We’ve all heard the term, “work smarter, not harder.”
But what does this mean in the context of Higher Ed technology?
By having the right Student Information System (SIS) in place, you’ll be able to manage the entire student lifecycle on a single platform.
Through the power of tools like workflow automation, you’ll be able to engage with students more efficiently, ensure compliance and accurate reporting, and make better-informed decisions based on real-time analytics.
Here’s how having the right SIS can help you and your team work smarter, not harder.
Admissions
For starters, an effective SIS can help you optimize your marketing and admissions strategy to attract, engage with, and recruit prospective students. That means providing better insights into what tactics are working, which need improvement, and how you can hit your application goals.
Using an SIS will also help with inquiry management so that you can capture prospects in real time from various sources, including through your website, college fairs, recruiting events, and more. Nurture your prospects over time with workflow automation to make contact, screen, measure interest, and convert your prospects into enrolled students.
And, your SIS should be able to leverage multichannel communication so that you can engage with prospects on whichever platform they prefer, such as voice, SMS, email, chat, and video
Ultimately, it’s about acting as a trusted guide to help your students through the admissions process, earning their trust, and starting to build strong relationships.
Enrollment Management
How can the right SIS help with enrollment management?
We’re glad you asked.
If you have a tool that’s built to support Higher Ed intuitions like yours, you can use the SIS to deliver a seamless experience when the “handoff” takes place between Admissions and Enrollment. That means consistency of language, aesthetics and branding, experience, and communication channel.
On the back end, you can track multiple enrollments for students to record schedules, transcript records, ledger card transactions, and placement records.
For more insights into improving how you approach enrollment management at your institution, check out these resources:
- How to Streamline Your Enrollment Management Process
- 3 Enrollment Management Strategies You Can Implement Today
Class Scheduling
Class scheduling is one of the scenarios in which many schools just “put up with” the software that they use.
If this sounds like you, we’re here to tell you that there is a better way.
With the right SIS tool, you can manage school staff, faculty, classroom facilities, and academic calendars to complete class scheduling with ease. That means bulk enrollment, scheduling for the entire academic year, and the prevention of overlapping terms.
If you don’t already use a tool that offers built-in prerequisite and equivalency checkers to ensure scheduling accuracy, then you are probably creating more headaches and unnecessary manual work than needed.
Learn more about what’s possible: here are 5 Essential Features of Class Scheduling Software for Colleges.
Compliance
Maintaining accurate and up-to-date compliance records is one of those requirements that very few people enjoy, but it’s incredibly important. The two go hand-in-hand—you will have an impossibly difficult time trying to stay compliant without accurate data and record-keeping.
Your SIS software should help you enforce accuracy in record handling, tracking, and keeping. That includes things like applicant document workflows, registrar and finance process queues, and real-time attendance and GPA tracking.
The idea is to minimize the chance of clerical errors by automating as much as possible and cutting back on manual work.
If you get audited, you don’t want to be left unsure about your data or its accuracy, especially when it comes to 90-10, WIA, and VA funding compliance tracking
What Can the Right SIS Do for You?
To sum it up, having the right SIS tool can help you work smarter, not harder by reducing efficiencies, automating processes, cutting back on manual work, and eliminating the chance for human error wherever possible.
For more info on how this works, download The Higher Ed Workbook for Automation, Profitability, and Improving the Student Experience.
