Things to consider when budgeting for an SIS

It’s often a topic of discussion on what amount should an institution invest for when acquiring an SIS solution. It is usually a colossal task amongst the members of the finance and IT team of an institution, especially around the process of planning for a successful SIS implementation. Budget is usually the first parameter which an institution’s management team ponders upon while deciding to buy an SIS  package. Once the management have sourced various suppliers, pricing comes in as a major deciding factor. The market has a wide variety of product offerings and variable costs which can cause confusion.

Take for instance, purchasing a car, the real question is which car to buy and does it meet my needs. Similarly, while deciding on SIS package implementation, Institutions must figure out what are they really looking for, are they looking for a solution which shadows and confirms to industry best practices and policies or do they want an SIS package which best fits their needs and how they work as an organization. Deciding on this parameter must be the first step an institution’s management must consider and then move forward to deciding upon a budget. Maintaining this approach will give the management a broader outlook and clear sight into the value of the product.

Budgeting for an SIS must not just stop at the cost of acquiring an SIS package, but it should also consider the cost of the project as a whole which also includes implementation, deployment, training and maintenance costs. Institutions opting for SIS packages must take into consideration additional costs associated with  specific customizations, as is case with any tailor made products.

Institutions must also allocate appropriate budgets for training faculties, students and other stakeholders of the organisation on how to use the system. This process will result in better acceptance and increased adoption of the system.  This course of action will assist in creating higher transparency, increased productivity and greater control over the organization.

Some organizations even budget for the time taken by its stakeholders during the implementation. Ultimately the budget of an institution management SIS package will be an associate function under the IT or Systems budget of the organization. One may have to appoint an engineer in the capacity of SIS administrator to ensure that the system runs without any issues. The cost of an SIS package also varies with the type of deployment an institution opts for. An institution may go in for a cloud based implementation or a local server based implementation, and also they may choose whether they would like to buy the SIS on a SaaS based costing model or a license model.

We all know  budgets are tight and Academia SIS offers you all the bells and whistles when compared to other well-known SIS systems at a fraction of the cost, we are also able to easily customize our solution to meet your organizations needs and requirements.

Our SaaS solution is billed annually. Annual per-user fees are all-inclusive of the yearly license, technical support and software maintenance throughout the year. The subscription fees will decrease with more users, usually on a tiered basis.
The benefit of SaaS licenses are:

• The license fees are spread evenly over the life of the contract.
• Low upfront costs – only implementation services and first year annual license.
• Annual licenses are purchased out of an Institute’s operational budget which can be easier to access than an Institute’s capital budget.
• The license is scalable and can easily grow with the institution