With a growing body of students each year, and plans for expansion in the future, LCIBS required a Campus Management Solution (CMS) to manage three major operational areas for the Institution – Admissions, Academics and Student Financials – across all campuses, departments and programs. After an extensive evaluation process, AlmusNet’s Campus on Cloud (CoC) stood out as the best solution to fulfill LCIBS’ requirements.
The London College of International Business Studies (LCIBS) was founded against the backdrop of unprecedented economic growth in the 1870s, to fulfill the growing needs for business-minded leaders. For more than 140 years, LCIBS has empowered generations of workers with the skills and entrepreneurial instincts necessary to drive the global economy.
LCIBS has developed a reputation as a leader in higher education degrees, diplomas, and certificates, and is renowned for the quality of leadership that it develops. With its main campus in the United Kingdom, the college has three satellite campuses – in Botswana, Ghana, and Uganda.
Problem Overview
LCIBS was previously using multiple disconnected systems to support its Degree Programs, Diplomas and Certificates. Parts of several key processes were still being performed manually. Due to limited integration, the systems suffered from basic errors, such as a student appearing as an applicant in one system and as an enrolled student in another.
The Admissions process was quite complex and inefficient. Applicants were required to complete a cumbersome application form with multiple levels of attachments. SAT scores were being maintained manually and outside the systems. Student onboarding after a student was admitted was being done manually and resulted in many errors.
Academic functions also suffered from various problems. Students were not able to access their grades during a semester and were only shown their final grade upon completion of the semester. The college had a complex grading structure with grading being done by multiple graders and calculation of a consolidated grade was error-prone. Requirements for graduation of a student were being done manually outside its existing systems. The disconnect between the college’s financial and operational systems limited consolidation of information and caused a host of inefficiencies.
Project Goals
LCIBS was looking for a system that could synthesise its range of operations into an integrated whole. The system needed to provide one consolidated view of applicants and enrollments, and had to make the admissions process smoother. Prospective applicants needed to be provided with a consolidated view of their application status with the college. Further, enrolled students needed an up-to-date view regarding their progress at the college, including their current subject grades at any time.
After a thorough and exhaustive evaluation process, LCIBS selected AlmusNet’s Campus on Cloud (CoC) as its new application platform.
Campus on Cloud is scalable and relevant for the industry since it was developed with education best practices in mind. Its exciting roadmap shows commitment to stay in the forefront of cutting-edge product and feature deliverables. AlmusNet has years of education experience. Professionalism, service and support is a given with the great team.
Louisa van der Linden
LCIBS/Educor
Campus on Cloud Rolled Out
Campus on Cloud (CoC) is AlmusNet’s flagship Campus Management and Student Information Solution for Higher Education Institutions. Our Microsoft Azure cloud based SIS delivers rich functionality in a highly secure solution and a stunning user interface.
A team of AlmusNet’s functional consultants rolled out the CoC modules at LCIBS over a 4-month period.
CoC transformed LCIBS’ Admissions processes in the following ways:
- CoC integrated and well-designed processes reduced errors and inefficiencies drastically.
- The newly designed application form captured all the elements (including SAT scores) and requisite document attachments so that no information about the applicant needed to be kept outside the system.
- CoC introduced a number of control and security features to enhance the data integrity of applicant data. Previously, several types of users were able to access and change parts of the application and administration evaluations, which resulted in security breaches.
- The new system automated a number of key processes involved in onboarding new students in a hassle-free manner.
For the Academics module, CoC fully automated key processes in the following ways:
- LCIBS did not have fixed academic terms and sessions and CoC delivered a solution that offers fixed terms in a block based (semester) model, included term statistics, allowed flexible scheduling and supported attendance monitoring.
- CoC supported cumulative grades during the semester allowing for grades to be accessed at any time.
- Instead of a complex grading structure where grading was done by multiple graders, CoC implemented a solution where CoC Gradebook features were put to use which allowed assessment level grading to be done by an assigned grader.
- CoC provided features to track a student’s progress to-date against graduation requirements.
Key Contributions and Next Steps
Campus on Cloud (CoC) completely transformed the Admissions and Financial management framework for LCIBS by enabling the school to attain a standardized and integrated mechanism for managing its key business processes and the associated data. The University has already had a successful and less intricate admissions round and the automation of financial processes enabled it to save a significant amount of time and mitigate any possible discrepancies.
After CoC’s seamless implementation, LCIBS now plans to go live with the Academics module and automate key academic processes such as Student attendance, Student Performance Reports, Class Time Tables, Class Teacher allocation, and various other activities in order to further upgrade its Operations.