Edu-leaders

Lovely Professional University (LPU), Phagwara, is a technology-driven campus spread over 600 acres with 24,000 students studying in its 150 programmes. It provides a range of integrated undergraduate and postgraduate courses. LPU is a progressive education provider that focuses on professional training, to help students fit into the modern industrial market.

Problem Identification
As a rapidly-growing university in Punjab, LPU was adding approximately 8,000 students annually, capitalising on its programmes and quality infrastructure. The growing numbers posed a serious challenge to the institution as far as recording and maintaining data pertaining to students was concerned. In addition maintaing records of the alumni, besides those of the faculty and staff members, further complicated the process.

The combined data was enormous, and traditional ways to manage it were failing. The management was worried, as some of this data (calculation of attendance and results) play an important role in a student’s life, and could have serious repercussions.

Record Challenges
To increase the efficiency of record management processes, LPU started to look at options that would allow it to shift its information base to an IT-driven platform. During a preliminary search, the university discovered that while there were big players like SAP and Oracle that had ready packages for the education sector, the solutions did not match LPU requirements, since all these software had been customised and aligned to the US education system. This proved to be a big challenge for the management, which led the team to opt for a customised solution.

Customised Solution
As the first step, biometric machines were procured from HCL and a software was developed with inputs from the university’s technical staff to collect information pertaining to employees and students.

The process was initiated at the beginning of a new academic session. The first module in the software collected data pertaining to the students during the admission process. Subsequently, other information was entered into the system on a day-to-day basis. Features, including automated SMSes to students regarding admissions and inquiry, were added later. Over the next three to four months, more modules were added to the system, and all records were slowly shifted to the IT-based system. Data, such as student’s attendance records and examination marks, were input into the system and made accessible on a realtime basis.

The final challenge was training the staff to use the software. Once the new system was accepted, the process became swift and transparent.

With the student problem now solved, the next issue to be addressed was how to manage the human resource, especially since the university had a staff strength of almost 1,500. The university wished to provide timely access to attendance and leave records, salary, appraisals, joining dates and emergency contact details to staff. To solve this problem, LPU introduced a biometric system for staff and students, despite the system being expensive. In the long run, utility justified the cost, as the recording process was streamlined completely.

Biometric and smart cards were procured from HCL Biometric to receive and store information regarding the daily entry and exit of staff. The programme also made the details available online, eliminating the need for a dedicated team needed for record-keeping. LPU also streamlined its recruitment process by putting interview dates, names of candidates, comments and appraisals available online— to make the process more transparent. High-end blade servers, procured from IBM, and HP storage devices, were installed to ensure continuous data security and manage larger volumes of information.

Business Value
The programme has met with approval from Ashok Mittal, the Chancellor of LPU. “Retrieving information has become easy.

Now, we depute a less number of administrative staff to provide information, as students have easy access to recent and updated information. They can check their attendance records, assignment schedules, important notifications, and syllabi from anywhere. They can also submit their assignments online. Our system has become transparent and accessible,” he says.

“This problem of managing data first surfaced in 2005. Fortunately, the problem changed our attitude towards the university’s administration and our idea of management. It is a positive technology that has made the whole process simple.”