and capital to keep the appearance, ambiance and visitor experience at their
institution unique and memorable. This is also the case with humans. We dress up in a certain style to make that First
Impression a lasting impression. Everything from college campuses, buildings, classrooms, conference and meeting
rooms, labs, libraries, fleets of buses; autos, computers, furniture, multimedia electronics etc. make up the dress of an
institution. Except for virtual institutions, all academic institutions are asset intensive organizations. So unless you
are running a 100% Virtual University, most likely your institution is an asset intensive organization as well. To
maximize the value of these assets, you need a robust set of capabilities integrated into your EMIS to meet the
demanding the needs of keeping your enterprise well-dressed and at peak performance. Thus Asset Management
capabilities in the EMIS should include at a minimum;


Capital planning and budgeting management to maximize and prioritize capital expenditures;
Capability to manage the lifecycle of assets to reduce and control costs, mitigate risk, and eliminate the need
for expensive, on-going facility and asset replacements. This again should not be merely limited to asset tags
and asset inventory recording capabilities but include comprehensive information on asset locations, asset
movement logs, asset maintenance records and asset depreciation and disposition features (for example if you
auction or sell an asset, you should know who purchased it, what condition was the asset in, how much was
paid for it, when was it sold and how much profit or loss was incurred in that transaction) ;
Decision support features to assist in planning for new acquisitions, replacements, disposal etc. ;

Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or stars.
Knowledge is power
With real-time visibility into the condition of your entire asset portfolio, you can act proactively and strategically. The
benefits to the institution of this insight are many, such as;
Significantly reduce operating expenses;
Gain visibility and control over critical assets that affect compliance, risk and performance;
Increase the useful life of capital assets with improved business processes for an increased return on assets
and enhanced operational efficiency;
Know Where to spend and When to spend and on What to spend;
Increase Up-time and Operational Continuity;
Provide the "bulletproof" data you need to secure additional capital investment and justify the spending (the
data you need to convince the board, the committees, or executive management of the projects and capital
needs is right at your fingertips.)
By implementing an "asset-centric" management method your institution
will literally have a real-time view of the condition of its entire facilities
and the underlying assets. This information will allow you and your
facility managers to act proactively and strategically.
Your goals for facilities and asset management must be to secure your capital investment in ALL physical assets and
have 100% visibility into the whereabouts and status of these assets. Real-time visibility into your entire portfolio of
facilities and assets will virtually eliminate facility related emergencies that all-to-often lead to costly downtime,
duplicity and wastage and expensive replacements. A strong asset management capability in your EMIS can also
ensure that business operates as usual by capturing institutional knowledge in a database and making it accessible to
all -- even when key personnel retire, resign, or take extended leave (eg; documentation, warranty information,
operational manuals and nuances of electronics etc. can be kept online for easy access by all relevant staff).
Transport & Fleet Management
Without really knowing what youre currently spending on keeping your transport fleet running, how can you ever
hope to remove waste and reduce the associated costs? Accurately estimating the operating cost of an entire transport
/ fleet is arguably an impossible task if left to manual and paperwork-intensive operations. However, with Transport
and Fleet Management features in an EMIS, you can manage a large fleet without worry of ever dwindling
administration resources. You can tackle transport and fleet inefficiencies through the use of computers and simplify
many fleet management complexities, streamline all your processes (from acquisition to disposition), improve
performance and reduce overall costs. The money saved can be spent on other things for example on improving
student services.
Gain Control and Reduce Fleet & Transport Costs


With flexible fleet management features in your EMIS, you can gain full visibility over all of the elements that make up
your unique fleet operations. And with visibility comes control. By consolidating data into one centralized, enterprise-
wide fleet management system you will be able to monitor and reduce financial investment and, as a result, better
manage all operations inclusive of lease costs and terms, daily or monthly asset utilization, business and personal
mileage, maintenance logs and costs, petrol / fuel usage, driving and parking fines and finally total cost of ownership.
Increase Fleet & Transport Utilization
Ensuring your fleet is operating at its full potential is essential in order to reduce overall costs. However, achieving
your fleets potential is impossible if visibility over the individual status of each fleet asset is unattainable. For
example, if a vehicle is awaiting repair, but there is no centralized or automated database to advise relevant personnel,
assigning this vehicle to a trip could result in a significant loss of revenue or even duty or care liability. This could be
avoided easily by simply sending an SMS alert from the database of overdue maintenance to the relevant staff. Equally,
if vehicles are being used ineffectively whether that be sending half-loaded buses on trips or a seven-seater official
pool-car being assigned where a small 4-seater automobile could have been used, the entire running cost of the
institutions fleet / transport overall operations cost is affected. It is these little things that add up to increased overall
fuel and maintenance expenses. By using Fleet Management software in your EMIS, your fleet managers can take back
control and promote leaner and more effective fleet utilization.
Transport Route Planning and Management
Planning the most efficient routes for students, efficient staff pickup and drop-off routes etc. can save lots of time and
money. Your EMIS should be able to track all the transport bus routes. It should be comprehensive for making sure
that transport is safe, driving incidents are tracked, route lists are followed, student pick/up and drop/off is logged and
driver complaints are tracked.
Students can be at "Risk" with careless Bus Drivers. We hear about accidents almost daily due to vehicle safety
oversights and driver carelessness. Just recently I heard of a school bus blowing up and killing all the student
passengers onboard because of a simple CNG safety valve oversight. How can you tell if the buses and vans are in good
shape and safe to be driven? Your institution should be able to easily identify which drivers need additional training,
which drivers need to be rewarded and which drivers should not be driving the School Bus at all. Without maintenance
schedules, driving complaints analysis and proactive notification reports, this is simply not possible. A good EMIS
must provide this data by various categories such as driver complaints, Bus Routes, etc. By taking proactive measures,
you can provide quality transport services and ensure the safety of the students as well.
In summary, heres how fleet operations computerization built into an EMIS will enhance your fleet utilization and
enable you ensure safety, improve efficiency and save costs:
It will provide you key performance indicators relevant to your fleet operation and will automatically monitor
and report upon violations;
You will gain real-time visibility over the status of repairs, maintenance, distance travelled, fuel consumed,
trip data;
Once integrate with telematics software (GPS) it can feed trip data directly into a centralized database so you
know at all times the locations of your vehicles;
It will automatically record variances to student pickup & drop-off lists in addition to providing important
data such as student incident reports, driving incident reports and driver complaints;

