The Hidden Infrastructure Keeping Universities Running

There’s a lot more that goes on with universities day-to-day than what most people would ever think to appreciate. Students enroll, pay tuition, attend class, submit papers, and graduate somewhere along the line, but few ever stop to think that in the back end of this all exists extensive software communication, databases and administrative niceties that hold it all together at best, and implodes it all at worst when a glitch intervenes. It never makes the news. No one’s tweeting about it. But trust me, without it in place, things would come to a standstill relatively quickly.

What No One Sees Operating Behind the Scenes

Student Information Systems (SIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning platforms (ERP) are extensive administrative and student management methods that one person won’t build for themselves over the course of a career; every time a student looks up their grade or financial aid rep accesses their account that’s behind a certain window in these overlapping platforms, the proverbial ghost in the machine is operating at access status. SIS/ERP systems cover everything from enrolment records to course assignments to course scheduling to payroll options, budget requests and compliance reporting.

To think of how extensive a university can be is staggering; mid-size universities boast tens of thousands of active students engaged in hundreds of degree programs (sometimes across multiple campuses), and thousands of faculty and administrative staff members working within dozens of departments at a time. That’s a lot of information that has to be stored, tracked, reported upon in real time. This is not something that someone creates an Excel document for.

In EdTech, platforms like anthology dominate in the type of integrated systems which universities require on a regular basis, that’s why universities pay attention when consolidation occurs within this market; they want to know what their options are with administrative software support.

Why Integration Matters

Here’s the catch. Universities don’t just need software. They need software that talks to itself. When the system that manages registrations cannot talk to the system that manages financial aid, or when academic records exist on one field of “the web” and HR is ten steps away on another system, integration becomes a nightmare.

Overlap records, lag time in processing requests, a department spends hours every day cross-referencing data instead of getting new hires approved as soon as possible, this is all part of daily life in universities where systems fail to integrate.

The drive toward integration is really a drive toward fixing that; when everything is under one roof, even if it’s not physical, its theoretical cohesion means that information flows where it should. A decision to admit provides downstream faculties the information they need to assess further data requests. A payment comes in and instantaneously registers. A student with academic caution has the support team already identified without delay.

It sounds so simple. But it’s so expensive and time consuming to achieve. Universities are often in it for the long haul.

Why Implementation is So Complicated

Switching out or enhancing an ERP system in a university is not like upgrading an app on a cell phone, these are established systems that have been used for years if not decades by many front end and back end persons alike. There are existing records that need to be seamlessly transitioned. There are third-party integrations that need to be maintained or recreated. There are countless people who need to learn something new while doing their actual jobs simultaneously; they’ve gotten used to one way for so long, and now they’ve got to shift their mindsets?

This is where people fail to realize what challenges a big university faces tech-wise. Most conversations surround student software needs: learning systems, campus portals, etc., but what’s operating beneath is where a lot of the challenge lies.

And it’s even more challenging because when systems make mistakes, everyone pays the price. A financial reporting error compromises accreditation efforts. A lag in course enrolments lags tuition revenue forecasts. Failing to report erroneous data at present means an academic career fails with caution down the line, and that’s a price far too high, and one not realized from outsiders looking in.

Expanding Definitions

One of the more interesting spin-offs from this challenge involves how “administrative infrastructure” has begun to expand definition for modern day operations. It used to mean back-end functions primarily: finance needs systems, HR needs systems, compliance needs systems.

Now, increasingly so, it means systems that impact student success more directly, i.e., early alert systems that spot red-flagged students, advising systems that support students through proactive contact with staff members, training dashboards and visualization tools that help universities recognize where students are falling through the cracks more than ever before.

This makes sense because administrative functions are all interconnected with university missions. The smoother a university can process financial aid applications for needy students means higher retention figures down the line. The better up-to-date an advisor can use information relevantly means better retained student efforts down the line. The mission and the infrastructure go hand-in-hand more often than not, and it’s hard to separate them from one another, meaning huge complications when things go wrong.

Universities are Long-Haul Institutions

Universities are long horizon institutions, they do not think quarterly; they think in years and decades, and this matters when they invest in technology and platforms because it’s less of a one-off software purchase but instead, something they’re committing to as a second home on an entirely different level: how staffers work day-to-day depends upon how well-integrated a system works and how long decisions take down the line ultimately control future courses of action for all involved.

When universities make this decision, and it’s not made lightly, they’re making it for years and years to come; it’s always easier to buy into something after someone else has had their experience with it because then you learn from their mistakes as well, but applying one’s own mistakes down the line is integral to success.

The hidden infrastructure keeping universities running may not be glamorous, but without it in place, no one would ever have the opportunity to consider what life could be like inside of a university education experience without it in hand. The institutions who invest the time and energy into making this part work operate best for those who matter most, the students.