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A renowned Art and Architecture Institute
embraces digital technology.

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) is a top-ranking institution of Art and Design education in Pakistan with a student body of over 900. The school currently offers a range of programs in Undergraduate and Graduate studies, diplomas, pre-collegiate summer programs and workshops. IVS is a renowned centre of excellence and stands out for consistently pushing the frontiers of art education.

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) is a non-profit institution founded in 1990 by a group of professional architects, designers and artists who believed that Karachi needed a school of excellence encompassing the disciplines of Fine Art, Design and Architecture.

Starting off with the induction of just forty-five students in their four and five year academic programmes in Fine Art & Design and Architecture, the number of students enrolled has progressively increased.

With a growing number of applicants for its wide variety of programmes, IVS was looking for a state of the art Student Information System (SIS). AlmusNet’s Campus on Cloud (CoC) proved to be the ideal fit for their requirements as it effectively provided an integrated solution for Academics, Admissions and Financial Management.

The Challenges

As a rapidly growing institution, the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) was beset with a host of information management challenges:

  • With a number of disparate functional systems deployed with little or no integration, and many key departmental processes still manual, IVS struggled to generate operational efficiency and consistent reporting across its various functional units. A significant amount of time and effort was being wasted in removing data inconsistencies and an overall lack of coherence prevailed across the institution.
  • The Admissions process was cumbersome as it burdened the administrators with the task of tracking and processing applications manually. This limited the number of applications IVS could accept and often frustrated the applicants due to inefficiencies along the admissions processes.
  • With a growing student body and an increase in the types of programme offerings, IVS was struggling to manage graduate, undergraduate, diploma, short courses and summer programmes with its existing system.
  • IVS did not have a system to track the overall academic progress of each candidate and get a holistic 360 degree view of their current status as the data was fragmented. The administration often could not take timely actions and had to incur associated costs.

The Expectations

There was a growing consensus among the Administrators of IVS that these mounting challenges could only be met by a high-end student information system that provided a comprehensive and integrated solution. With a rapidly growing student body and the addition of new programs, IVS was looking for a solution that would not only streamline its existing processes but also have the flexibility and future vision to meet its evolving needs. After conducting an intensive search and evaluating multiple options, IVS chose AlmusNet’s Campus on Cloud to lay as its new digital foundation.

Campus on Cloud Steps In

Campus on Cloud (CoC) is AlmusNet’s flagship Campus Management and Student Information Solution for Higher Education Institutions. Our Microsoft Azure cloud based SIS delivers rich functionality in a highly secure solution and a stunning user interface.

Over a 6-month period, our consultants configured and deployed the following modules of Campus On Cloud at IVS: Academics, Admissions and Financials. We delivered a unique model to fit Indus Valley School’s centralised system for their multiple programme offerings which included graduate and undergraduate programs, short courses and diplomas. We also provided an integration with a Library Management System which helped provide easy access to Library Management and streamlined processes for the library staff. Moreover, by presenting built-in reports, dashboards for data visualisation, a Reporting Universe for easy access to data and customized reports through CoC, we helped the school optimize operations and decision making for its multiple layers of management and faculty.

CoC transformed the art institute’s Admissions processes in the following ways:

  • IVS required a mechanism through which it could automate the application and entry test processes. Through CoC’s Online Admission Portal, applicants can easily sign up using SMS or Email messages, submit applications online and also track their applications as they are processed by the school. Moreover, the Calendar Management and Scheduling System enabled IVS to create and distribute admit slips to students.
  • When it came to merit lists and eligibility checks, a lot of time and effort was previously being wasted during manual sorting and categorizing of applications. Now, through Coc’s Merit and Eligibility feature, the institute can speed up the admissions process by setting certain criteria and filters for the automation of merit processing.
  • IVS had no system in place for preference wise admissions and hence a lot of time was spent doing this manually as well. CoC provided an all-in-one admission decision management solution with features such as interview scheduling and marking, application status management, seat management, offer generation, disbursal of offer letters and the ability to correspond with applicants on an ad hoc basis.

For the Academics module, CoC fully automated key processes in the following ways:

  • IVS required a profound and systematic approach in order to have all programs listed, review course catalogs, student terms, class enrollments and attendance health. CoC effectively catered to these requirements via its Academics module that incorporates all of the above along with Enrollments, Assessments and Grades.
  • Previously, it was difficult to keep track of Instructors’ and Students’ attendance. Through CoC’s Faculty and Admin Portal, CoC provides easy access to attendance health and overall attendance statistics. This helps track progress and performance in real-time and accelerates decision making.
  • IVS had its transcript generation and graduation tracking process being carried out outside its initial system and this resulted in a segregated overall student management platform. CoC Academics helped provide support by incorporating integrated transcript generation, unit-based progression (Earned Rules), academic level progression, along with graduation processing.

Lastly, CoC revolutionised Indus Valley School’s Financial processes as follows:

  • Campus on Cloud’s Financials module and provided an integrated solution for bill generation, along with fee calculation, installments, adjustments, waiver management and refunds.
  • IVS required integration of its legacy General Ledger with CoC’s Financials. Our implementation team provided this integration with the existing ERP system, thus streamlining the movement of consolidated student financial data to corporate accounts and eliminating discrepancies.

Success Overview and Future Growth Plans

Campus on Cloud completely renewed the Admissions, Academics and Financial management operations for Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture by providing a consolidated platform for managing its varied processes and associated data. The facilitation provided by CoCs admissions module made the process convenient and user friendly, thereby resulting in a larger number of processed applications and higher applicant satisfaction. Similarly, CoC’s Financial module and general ledger integration enabled IVS to bill students with the flexibility of allowing fee installments, waivers, adjustments and refunds. The digitization of financial processes resulted in speedy processing and reduced discrepancies.

After seamless implementation of CoC’s Academics, Admissions and Financials modules, IVS now plans to integrate Moodle’s Online Learning Management System in its Academics module to facilitate e-learning.