HUMAN RESOURCE AND PAYROLL MANAGEMENT
Human Resources (HR) and Payroll system should be considered as a single, definitive control center and information
repository to help an organization get the best from its most important assets its staff. Your institutions goal should
be is to make the process of finding the right employees, hiring them and keeping them satisfied and motivated in their
work as simple and as easy as possible. The EMIS features for HR and payroll at a minimum should contain complete
applicant tracking, short listing, interview tracking, complete personal information, time and attendance tracking,


part-time worker and labor records, performance management, on-going training and payroll computation inclusive of
withholdings, deductions, holiday and sick leaves and bonuses. Many institutions I have come across do not even have
a basic holiday / vacation request feature in their EMIS to facilitate their employees to a self-service facility to request
a leave from their supervisors. Progressive institutions that I have encountered have many functions on-line to avoid
bottlenecks and backlogs of paperwork. Automatic job / position openings published on-line by department heads is
just one example. Other valuable features that should be included in an effective EMIS are complete employee
feedback surveys and appraisals, skill gaps analysis and tracking of training of skills improvements and upgrading.
The HR and Payroll should be comprehensive and flexible and should be able to adapt to changing labor laws,
government reporting on HR statistics and changing withholding tax laws and rates.
Smart human resources management must include fully integrated
functionality enabling HR and payroll departments to access, process,
operate and manage all aspects of the institutions hire-to-retire cycle
and payroll functions
The HR and Payroll functions are the most stressed when an organization is growing and expanding. For this reason
an EMIS must provide a comprehensive range of tools to help HR and payroll teams perform their roles while the
institution keeps growing. Reducing duplication wherever appropriate minimizes the time spent by staff on day-to-day
administration. Inquiry, reporting and analysis tools help managers to gain a clearer insight into an organization's
human resources no matter how turbulent the situation. Workflow and employee self-service facilities help by
removing bottlenecks and file / paper pileups waiting for disposition. Here is a summary of some important features
that HR and Payroll functionality in an EMIS must have:
Capabilities to manage the employee life cycle (hire to retire);
Competence analysis to enable HR to define the institutions skills matrix and to identify strengths of existing
employees and new applicants;
Resource planning and deployment integration to maximize employee and enterprise efficiency;
Recruitment support, to collect applicant data and competencies and track the hiring process with alerts and
task reminders;
Salary review: to handle the salary setting process efficiently and on a merit, unbiased and devolved basis;
Absence monitoring and tracking for absence reporting, as well as analysis to identify repeat patterns, which
can indicate stress-related illnesses, potential job dissatisfaction or other problems;
Integration to Payroll to facilitate occupational and statutory pay arrangements;
Employee travel and expense handling to calculate allowances and process the reimbursement of expenses;
Functionality for payroll simulation, re-runs, reversal and back-pay calculations to ensure accuracy, efficiency
and timeliness;
PLANNING FOR SUCCESSFUL EVENTS AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS
Your institution may be known for the excellence of its education, the beauty of its setting, its gifted faculty, and the
uniqueness of its campus culture and most of all, your institution may be known for the thousands of accomplished,
thoughtful men and women it has sent out into the world over the years but it is through events and functions that
you communicate this to your community, sponsors and parents. Therefore managing your events and functions such
as a Parents Day, Parent/Teacher meetings, Founders day, Annual or Quarterly Sports day, Meena Bazaar and other
Arts and Crafts festivals and shows in a professional manner cannot be overlooked. These Events require lot of
coordination of all kinds of resources and above all can turn out to be very costly if not managed properly. An EMIS
must have an Events Management feature integrated into the system to ease and improve the events activity at an
institution.
Events, whether they are regular institution gathering, a championship
game or a large conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote,


