It’s no secret that higher education is rapidly modernising the systems they rely on to deliver an exceptional student experience. From all aspects of course management, student profile creation, internal course requirements, and more—the need for agile and connected solutions that streamline data management is immense.
Quercus is a flexible and user-friendly student management system that helps higher education institutions enhance and manage their student administration processes. Quercus is a highly configurable workflow driven student management system.
However, Quercus can deliver even more value when it is integrated with all the other systems across the campus, as most campus systems will rely on data from Quercus. In addition Quercus can be improved by electronically receiving data from other systems.
So, what options do you have when it comes to Quercus? And how can you drive more value out of this system?
In this post, we’ll look at the most common integration challenges faced by higher education institutions and how efficient integration with Quercus can create significant opportunities for your campus.
Higher education institutions use a plethora of different, disparate systems, which can all operate in unique ways. In addition to a range of enterprise systems, such as CRM, finance, student records, and HR systems, there are also a number of specialised systems that are specific to higher education—timetabling, virtual learning environments, library monitoring, and more.
Add to that the various departmental systems—and more specifically to this year—the technical systems needed to enable online learning, and it’s clear why each of these systems is so essential.
Your campus contains a complex structure of systems—and without effective integration between them, and specifically with Quercus, additional work and further challenges can arise quickly.
Modern education has a lot to think about, especially in this new digital-first environment.
Inefficient integration between your platforms can lead to a variety of challenges—all of which can be avoided by prioritising a powerful integration solution that harmonises the flow of data between essential systems and processes.
Here are a few of the biggest integration challenges campuses currently face:
1. Loss Of Value
Loss of value is one of the main issues that stem from a lack of integration between systems on campuses.
The inability to send and receive data efficiently can diminish the value and usefulness of systems your organisation relies on, directly impacting your campus’s overhead, user satisfaction, and the student experience.
2. Frustration and Increased Labour
Internal frustration and increased labour costs are two additional outcomes that we see a lot. Poor integration between systems often results in additional work, even more strain on your IT department, and a general feeling of frustration.
Exporting data between systems can cause additional problems when it comes to tracking that data. It also wastes valuable time and resources and can result in duplicate data, which is problematic for any organisation.
The data flow challenges involved with a lack of integration can result in certain systems being abandoned entirely, which devalues the significant investment already made in them.
3. In-House Solutions That Create Further Problems
Another common frustration is the creation of an in-house integration solution to address potential gaps.
While these situations may work at first, changing staff and institutional needs can create problems with maintenance and upgrading in-house code. A key developer may move to another project, core functionality may change, or an essential feature breaks and becomes incompatible with the latest build. It’s not uncommon for short-term solutions to create new challenges.
Remember, integration is a living thing, and processes should be reviewed constantly to make improvements to them. Integration frameworks must be able to keep up with software and system improvements without getting stuck using outdated methods.
Future updates and industry trends are often out of your team’s control and can render in-house solutions redundant. This results in your institution needing to spend even more time and money to solve this problem.
If integration is such a big issue, where does opportunity exist? And what can you expect to achieve with an optimised integration system?
Quercus offers a feature-rich experience that’s built specifically for program-based institutions. However, education institutions often use a variety of solutions to collect, aggregate, and process their data. This creates a significant problem when it comes to communication between these various solutions.
Quercus Message Link (QML) can integrate with other third-party systems using XML messages. But you need a system that’s capable of converting that data into a usable format between your other systems.
So, how can you overcome the incompatibility problem?
The answer is simple: integration.
Amos | Connect was created to solve these exact problems. This solution is an effective way for you to integrate Quercus with your other essential systems. It’s a hybrid integration platform that efficiently integrates different information systems across your campus, letting you achieve smooth interoperability between these different platforms.
The result is a complete overview of the flow of data in your organization, the relationship between the different systems, and a detailed glimpse into the performance of these systems.
Our cloud-based platform has multiple visualisation features, which allow you to map out integration between these systems. Its logical interface helps you see where performance is failing, allowing you to identify and troubleshoot problems faster.
Amos | Connect enhances your workflows and dataflows across your campus, streamlining the flow of data between Quercus and the other systems you rely on to operate smoothly.
Overcoming your integration challenges with a system that supports streamlined connectivity between your platforms is advantageous—not only for Quercus, but for the many systems that exist within your institution.
Efficient integration with Quercus allows for seamless data flow and a heightened user experience for staff and students using your information systems on campus.
It also enables you to overcome a lot of the challenges that your current system might face, such as strains on labour, additional IT costs, and user frustration.
Integration isn’t only valuable — it’s very doable, too. If your higher education system is struggling with integration between Quercus and your other platforms, Amos | Connect can help.
Are you interested in seeing what Amos | Connect can do for your campus? Get in touch with an Amos integration specialist today to book a demo.
