Despite budget cuts, lack of staff, as well as a constant influx of incoming freshmen, most of today’s schools and colleges are still striving to stay afloat. To worsen matters, outdated resources and equipment may seriously hinder staff efforts to keep the campus fully efficient and optimized.
Fortunately, more schools are now starting to understand the benefits of making use of a school management software. By introducing digital solutions to usual infrastructural difficulties, schools now have the opportunity to decrease their overhead expenses, boost student satisfaction ratings, and improve their school experiences for both present learners and the next generations of students to come.
Below are some of the key features of school management software that can greatly improve, streamline and simplify the vital operations of a school.
A centralized platform for all school tasks and administration.
If the centralized management platform is lacking, a school’s services may soon become disorganized and ineffective.
Regrettably, many schools depend on a combination of analog and digital technologies to manage a number of departments and tasks, such as student records, student service queues, as well as staff accounts. Often, these systems are incongruent with one another, jeopardizing the efficiency and infrastructural stability of the school. For instance, a school may use a digital recordkeeping system for grades of the students yet still have the students’ files on paper.
Fortunately, the use of a school management software provides a significant advantage in this area. Schools may administer and personalize a number of services using systems through a centralized online interface usually referred to as the “Command Center.” The software enables school employees and administrators to:
- Add, manage and delete staff accounts
- Create and update numerous school queues
- Manage, configure, and organize queues by location
- View queue SMS message history
- Track configuration modifications through action type, user, date, and IP address
With a school management software, schools can now micro-manage their queues more easily. Substantial changes can be made with just a few clicks, and administrators can remain updated on recent occurrences – thanks to the built-in digital recording. With convenience in mind, the software’s simplicity can help lessen employees’ task loads and spend less time fiddling with settings and ample time refining their services or responding to student needs.
Gather data for actionable insights and manage queues efficiently.
Another benefit of school management software is the ease with which comprehensive analytics can be accessed. Since a school management software digitally manages school queues, valuable data on all queues is collected and stored automatically. At any moment, school employees may access the saved data through a web browser and gather essential insight into the effectiveness of their queues through a number of key metrics.
With a school management software, the queue data is always accessible and will not be deleted, enabling you to make a comparison with queue data by observing trends across days, weeks, months, as well as years of service. Moreover, because of its digital architecture, a school management software provides a dynamic display of queue data in a variety of configurations, such as graphical and tabular formats. When you are done surveying the queue data, simply click a button to export the reports as CSV or Microsoft Excel files.
Common queue data metrics of a school management software are the following:
- Students waiting time
- Total number of students serviced within a queue or by a staff member
- Average duration of service
- Student service ratios (students serviced against no-shows and queue abandoners)
- Queue length
- Student arrival time
Because of the simplicity of school management software, features such as queue data reporting enable school staff to identify queue performance weaknesses and implement effective solutions quickly. As a result, reporting features could assist schools in increasing their queue efficiency and overall service quality on-campus.
Encourage student-staff communication.
Communication is really critical to the success of any educational setting. When students have appropriate means of communication with the teachers and staff, they are more likely to achieve their objectives and goals in academic endeavors.
On the other hand, implementing platforms for meaningful discussion and evaluation in school environments is often easier than it sounds. Fortunately, school management software has the advantage of facilitating two-way communication between students and staff.
Students in active queues have two ways to be heard when using a school management software. Because it provides queue data and updates to queue users through bi-directional SMS text, students may communicate with staff members by just texting.
After completion of service, it will then provide staff the relevant feedback and evaluation of queue performance. All surveys are sent to students through SMS text as third-party links, which makes them very accessible and seamless.
Furthermore, staff will benefit from the features of school management software. Since most, if not all, school management software has integrated a feature for SMS text messaging, it can now immediately notify students of service delays and disruptions through built-in notifications.
Makes use of digital devices.
In today’s digitally connected society, the majority of students own powerful mobile devices or smartphones. Although some schools have prohibited the use of these smartphones on campus because they can be a distraction, schools can make use of the capabilities of these devices to enhance their services and increase productivity for both teachers and students.
Students may join queues on campus straight from using their smartphones through SMS text or a downloaded as one of the advantages of using a school management software. When a student makes a service request — whether for a guidance counselor’s office or to the school nurse clinic— the system will immediately connect the student to a digital queue. If a queued student’s position is next in line, they will be notified through SMS text so that they will have ample time to return to the facilities to have quality services.
Numerous school management software also provides comparable mobile advantages to teachers. Staff may use an integrated queue management software for devices to:
- Monitor queues throughout campus
- Manually add students to queues
- View student wait times and average queue wait times
Digital technology has transformed the nature of communication and infrastructure. Schools that use these mobile solutions would see an improvement in student satisfaction and organizational efficiency.
