With the growing popularity of online education, one Pennsylvania based cyber school decided to branch out and offer its services nationwide, bringing the benefits of online education to students everywhere. To accomplish this, the school needed to build and effective and scalable student information system (SIS) and financial management system.
Originally, the Pennsylvania-based cyber school relied on Intuit QuickBooks for its financial management needs. But when the organization decided to open up its services to students nationwide, it quickly realized that QuickBooks was not enough to support the growing number of schools and students.
“We had exhausted the capabilities of the software we used at the time,” said a company representative. “Most applications fell short when it came to compatibility with other applications. Students could track their courses, but they couldn’t see their attendance records or receive their email.”
The Solution: Microsoft Dynamics CRM for managing student and school accounts along with Microsoft Dynamics GP for financial management. The benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM & GP include:
- Flexibility: The organization instituted a solution called “Backpack,” an information management system offering comprehensive educational management and delivery tools for teachers, administrative staff, students, and families. Backpack is built on the xRM application development framework of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “Online schools need an effective, reliable SIS that can easily be delivered and customized over the web. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provided us with all the tools and resources to develop such an SIS with great efficiency,” said a company representative.
- Integrated Financial Management: Students can now pay fees and make purchases on the company’s online store. These activities connect with the inventory management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which updates the financial-management records in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Plus, when a student registers for an online class, CRM creates a sales order in GP and notifies the company which materials to send the student. “It was extremely important to us that we could meet the intense auditing requirements of public schools, and we were able to customize Microsoft Dynamics GP to do exactly that.” Said a company representative.
- Scalability: Both Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP have been able to easily keep up with the growing demand of the national cyber school. Today, the school supports more than 50,000 students and includes partner schools in 15 states, as well as several international locations.
- Customer Service: By using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, customer service representatives can quickly and easily access both school and student accounts to better answer inquiries.
- And more!
“Because of the flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we are able to keep up with the evolving needs of the member schools and continue to support the best educational experience possible,” said a cyber school representative.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics GP, please contact Complete Software by calling 410-740-1090 or click here to visit our website!
Based out of Columbia, Maryland, Complete Software (CS) is proud to be a Microsoft Partner and Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics SL as well as a unique software developer providing solutions for businesses and non-profit organizations throughout the country. We offer a variety of services including Microsoft Dynamics consulting, system evaluation, business process analysis, system design, customizations, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations and system upgrades.
Our goal is to provide a complete financial system with a core Microsoft Dynamics foundation to businesses and labor unions located in Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, New York, and New Jersey!