and execute. But the end result can be amazing if you plan, organize and
execute the events with minimal chances of error.
From organizing and inviting to promotion and distribution, you should have complete visibility into your events
process and life-cycle. You must make sure to invite key guests, speakers, family, and whoever else is important to the
success of your gathering, conference, or party. When the day comes and everyone is arriving, be sure that you can
keep guests happy and that you've optimized your event to create that additional buzz which is needed for
propagation of the experience. You didn't do all of this work on the event just to have people complain, did you?
There are many steps involved in hosting an event successfully. Scheduling a date that is not conflicting with other
important activities is just the starter. Devil is always in the detail in setting up an event or function. There are so
many details that if you overlook just one critical detail, the entire experience can be disastrous for the invitees. I am
just listing below a few details not necessary in any sequence or importance, but the idea is to give you an insight
into what you might expect from events management features built into an EMIS;
Allocation of resources such as people and equipment for your event;
Facilities and space planning for seating and activities;
If you are serving meals, then a menu and detailed items for preparation etc.;
Establishing event budgets and tracking expenses against those budgets so that events remain on track and
within budgets;
Tracking vendor performance or performance of those to whom you have outsourced certain tasks,
responsibilities and activities;
Sending invitations cards via email, SMS or standard post mail to attendees and obtain an acknowledgement
of their participation (send/receive a RSVP) ;
Printing of attendee badges should be routine task of the system;
Notifying all participants of changes to venue or date/time changes via email, SMS or standard post mail;
If there is an attendance fee associated with the event then collecting this fee and recording the revenue/fee
received your records;
Finally, and most importantly, promotion of the event is the key to any successful gathering. Without it, you will not
attract the interesting people. Contrary to popular belief, the event is not done when everyone leaves. There's still
more to do to make sure the event leaves a lasting impression, especially if you intend to have future events of the
same kind. Listening to your audience in the form of feedback for instance is often overlooked. Did they complain
about a specific speaker, the food, a lack of responsiveness? This should be done by having an online survey that guests
can fill out.
Keep communicating with the Attendees
Good communication is central to the success of any event gathering and a repeat performance. Even if it's just a one-
time event, keeping in contact with everyone who attended can result in invaluable promotion of your institution.
Promoting the event via social media and good communication whenever you're planning and executing an event and
your extravaganza will turn out to be more engaging and more popular than you may have ever realized possible. After
all there is a reason why known institutions spend so much effort in planning and managing their events and
because they are all computerized and automated, they can manage to make their events spectacular and inexpensive
at same time. Your institution too can follow the lessons they have learned by incorporating best practices of event
management into your EMIS.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AND CLUBS MANAGEMENT
Whether it is sports, recreation or any other interest group club, running a club or a sports team can be a grueling
experience if the details are not managed. Simplifying the management of these extracurricular activities will improve
not just the enrollment and participation but also reduce the associated costs. If your EMIS has features to manage
extracurricular activities, your institution can expand the offering to more students very easily.


DISCIPLINE REPORTING AND MANAGEMENT
During one my visits to an institution of higher-learning, the Vice Chancellor of the University told me jokingly that
some students were mistaking the concept of higher-learning by getting-higher and not learning. Acknowledging the
humor, I however was compelled to ask How long has this drug problem been going on. I also asked if he know when
it started and its origins. Of course my questions drew a blank because the institution had no mechanism to record any
such incidents easily so that they could be tabulated, correlated and analyzed. With a computerized discipline
reporting and management system in place, my questions could have been answered almost instantaneously.
Discipline reporting and management features in an EMIS simplify the
difficult and time consuming task of tracking student discipline, helps
improve discipline by ensuring that students are held accountable for
their actions and proactively catches trends in student behavior
Proactive discipline and behavior management is extremely essential in our closely connected and small world. We
have so much free media and information at our disposal, that expecting students to not get influenced negatively is an
absurd expectation. Students are and will continue to fall into bad habits and the job and responsibility of
administrators is to identify problem areas and act proactively - as a prudent safeguard and offensive strategy. You can
certainly succeed if you rely on a decent discipline reporting and management feature built into your EMIS to act as
your watchdog and perpetual assistant. Features should include self-help and easy to use interfaces that walk the
teaching faculty through the process of recording and documenting disciplinary incidents. The systems should be
flexible in the degree of detail as to how much you want to record - from basic facts to detailed documentation such as
students and staff involved, location, faculty remarks, follow-up actions, who, when and how relevant parties were
notified, what follow-up actions were taken, which penalties are imposed, which penalties have been fulfilled or
outstanding and other information.
Besides easily documenting disciplinary incidents, the system should also have features to track and report incidents
and infractions to prevent future incidents. Behavior and Discipline management systems can be very complex or very
simple but regardless of what your institution goes for, at a minimum, and besides the features mention above, the
EMIS Discipline module must include the following Student behavior trends and analysis;
Be able to identify both campus-wide and individual institution-wide behavior patterns;
Bully and victim reporting;
Instantly access any student's complete disciplinary history when speaking with parents, sponsors etc. ;
Document multiple discipline incidents, incident locations, the students and staff involved and follow-up
actions;
Easily and quickly produce statistical analysis of discipline related data. These reports should highlight
discipline data by any criteria: type of incident, dates, location, students and staff involved, grade level, sex,
period, day of week, week, month, follow-up actions taken, number of incidents, consistency of penalties and
other relevant and helpful information;
The benefits of automating the discipline management in your institution should not be considered as a luxury.
Believe me this feature is an extremely important and critical piece of your institutions reputation and must not be
taken lightly and overlooked. For example incident location reports can assist in analyzing which building
locations require increased supervision and break down of incidents by teaching faculty can identify which
discipline issues are affecting your staff. Coming back to my original question that I asked the Vice Chancellor,
with an effective EMIS system, the VC could have pulled up the discipline module on his computer and answered
instantly that the drug-related issue was first identified on such and such date, in such and such building at such
and such time and was first reported by xyz staff. Also the VC could have shown me a graph / chart on the trend
and comparison of this type of incident within various campuses. Such is the power of IAF (INFORMATION AT
YOUR FINGERTIPS). You can use it or lose it!


