A single software which automates business process and workflow management of education institutes.

Comprises of 22 distinct functional modules which can used by large/small educational trusts, universities, colleges, schools and other supplementary educational bodies

Current scope of presentation will use following modules of IIMS (partially/fully)1. Admission 2. Student Management3. Fees4. Accounts

Admission process comprises of following stages (sub modules)5. Defining pre requisites of admission for institute specific program offerings (statutory, institute

specific as per legacy processes)6. Making available various modes of data collection (online, offline, stage-forward, bulk import)7. Back office ETLC process, filtering for 1st merit list8. Translation of eligibility criteria into admission rubrics (if needed)9. Payment collection and realization10. Confirmation of PROSPECT -> APPLICANT11. Automated document verification and eligibility criteria’s for securing admission12. Confirmation of APPLICANT -> STUDENT

WHAT IS OPETUS ? SCOPE IN CURRENT CONTEXT (ADMISSION)

(STAGE 1 back office) MEDIA PLANNING / NOTIFICATION PROCESS PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT OF ADMISSION

Based on age and brand recognition of institute, admission coordinators decide method of notification to target audience. Some schools / colleges put up notice boards, some advertise for wider footprint of target audience. Budget of campaign is spread across various mediums of advertisement such as print or electronic and repeat frequency planned for maximum effect of the campaign.

Admission coordinators and counsellors review response of adverts and notification and track count of prospects interested in enrollment. Basic contact information, prospect name, program and stream interested in enrollment gets recorded along with source of information

Opetus allows recording of adverts, media, and cost incurred. Counsellors enter prospects data and collect source of enquiry. Each media campaign can be reviewed in terms of cost, frequency and response received. Cost of campaign and value of money on medium used for propagation can be analyzed

Counsellors follow-up prospects and emails promotional material, brochures and even have cold calls to gauge interest of prospect. Negation reasons such as amount of fees, travel time, admission prerequisites, threshold percentage etc… get notified

Remedial actions such as sponsorships, concessions, alternate programs get drooled out to retain prospect and convince him/her to buy prospectus and apply for admission

After 2/3 follow-ups the prospect can be tagged if uninterested. Data can be purged or archived for future notification campaigns

(STAGE 1 back office) PREPARATION OF ADMISSION (online/offline)Select program / standard for which admissions are about to commence for next academic year. New year creation, admission quota definition, available streams and capping limits, elective subjects, admission eligibility criterion definition, rules of selection, rules for filing application forms, sequence and order of criteria in selection process, methods of payment, admission schedule must be defined in Opetus ERP. Entire admission workflow gets orchestrated based on dates defined in admission schedule and notification methods configured for each step in workflow

Define admission seat bifurcation based on quota Define documents needed for admission

Define available streams and capping limits Define admission schedule with validity windows

Define admission rules and exceptions Define sequence and priority of admission criterion

Define options for online admission Define notifications at each stage of admission process

Opetus allows to import rules / configuration from past records, hence post import only incremental changes can be configured. Opetus rule engine allows user definable entities and translation metrics which can generate weightage based points to arrive at final merit list based on data of applicant. Incase of institutes not having infrastructure to manage online admission an offline workflow to manage maximum automation is also supported by Opetus

(STAGE 1 back office) PREPARATION OF ADMISSION (online hosted services / in-house server)Define hyperlink on institute website redirecting to admission server (hosted / in-house). Ideally create a sub domain mapped to the admission server or configure a separate instance of Opetus Education Server for handling admissions only on dedicated static IP.

Opetus portal has following user definable provisions for each academic program / standard. Created detailed lucid notes explaining how to apply and fill application form. These notes can be in local language explaining rules, admission prerequisites and eligibility, fee structure, rules and all corner cases like admission cancellations, forfeits, rejections, denials and transfers

Organize a manned phone number / extension which can be for used for online enquiry, support, grievance redressals, complains

Define fee structure for all admission categories, map it to COA, ascertain admission quota across categories and specify admission eligibility explicitly in terms of clearance of entrance test(s) with minimum score, documents needed, acknowledgement of payment for application form processing and acceptable methods and mode of payments within threshold windows defined

Do a dry-run by filing a dummy application form just to verify notifications configured. Ascertain SMS / PNS / Emails working and confirm rejections / bounces

(STAGE 2 offline/online) DEFINING/SETTING MODES OF DATA COLLECTIONOffline (for institutes with poor / no infrastructure to manage online admissions)

Get preprinted application forms with unique serial numbers. These number can be institute/location/year specific with suffixed incremental numbers. Define separate OTC (over the counter) for sale of application forms. Opetus support sale of forms and can track free / complimentary / sold forms reconciling with inventory of application forms.

Opetus portal can be used for offline filling of application forms. Post sale of forms ensure candidates fill their application forms from one of few offline machine made available for filling forms. These machines can be from labs which can be temporarily used for managing offline application form data entry

Online (outsourced / hosted on in-house Opetus Portal)

For outsourced model define application processing methodologies for fastest mode of data collection. Ensure data exchange file formats for data import from vendor and minimum fields needed for data processing. When hosted on Opetus Portal process of import and data sanitization gets skipped as Opetus ensures data validity and security standards for dubious and duplicate data entries. Back office operations remains the same after data get imported or collected online. Extra task of payment reconciliation with outsourced vendor or disputed cases needs to be resolved as all candidate may not have online payments options available

STEP 1:

Defining master data as per institute, program, intake capacity, quotas/reservations, model of education, admission category, form number series etc.…

STEP 2:

Defining sorting criteria’s in order of dependencies for merit list declaration. Ex: Aggregate Percentage, Admission Category, Alternate Conditions for considerations in case of equal weightages of criteria, rounding offs

STEP 3:

Synchronizing mode of payments, payment realization with acceptance of application.

