Why Is Business Intelligence Important in Education, and What Is It Used For?

Today, the complexities of academic management make handling information correctly more important than ever. Ideally, all of a school's data should be centralized in educational software that includes Business Intelligence features.

Business Intelligence? That's right! Business Intelligence, or BI, is now a key tool in the administration of all kinds of educational institutions, thanks to the ease of use and benefits it offers. Let's find out why.

The importance of Business Intelligence in education

First of all, remember that the main goal of Business Intelligence is to turn a system's data into valuable information; in this case, into custom reports that meet a specific academic, behavioral, or financial need.

In this context, the importance of academic management systems having BI features essentially lies in giving school leadership and administrative staff tools that make it easier to analyze information and make decisions.

For example, if the administrative and finance director needed to know the average delay of parents who owe tuition, Business Intelligence would let them get a detailed report for collection purposes, and they could even ask for it to include the amount owed for each enrolled child, both itemized and grouped.

BI is therefore extremely useful for schools because, on the academic side, there is a great deal of valuable information for tracking students, not to mention reporting to leadership and parents: from grades, behavior, and counseling services to performance reports, and much more.

In addition, from an administrative standpoint, it is important to have information on areas such as Billing, Collections, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Purchasing, and other essential accounting items organized in a systematic way.

Business Intelligence therefore allows schools to maintain effective control over two key pillars of school management: academics on the one hand, and finance and administration on the other.

Which platforms offer BI for school academic management?

Despite the great benefits BI has proven to bring to education, very few academic management platforms have integrated this type of functionality. In fact, for the vast majority, it is still a challenge for the future.

The good news, however, is that there are some specialized companies with many years of experience in academic management whose systems already offer these features. One of them is Phidias, which provides an extremely flexible solution to meet the needs of each educational institution by:

• Integrating and centralizing the school's data in a single system
• Organizing information according to various criteria so each user can use it as they need
• Making it possible to export data to an Excel file, making it easier to analyze, print, and even share with administrators and parents
• Allowing the creation of custom reports
• Offering a modular design that covers the different areas of academic management (e.g., Admissions, Student Tracking, Treasury, Administration, Communication, Online Processes, Transportation, Extracurricular Activities, etc.)
• Guaranteeing the highest level of cybersecurity

Today, the world's most prestigious educational institutions undeniably stand out not only for the quality of their teaching but also for their level of technological innovation, implementing advanced systems for intelligent management.

Are you looking for a solution to streamline your academic management? Phidias is the academic management software for schools that makes 360° management of your institution possible. Get in touch with our team of experts to learn more.