BOARDING AND CAFETERIA MANAGEMENT
Many institutions will continue to offer traditional facilities such as boarding, meals and other such facilities both on-
campus and off-campus. This is an important and memorable part of the full College Life experience for many
students. Therefore, a module integrated into the EMIS to manage the boarding aspects is only a natural extension of
the EMIS. Features such as house/group assignment, rooms, dining / meal tickets, daily timetable, sports, clubs,
uniform/laundry, etc. are all processes of a successful boarding establishment management and an EMIS can handle
these details very gracefully.
COMMUNICATE INSTANTLY USING SMS, EMAIL AND MODERN-DAY INSTANT MESSAGING
SMS and email usage has revolutionized the manner in which people communicate. These tools are in common use in
every household and business environment. These same familiar tools can be used to communicate with Intra-office as
well as with Parents, Teachers, and all School Staff. The messaging features must be embedded in the workflow and
associated processes so that messaging is easy and convenient to use. In an integrated messaging module you will be
able to send rule-based messages to any cell-phone or email entity in the system either to individuals or to groups.
For example, you can send late fee payment notices to students, program and course enrollment confirmations,
payment receipt confirmations, notices on school events and changes to dates, venues etc. and so much more. If
sending and receiving messages is made convenient and easy, your staff will use the facility more frequently and your
systems will run smoothly. A documented communication is also a very proven method to keep records of all
conversations and avoid misunderstandings later on. If everyone is using messaging in their daily lives, then why not
implement the same in the institutional EMIS model?
MANAGEMENT CONSOLE
Just as the captain of a Ship has a Console to control and navigate his/her ship, why not create a console to manage
and control your institution. The information machine that you build must have a Management Console. This
console should give you all the vital data that you need to make sound monetary and academic related decisions at
your institution. Information such as results and grade trends, budget over-runs, capital expenditure, trends in faculty
attendance, trends in student tardiness, discipline trends, trends in asset losses and damages, results of faculty,
student and parents surveys, comparisons of performances in a multi-campus, multi-school system and many other
such valuable trends should be at your disposal instantly. The idea is to have all the data on all the metrics that you
have established for tracking at your fingertips. Dont compromise on this goal. This data will let you look inside the
institution and provide you the necessary insight to help identify problem areas and plan for corrective action
proactively as opposed to reacting after the damage has been done.
Comprehensive indicator systems for Multi-Tier and State owned institutions
The data from the management console from each institution can be consolidated and sent upstream to management
to improve schools, colleges and universities and student learning outcomes from these institutions. If an EMIS
incorporate the indicators and assessments described as best practices throughout the worlds most successful
institutions, it will enable decision makers to utilize information and document evidence for ongoing improvement
activities with confidence that best practices are being followed downstream. Consolidated data from institutions
should be comprehensive in order to provide evidence on such factors as the equitable and sufficient distribution of
qualified staff, including but not limited to teachers and supervisory staff; class size; buildings, libraries, technology,
and other material resources; school climate; parental engagement; and family and community support for learning.
Such data also provides evidence about success or failure of learning outcomes, such as intermediate and secondary
school graduation; college readiness, enrollment, and progress; employment; and civic participation. In addition, the
system can be enhanced to also collect information on out-of-school factors including comprehensive health care,
housing, employment and income, and community safety. Collection of such data is a collaborative activity involving
relevant state and federal departments and agencies and institutions. The results can then help state and federal
agencies in academic institutions improvement efforts. This is probably the one single investment that states and
localities can make to improve learning outcomes, remove ambiguity, provide transparency and equitable grants, and
save millions in costs. In many countries and states, this is the main reason why an EMIS implementation is given top


