Stretched thin by recession, community colleges choosing CAMS Enterprise to get better productivity,

Facing growing enrollments and reduced budgets, community colleges are turning to a comprehensive, Web-based ERP that yields ROI as high as 75 percent.
 
Sept. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- St. Louis  —  When Clarendon College switched on CAMS Enterprise™, its new automated academic management system, in August, administrators at the Texas community college were aiming to increase efficiency and save money. In doing so, however, Clarendon also joined other trendsetting community colleges across the country seeking higher returns from their IT investments by abandoning expensive antiquated technology in favor of the industry’s most cost-effective and featured-packed enterprise resource planning system.    

Stretched as they are by increasing enrollments and shrinking budgets, community colleges everywhere are turning to the comprehensive, Web-based Three Rivers Systems ERP that provides enhanced functionality and yields eye-popping returns on investment as high as 75 percent.

Community colleges in some states face funding cuts of more than 20 percent. At the same time, in light of the recession, many students and unemployed adults seeking retraining are making community colleges their preferred choice to meet the educational requirements of today’s job market. That means growing enrollments that leave many community colleges caught between higher expectations and lower operating budgets.  

In the critical area of information technology, dollars and people must work harder than ever and the status quo is not the answer.

Clarendon Director of Information Systems Will Thompson said the school was using a highly modified system based on Jenzabar Poise. He was considering an upgrade to Jenzabar EX but recognized this choice would be expensive, consume resources he had to conserve and would not accommodate growth.

“Once we engaged Three Rivers Systems, we realized they had a totally new and more-effective way to meet our needs. Implementation time was important, too, and CAMS Enterprise can replace an entire system in only a few months rather than years,” Thomson said.

Clarendon selected CAMS Enterprise in February and required an August 1 go-live date, Thompson said.  “Three Rivers Systems quickly worked a project plan backward from the go-live date. Managed by their dedicated experienced project managers, the plan included kick-off, site preparation, system installation, training, data mapping and loading, system set-up based on our operations needs, data verification and final data conversion.  As a result, system cutover and go-live couldn’t have been faster or smoother.”

Three Rivers Systems Inc. President and Founder Amir Tajkarimi said the company routinely handles every step of this detailed implementation process while transferring knowledge and technology to clients. “Our goal is always to help our customers become self-sufficient.  During this time we fully review all their state reporting requirements and deliver them as part of the full turnkey solution,” he said.

“Our proven track record shows we can do a total system replacement in a mere six to nine months, on time and often under budget.  Our expert project managers deliver maximum knowledge to our customers for fast and accurate results.  With data conversion, for example, we do all the analysis, mapping, loading and cleanup under the institution’s supervision. This hands-on implementation by our staff ensures quality services and most importantly no interruption for the client’s operations,” Tajkarimi said.

Another Texas community college, Frank Phillips College, in Borger, near Amarillo, also prefers CAMS Enterprise. The institution recently made news for its use of CAMS’ built-in LMS, or learning management system, which is fully integrated with CAMS’ student information modules for everything from admissions and alumni management to student placement.  Frank Phillips staff found the CAMS LMS to be much more user-friendly and used it to replace Blackboard.

Clinton Community College, in Plattsburgh, N.Y., a member unit of the State University of New York, selected CAMS Enterprise under unusual circumstances. As part of the SUNY system, Clinton had “free” access to SunGard’s Banner but after conducting due diligence opted for CAM Enterprise  to avoid expensive maintenance and consultant contracts while enjoying its many other benefits.
 
Other two-year colleges using CAMS Enterprise include Flathead Community College, in Kalispell, Mont.; Rich Mountain Community College, in Mena, Ark.; and Terra Community College in Fremont, Ohio,

Tajkarimi thinks that collectively higher education may be losing billions of dollars on unnecessary hardware, software and maintenance.

“Many large institutions are shackled to seemingly new yet surprisingly outdated client-server based systems that can’t compete with a fully integrated Web-based system like ours,” Tajkarimi said.

“They require expensive hardware and software upgrades with endless high-priced consultant contracts to keep them running.  CAMS Enterprise however, runs entirely on a couple of servers that typically only cost a few thousand dollars, as compared to competing systems that cost hundreds of thousands or more just for the servers and network hardware.   Given the lingering recession, unnecessary technology expenditures are no longer in line with today’s realities and expectations,” he said.

EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology, issued a comprehensive report in July on the impact of the recession on information technology. Author Phillip J. Goldstein concludes that IT leaders must do four things to persuade their institutions that technology is a good investment not just a place to cut costs:

•   Improve the utilization of assets through more efficient administrative operations.

•   Improve student retention and reduce the time to graduation through better systems to track academic progress and improve advising.

•   Leverage data and analytics to support improved decision making.

•   Secure new revenue streams through online learning.

CAMS Enterprise is built around a single, Microsoft SQL database and relies on shared applications.  Application sharing allows essential functions like registration, course management, portals, financial management and development to work together seamlessly.  Products designed in this way — as a singular solution rather than an interfaced system — yield a variety of benefits for users:

•   All functions look, feel and operate the same way so users can master them quickly.  
•   They eliminate multiple interfaces, increase productivity, reduce the need to acquire additional hardware and expedite implementation.
•   They eliminate updates to multiple systems.
•   They can be easily and efficiently scaled as an institution grows or adds campuses.


About CAMS Enterprise
Developed from the ground up with Microsoft Internet technologies, CAMS Enterprise, is a highly scalable, comprehensive academic management system that is quick to implement and easy to use. CAMS Enterprise consolidates multiple stand-alone systems including admissions, student information, financial aid, student services, fiscal management with HR and payroll, fund-raising, alumni relations, document management, course management a full suite of portals, and more, into one solution that ensures administrators, staff, faculty and students all work with the most recent and most accurate information. By uniting administrative and academic management systems, CAMS Enterprise is the only totally Web-native, completely integrated solution for managing the entire student life-cycle.



Contact:  Ron Kalb, Three Rivers Systems Inc., Director of Communications, 636-779-1518 (office), 702-498-8916 (cell), ronk@threerivers-cams.com

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Three Rivers Systems Inc., the developer and service provider for CAMS has been delivering innovative technology-driven solutions to the educational community for 25 years. The company has a large established client base throughout the world..
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