Academia ERP vs iCloudEMS ERP: Which College Management Software is Better?

Managing a college is no easy task. A college has a lot to do ranging from handling students and teachers to ensuring smooth administration. Surely anyone who’s worked in a college can recount the frustration experienced when students and faculty clamor for simple tasks.

For example, before examinations, students gather at the administration office to pay fines and secure admit cards, leading to chaos. Additionally, a good college ERP software can easily manage tasks like attendance management, payments, examination management, etc.

There is no dearth of college management systems in the market. To help college management make a smarter choice, we have compared two of the best College ERP Systems in India, Academia ERP and iCloudEMS ERP. This should help colleges decide which is better suited to their individual needs.

1. Academia ERP

 Academia ERP by Serosoft is an award-winning educational ERP software, used by over 200 institutions across the globe. It is a complete ERP solution that can be used by any college, to automate its academic and administrative processes.

It is a user-friendly college management system that streamlines the complete student lifecycle from enquiry to graduation. Additionally, it manages administrative processes such as inventory, hostel, library, human resources, etc.

The software removes manual intervention largely, making process execution smoother. This leads to increased efficiency, productivity and greater control over college processes.

A Feature Rich System

Academia ERP comes with a bunch of features that allows colleges to be more automated in managing the administration. It is capable of automating campus management processes, making tasks like student, staff and course management simpler to execute.

Academia ERP also comes with an Admission Management module which manages the database of pre-admission enquiries, manages the application process, compiles student registration information and comes with email and SMS integration.

Additionally, Student Information System, Time-Table Management, File Management, Committee Management, Payment Integration, Accounting Software Integration, LMS Tools (Moodle, Blackboard etc), Biometric Integration, Human Resource Management, Hostel Management, Inventory/Store Management are its key features.

Multiple Hosting Options

One of the key advantages of Academia ERP is its three distinct hosting options. These are on-premise hosting, cloud hosting and hybrid (a mix of on-premise and cloud) hosting options. Depending on requirement, a college can opt for either of the three hosting options.

2. iCloudEMS

 iCloudEMS is a cloud-based college ERP system which manages administration, campus operations and academic management efficiently.

Designed on PHP, MYSQL & J2EE framework, iCloudEMS college management system has 25+ modules and facilitates computerised process for student admission, transfer of educational certificates on completion of studies, teacher-parent collaboration, examinations, financial and administrative operations, attendance management, and academic monitoring, among others.

Feedback is Key

iCloudEMS ERP understands the importance of students’ opinions and thus, has a thorough feedback collection system in place. Students are given a platform to voice their opinions giving them a say in the teaching and learning process.

Feedback is accumulated through online questionnaires and focus group discussions. It keeps the identity of students giving feedback, confidential. Analysis reports of feedback are tabulated and displayed.

Analytic Reporting for Better Learning

An important feature of iCloudEMS is its ability to map data and results, which allows better evaluation during report viewing. This feature called ‘iCloudEMS Objective Based Outcome Reports’, allows inspection of results along with Course Outcome (CO) and Program Outcome (PO) realisation and improved documentation. It also gives a better sense of profits and outcomes and evaluates student and faculty performance across several metrics.

Maintaining Government Certification Reports

Any college in India needs certain permission from the government to operate and hand out degrees to their students. iCloudEMS can maintain such governing body reports (AICTE, DTE etc) and other important information like eligibility reports, Permanent & Stationary (PNS) reports, minority reports (Samaj Kalyan, Student Welfare Report, etc).

Additionally, It can also handle Employee DTE Reports, Employee AICTE reports, NBA Self-Assessment report (SAR), LIC Local Inquiry Committee reports, Employee Directory report, employee staff profile and Employee Minority reports.

Comparison

At first glance, both Academia ERP and iCloudEMS ERP are self-sufficient software that can perform all the automated computerised tasks expected of a good college ERP system.

Both of them can handle student, faculty and non-teaching staff lifecycle information well, and generate relevant reports and tabulate them. Academia ERP benefits educational institutes by creating efficient process flow, responsive decision making, reduced errors and minimal duplication of work.

Academia ERP also creates quality interaction among its stakeholders with focus on student – teacher, student – institute, intra-institute -teacher administrators and institute – parent interactions.

Furthermore, Its key USPs are multiple hosting options (on-premise, cloud and hybrid) and two distinct pricing models: SaaS-based and license-based.

On the other hand, iCloudEMS ERP is more of an all-round management system with the ability to work across modules. It is completely cloud-based and removes the hassle of physical storage.

It is feature rich and handles all aspects of campus management, from the gate to the boundary. It’s key USP includes accreditation reporting, easier content sharing and compatibility across any kind of college, both in terms of scale and specialization.

iCloudEMS has been designed in PHP, MYSQL & J2EE framework, making it multi-platform compatible.

The Verdict

Based on our comparison of Academia ERP & iCloudEMS, a college that is looking for a more detail-oriented cloud-based ERP system with the ability to manage government certification reports and a portal for parents should opt for iCloudEMS.

However, a college should opt for AcademiaERP if its primary focus is on scalable campus management software with the option of hosting and pricing.

Now that you have a better sense of these College management software, you should be aware of which college ERP system is better suited to your needs.