priority and subsidized But then again those countries believe in teaching their institutions to fish and not feed their
institutions an occasional fish!
STUDENT JOB PLACEMENT SERVICES
What good is an education if your students cannot find employment after they graduate? For Universities and
Trade/Vocational Institutions it is extremely essential that they provide a mechanism for perspective employers to
post open job positions with requirements and expose those opportunities to the graduating students. It is ironic that
many graduates cannot find jobs simply because the opportunities that existed were not exposed to them.
An education institutions responsibility does not end after granting a degree. In todays competitive world, almost all
progressive institutions help their graduates find work. The process of job placement is not as simple as picking
candidate names from a hat and assigning them to a specific client. Your job placement department needs to assess an
individual applicants qualifications to determine if he or she is compatible with what the job posting and prospective
employer needs and if any regulatory limits to open positions are obstructions. Recruiters and interviewers determine
the potential of candidates for long-term success by meeting with each applicant in person. These interviews can be
scheduled electronically and outcomes tracked for future analysis. All of these tasks are made easier through the use of
a good job placement module in an EMIS.
The massive influence of the Internet has provided the opportunity for using intuitive technologies that enable
recruitment firms, corporations and other prospective employers to expand their reach and increase the visibility of
their job opportunities. As a result, web-based job placement features in an EMIS have become the tool of choice
among institutions who want to find the best companies and professions that can employ their graduates. With a little
effort in implementing Job Placement service features in you EMIS, your institution could be placing the next
Einstein, Telsa, Neil Armstrong or some other genius in the right position at the right time with the right employer.
WEB-BASED PORTALS
The World Wide Web (Internet) has truly changed the world. It has not only shrunk the world but also connected
humanity in such a way that we are all forever tethered (The WEB is certainly an appropriate name for the Internet).
The massive influence of the Internet and the powerful technologies that exist today can make any institution into a
Virtual Campus. Enabling your system for Internet access will prepare you to expand into the world of distance
learning. Even if your institution is not planning to offer distance learning in the future or ever, web-based portals are
an important facility that you should offer to communicate with the other stake-holders and relieve major
administrative burden on your staff. Web Portals allow you to create information self-service kiosks that can be
accessed easily from anywhere in the world. Moreover, it has been proven that Web-based portals not only facilitate
interaction but increase interaction between the academic and student community precisely what a progressive
institution cherishes. There should be at least these four portals built around a central EMIS at your institution;
- Students Portal: This portal should have the time table, attendance record, homework assignments,
grades viewing, email, teacher evaluations, school evaluations;
- Teachers Portal: This portal should have the teachers time table, attendance record, homework
assignments, email, Vacation/holiday/sick leave requests, student evaluations, school evaluations;
- Parents Portal: This portal should show the time table, attendance record, grades viewing, discipline
infarctions view, email, Vacation/holiday/sick leave requests, school evaluations;
- Sponsors Portal: This portal should have the attendance record, grades viewing, email, teacher
evaluations, school evaluations and receipt of payments received;

DISTANCE LEARNING AN OVERVIEW
The World Wide Web (Internet) has truly changed the world and is probably the most influential development since
the printing-press. It has not on shrunk the world but also connected humanity in such a way that we are all forever
tethered (perhaps this is why we call it the 'WEB'), the massive influence of the Internet and the powerful technologies
that exist today can make any institution a 'Virtual University with no geographic boundaries. Within a context of
rapid technological change and shifting market conditions, the education system in every country is challenged with


providing increased educational opportunities without increased budgets. Many educational institutions are
answering this challenge by developing distance education programs.
WHAT IS DISTANCE EDUCATION ?
At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical
distance, and technology, often in concert with face-to-face communication, is used to bridge the instructional gap.
These types of programs can provide adults with a second chance at a college education, reach those disadvantaged by
limited time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers at their places of employment.
IS DISTANCE EDUCATION EFFECTIVE ?
Many educators ask if distant students learn as much as students receiving traditional face-to-face instruction.
Research comparing distance education to traditional face-to-face instruction indicates that teaching and studying at a
distance can be as effective as traditional instruction, when the method and technologies used are appropriate to the
instructional tasks, there is student-to-student interaction, and when there is timely teacher-to-student feedback.
HOW IS DISTANCE EDUCATION DELIVERED ?
A wide range of technological options are available to the distance educator. They fall into four major categories :
Voice - Instructional audio tools include the interactive technologies of telephone, audio-conferencing, and short-
wave radio. Passive (one-way) audio tools include tapes and radio.
Video - Instructional video tools include still images such as slides, pre-produced moving images (films, videotape),
and real-time moving images combined with audio-conferencing (one-way or two-way video with two-way audio).
Data - Computers send and receive information electronically. For this reason, the term "data" is used to describe this
broad category of instructional tools. Computer application for distance education are varied and include :
Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) - the uses the computer as a self-contained teaching
machine to present individual lessons.
Computer-managed instruction (CMI) - uses the computer to organize instruction and track
student records and progress. The instruction itself need not be delivered via a computer, although
CAI is often combined with CMI.
Computer-mediated education (CME) - describes computer application that facilitate the
delivery of instruction. Examples include electronic mail, fax, real-time computer conferencing, and
World-Wide Web applications.
Print - is a foundational element of distance education programs and the basis from which all other
delivery systems have evolved. Various print formats are available including : textbooks, study
guides, workbooks, course syllabi, and case studies.
WHAT IS THE BEST PLAN FOR OFFERING DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS?
The challenges in offering an effective Distance Learning program are many. Not only do have to create flexible,
reusable content, creating the diverse enabling and learning infrastructure / architectures is a prodigious task. It is no
surprise that the best plans in offering E-Learning fail because of failing to connect all the dots and complete all the
pieces in the puzzle. I just have a few suggestions from my experience in implementing E-Learning programs and
platforms. For example, a good system must;
Support a wide variety of learning approaches
It must support all the existing and emerging Learning-Modes, such as Instructor-led traditional classroom,
Instructor-Led Web-cast, self-directed self-paced study, case-based study, scenario-based, adaptive learning,
performance support, constructivist, intelligent tutoring, simulation, collaborative learning, Conventional CBT
etc.