STEP 4:

Staging / Accepting data as per data filter rules and notifying acceptance of application (if needed)

STEP 5:

Standardize formats of data exchange/export/import and reports for web publishing or notice boards

(STAGE 2 offline) MASTER AND FORMAT STANDARDIZATION

STEP 1:

Extraction, Transformation, Cleansing, Loading (ETLC) i.e. standardize data for case, numeric precision, data field width, reserved characters

STEP 2:Sanitize collected data, duplicates removal, invalid entries, rejection due to data entry errors

STEP 3:

Manually correct rejected data (if possible) and repeat Step1 & 2

STEP 4:

If “See and Key” offline method is used, compare data from known sources and reject invalid entries

Publish/Recheck rejection list for valid Form Numbers but invalid entries (optional)

STEP 5:

FTP, mail, export to desired format if any third party needs sanitized data (optional)

(Offline) DATA SANITIZATION

STEP 1:

Validating data as per eligibility rubrics (non academic data)

STEP 2:Translation of verbose data to numeric formats

STEP 3:

Calculation of cumulative scores in addition to academic records.

STEP 4:

Publishing of translated data for manual verification and further processing (if needed)

STEP 5:

FTP, mail, export to desired format if any third party needs translated data (optional)

STEP 1:

Acceptance of every possible mode of payment, notifications (instrument favoring) and ticket based deposits

STEP 2:Validating entered data of application form with received/realized payment

STEP 3:

Notification to candidate about acceptance of application.

STEP 4:

Enabling further data capturing (if needed) for admission process

STEP 5:

FTP, mail, export to desired format if any third party needs payment data (optional)

(Online/Offline) PAYMENT COLLECTION & REALIZATION(Online/Offline) RUBRIC TRANSLATION

(STAGE 2 Online/Offline) POST APPLICANT REGISTRATION

APPLICATION FORM PROCESSINGUpon receipt of digitized applications, back office admission department starts data review and more than one personnel gets involved in verification workflow. Apart from candidates personal and guardian information, previous academic records, work experience details, document verification and comparison of entered data with copies of original submitted, payment realization become part of processing work

Accordingly prospect gets converted from stage 1 to an applicant unless rejected on grounds of furnishing wrong information such as fudging of marks, incomplete / insufficient documents, failure to meet eligibility criteria or unrealized payment. Every change of state gets notified to the prospect or applicant via SMS / Email

Application form processing engine then evaluates applicant data and generates list of most eligible candidates which forms the merit list. This list is published along with date range window within which the candidate has to exercise his admission claim. Uninterested applicants who skipped this time frame are rejected and next list of eligible candidates for pending seats get published with a new set of date range. This process continues till all seats get consumed even after admission cancellations and transfers

Institutes which have GD / PI / MP rounds as part of admission filter can batch and schedule students for subsequent rounds. Prospects / Applicants can login and track their state of progress, print admit card, interact with enquiry department, register complaint with grievance cell using Opetus portal login

PROSPECT / APPLICANT LOGIN DURING ADMISSION STAGESProspects / Applicants can use enrollment number and password notified during registration process as login credentials and track status of their application online. Admission notices, changes in schedule, merit list and other admission related information can be viewed online. In case of any enquiry or assistance needed candidate can send message to admission support center for further information

Candidates who had secured admission but intend for change of stream, seek a transfer or want admission cancelled can apply via Opetus portal

Candidates can read policy documents which define rules of engagement or rejection. Details about cancellation period, refund policy and forfeit amount can also be published via Opetus Portal

OPETUS EDUCATION SERVER REST API WEB SERVICESOpetus education server supports custom web services and callback URLs for managing automated asynchronous data transfer between third party admission service providers or hosted servers at data center and back office ERP.

In case the customer has outsourced entrance exam and online admission to third party Opetus can still automate the admission cycle but stitching servers using web services, isolating and managing security without compromise on quality of data or scales of load expected during peak admission traffic

INSTITUTES ADMISSION POLICY AND STATUTORY COMPLIANCES

• Adherence to statutory / mandatory policies• Deviations from the same (in case of exceptions)• Criteria specific to institute programs/courses and priority order• Policy for naming convention, automated numbers

(application/enrollment), data filters• Disqualifying conditions (ex: duplicate/invalid application numbers),

intentional fudging of marks, unrealized payments• Data entry process (filtering from ‘n’ entries)• Document verification / provisional admission• Transfers/Refund and changes in fee structure• Integration with current web site• Data purging / forwarding once admissions are over

FOR TRIAL / DEMO CONTACT

India Offices:

MUMBAI

Mr. Bhavesh Gandhi

Contact (+91) 9819365466

bhavesh.gandhi@opetus.co.in

SURAT

Mr. Gitesh Modi

Contact (+91) 9898883050

gitesh.modi@opetus.co.in