The system should be able to work with a wide range of content types and (pre-existing) content (learning
objects and resources, video, audio, pdf files, html and all other kinds of multimedia)
The solution must be able to operate across a range of Internet and client technologies
It should satisfy diverse learning requirements

I have used the below model very successfully in the past to determine an appropriate Distance Learning solution for
clients. It begins with answering some fundamental questions such as:
1. What content you can get to: because it's there (is it authored or yet to be authored?).
2. When do you need it: does it have to fit to a current schedule, a proposed schedule or no schedule.
3. Where do you need it: fit to current environment (location/place, device, connectivity constraints et.)
4. What do you need: fit to current context of learning this means level of the content, complexity, etc.
5. What do you know: fit to current knowledge - do you have subject matter expertise, will it be acquired?

INFORMATION SECURITY AND PRIVACY
The information age has led to a heightened concern that personal information is not being protected. The high speed
at which private information can be used and shared, often without permission, enables and increases the possibility
of identity theft and other unauthorized uses of personal information. In an academic institution, this can also include
altering grades and exam outcomes, changing payroll records, and there have also been reports of printing fake
certificates and transcripts. As a result, controlling risks to personal information through enhanced information
security has become so important that Domain Knowledge in Education now must be augmented with Information
Security knowledge. The system provider must be familiar with standards and obligations on schools, colleges and
universities to protect the data they collect, store, process, use, and disclose. This also includes sensitive health and
financial data. Failure to protect this type of information will inevitably result in public embarrassment not to mention
the financial costs associated with managing the response to such incidents. At a minimum, the EMIS should
including the following controls:
Facility to limit system access to authorized individuals and groups;
Operational system checks and balances to ensure integrity of data;
Audit logs for changes to sensitive data such as date of birth, CNIC number, permanent address, contact
information, grades, salary records, etc.;
Logs of use of input/output devices (i.e. use of terminals, devices that print Badges, ID Cards etc.);
Logs maintained for use of instances related to electronic signatures (if they are used);
In addition to EMIS software related controls, there are many controls that must be implemented as standards in the
management of information security policy. Examples of such standards are the following:
Determination that those who maintain, or use electronic systems have the education, training, and
experience to perform their assigned tasks;
Establishment of and adherence to written policies that hold individuals accountable for actions initiated
under their user id, password and electronic signatures usage;
Appropriate controls over systems documentation
Controls for open systems corresponding to controls for closed systems (i.e. Interaction between the Internet
and the Intranet and vice-versa. CAUTION! The EMIS must always exist on a firewall protected Intranet at all
times)
IT Asset Identification and Assessment of IT related physical assets that must be protected within an
organization
Data Backup and Recovery procedures including testing and audit procedures
Regular assessment of the risks and subsequent analysis against the probability of security breach occurrences
Implementation of Safeguards to Counter Identified Risks: For risks that are identified as having a high
probability of occurring, implement reasonable and appropriate safeguards to lower the probability to an
acceptable level
Addressing Third-Party Security through Contracts or Service Provider Agreements: Control potential risks
created by third parties through the use of contracts that require third parties to implement reasonable and
appropriate safeguards when they process, store, use, or transmit organizational assets
Training of students, faculty, staff, and third parties on policies and procedures and other safeguards and
security practices to protect organizational assets


Regularly monitor and testing of the effectiveness of implemented safeguards against known or potential risks
Review and revise the information security program when safeguards are no longer effective against known or
potential risks
The above represent some common practices, standards and policy in implemented in academic institutions that have
been using an EMIS for some time. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when information is openly available on
accepted best practices and effective processes for security of information and other assets within an organization.
CONCLUSION
Human beings today are conditioned to believe information preceded by phrases such as; A new study suggests, A
new report published by such and such says this and that. But do you really know if that new report is true? Do you
know how the underlying data in the new report was acquired in the first place? What if the data was collected and
compiled manually in a hurry to meet certain deadlines? What if the data is a best effort data collected by a novice in
a hurry to save his/her job? What if the data was plugged-in to appease the boss or get a bonus or salary increase?
This happens all the time in paper-driven manually run systems. The reason is that it is lengthy and tedious process to
validate the autheticity of the data so most of the time such validation is avoided. Just take a clue from our recent
election results. The election commission stated very openly that it was impossible for them to validate thumb prints
manually because of the large volume of votes. What they really meant to say was that if the system allowed for
automatic matching of finger prints, the authenticity of the votes could be easily asertained but without this aspect
being computerized, authentication of these votes was not possible. So much for democracy!
Planning without action is a daydream. Action without planning is a nightmare. This is a very
famous Japanese proverb. You cannot align your stated academic mission to the real world
if your basic planning is wrong and cannot be acted upon. If the planning is based upon
unreliable, erroneous and bogus data, then the assumptions used in planning will be wrong.
The decision you make using data that you think is reliable has far reaching consequences. Many times peoples
destiny and livelihood is at stake because of these decisions. In a manual paper-dependant system, data can be easily
manipulated to meet any purpose. We see this all around us daily in third-world countries. Data is cooked-up for
example to manipulate quotas. Data is made-up to give the appearance of normalcy whereas the underlying facts could
be far different. Erroneous data is the root cause of wrong and damaging decisions its that simple. Just last year
alone there were 10,000 ghost schools in Punjab (Pakistan) alone causing millions of Rupees in losses to the State
(ghost schools that were functioning without students but the teachers were getting salaries without attending these
schools). There were teachers on the payroll who had never reported to work, there were assets on the books but not
on ground, there were building repair and maintenance expenses that were bogus, there were also instances of
registered students who had never even reported to schools once. You cannot align your academic mission to the real
world if your basic assumptions are unreliable and based upon erroneous and bogus data. This is unfortunately the
case today with not just our academic institutions but also our entire education ecosystem. The data on which major
decisions are made by our government and many schools, colleges and universities is often incomplete, flawed,
erroneous, outdated and many times manipulated for satisfying a few special interests but the entire nation is paying
a heavy price.
Can all this be avoided? Certainly if there is a will. Will this waste and playing with our childrens future continue?
Most likely yes as there does not seem to any importance given by either public or private institutions to computerize
the operations and make the data real and thus meaningful. It is critical that VCs understand the importance of
implementing a reliable EMIS as quickly as possible. Dont take my word for it but ask those institutions who have
saved millions and reaped many fold improvements in productivity and effectiveness. The VCs are the captain of their
ship. As captains, you should choose the best tools to manage and navigate your ship. The passengers on board are the
assets of a nation and nation building will not occur if these passengers do not make it to their destination. As an
unknown person had said, an I quote; The only true equalisers in the world are books; the only treasure-house open
to all comers is a library; the only wealth which will not decay is knowledge; the only jewel which you can carry beyond
the grave is wisdom. Well said, but in the information age I want to modify what he said as follows; The only true


equalisers in the world today is Computers and the Internet; the Information Machine that treats all users as equal. It
is open to everyone, anyone and at anytime and contains the wealth of knowledge from the beginning of time which
will not decay ever; the only jewel which you can carry beyond the grave is wisdom. Computers and the Internet are an
assurance that your wisdom will live for eternity. There is another famous quotation by Confucius (551479 BC)
which the chinese practice very diligently. It says If your plan is for 1 year plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years plant
trees. If your plan is for 100 years educate children. Educating children effeciently and effectively in this age of hyper-
speed knowledge is not possible with manual outdated paperwork-driven systems. There is just too much information
to process. You have to build a mighty Information Machine. This is necessary to protect our Educational Institutions
from decay and instead modernize them, expand and grow them, increase their capacity and improve the quality of
our education - FOR THE SAKE OF FUTURE GENERATIONS!
To know what is right and not do it
is the worst cowardice
The reality is that we live in an information-driven society, and the
expectation is that education can and must keep pace with the rest of the
world. Educators must have a can do attitude because we live in an era
where technology can play a key role in turning vast amounts of raw data
into usable knowledge for managing and guiding the educational process.
Educators must understand that advances in data management
technologies not only provide the tools needed to meet todays
requirements, but that these tools also provide access to relevant
information to shape daily instructional practice and advance the potential for learning and achievement for their
students. For these educators, the ability to make data-driven decisions, routinely, in a secure, accessible, and
supportive technology environment will enable them to focus on individual student achievement as never before
thought possible.
Aurangzeb Bhatti,
CEO,
NovaQuest / Digital EduQuest

Contact Us
Digital EduQuest
A NovaQuest (Pvt.) Ltd. Division
12 F.C.C., Maratab Ali Road
Gulberg-IV, Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.digitaleduquest.com
email: zbhatti2@hotmail.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aurangzeb (Zeb) Bhatti received his Master Degree and BS Degree from
Northrop Institute of Technology and Calif. State University Los Angeles,
California. He holds over thirty (30) professional certifications in
advanced systems and software disciplines, Telecommunications, Fiber
Backbones, Software Architectures, Data Centers, and, Systems and
Software used to manage the Data Centers and Backbones. He has
Authored over 100 courses in technology, specifically in Education
Management and Information Systems, LANs, WANs, Wireless Systems,
Systems Security, Network Management, Fiber Optics, Voice-Over-IP
Telephony, Video-Over-IP Networks, Video Streaming Systems, Digital
Media Storage and Management Systems and E-Commerce Systems

United States Patents: Aurangzeb is the inventor and designer and holds the Virtual University
Appliance (VU Appliance) patent. The VU Appliance allows educational institutions, corporations, and
industry associations to create web-based virtual e-learning environments very quickly and inexpensively.
The appliance is a standard rack mounted device and comes pre-configured with the following software
Course Builder - a software for creating/aggregating content for courses, Courseware Repository - for
storing all the courses and tracking their usage; Learning Management and Registration System (LMS);
Online Exams Server - for creating comprehensive Exams, Quizzes and exercises; Online Evaluations
Server - for Students Evaluations, Instructor Evaluations; Collaboration Server for Online Discussion
Forums & Chat Sessions; Online Marketing Server - for promoting new courses and recruiting
Instructor/Mentors.
Companies Founded and Managed:
NOVAQUEST PVT. LTD ./ DIGITAL EDUQUEST
May 2005 to current
President & CEO
Gulberg-IV, Lahore, Pakistan

Founded DIGITAL EDUQUEST in 2005. The company is in the business of improving the productivity and
performance of Educational Institutions. EDULINK ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning for schools /
colleges / universities operations) is the companys flagship product. The system manages multi-school
/college / university, multi-campus, and multi-company educational institutions. The company also offers
content creation and content repurposing services. Using the Sharable Content Object Reference Model
(SCORM), which is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning, the company
enables its clients to build learning content that can be deployed across many platforms in a multi-media
format.

DIGITAL LEARNING MANAGEMENT CORPORATION
May 2001 to 2006
President & CEO
TORRANCE, CA. (USA)

Founding CEO, CTO and Chief Curriculum Officer of Digital Learning Management Corporation and
Digital Learning Institute, Inc. (DLI). These companies leveraged major university accreditations, and
campuses to offer courses in technology, business management, finance, human resource management and
productivity enhancement to a wide range of audience through distance learning. DLI also created several
custom courses for Corporate America in a multitude of Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT). These
courses were created in partnership with leading Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and industry experts
with practical knowledge and experience in their respective fields. Many of these SMEs were CEOs, CTSs
and leaders in their field. At the end of 2006, DLI offered over forty-eight such courses in finance,
management, fiber optics and telecommunications thru its affiliate program at Cal State University


Fullerton, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Cal State University Channel Islands, Woodbury
University, and McKinley School of Business.

ENOM, INC.
November, 1998 to April, 2001
President & CEO
TORRANCE, CA.

Co-Founded the Company. Enom Inc. started as a small domain name registration and now is considered
as a leading domain name registration company in USA offering a range of hosting and website support
products.

WEBVISION, INC.
August, 1998 to March, 2001
CEO and Chief Technology Officer
TORRANCE, CA.

Co-Founded the Company. Responsible for Strategic plan and its execution. WebVision was in the Internet
Infrastructure Business with unique value-add software and networking components. Zeb implemented the
Build out of a network of Internet Data Centers, a national Fiber-Optics backbone network offering
Asynchronous Transmission Mode (ATM) and Internet Protocol (IP) services, a Network Operations Center
(NOC), an Intrusion Detection Center (Security Operations Center) and a complete eCommerce-hosting
platform under the brand of WEBTROPOLIS.

NOVAQUEST INFOSYSTEMS, INC.
March, 1993 - August, 1998
CEO & CTO
TORRANCE, CA.

Co-founder of NovaQuest InfoSystems (founded as ComputerLand LAX in 1985) which became one of the
top 50 privately held companies in the world. The NovaQuest IT training company offered training in
Information and Programming Technologies to fortune 500 accounts. As head of NovaQuest Training, Zeb
developed their entire curriculum by forging relationships with Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Cisco, Novell and
several other partners. Zeb also created a Distance Learning strategy for Novaquest, which resulted in
Novaquest participating in bids for the KUB University in Malaysia and iNetversity in Los Angeles.

COMPUTERLAND LAX
October, 1985 - March, 19993
Vice President & CTO
LOS ANGELES, CA.

Co-founder of ComputerLand LAX. As its EVP & CTO, Zeb helped build the company from a 70k per month
five-man operation to a $140 million annual Retail Computer business with seven (7) computer retail
stores, two (2) service centers, two computer training centers and trained and an effective professional
corporate outbound sales team. Under Zebs supervision, the training and services revenue grew over 50%
annually for five years. Because of my work, ComputerLand LAX became the largest franchisee of
ComputerLand Inc. in less than three years.

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