Alert Notification
Alert Notification Systems in higher education are centralized communication systems used by colleges and universities to rapidly disseminate time-sensitive, critical information to students, faculty, staff, and sometimes visitors. These notifications are typically used for emergencies or urgent situations—such as campus security threats, severe weather, infrastructure outages, or public health issues—and are delivered through multiple channels (e.g., SMS/text messages, email, mobile apps, voice calls, digital signage, and learning management systems) to ensure broad and immediate reach. The goal of an alert notification system is to enhance campus safety, support regulatory compliance, and enable swift, coordinated responses during incidents.
Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence (BI) in higher education is a technology-driven process that enables institutions to access, integrate, and analyze current and historical data from multiple sources. BI solutions typically include data integration tools, reporting platforms, and interactive dashboards that draw information from systems such as the student information system, learning management system, and financial platforms. By consolidating and visualizing this data, BI helps institutions gain actionable insights, supporting improved decision-making, enhanced student outcomes, and greater operational efficiency.
Career Readiness
Career Readiness Solutions in higher education are digital tools and platforms designed to help students identify their interests, strengths, and career goals while developing the skills needed for employment and long-term career success. These solutions support career assessment and exploration, career and skills development, and college-to-career readiness by providing resources such as interest and aptitude assessments, industry and role insights, experiential learning opportunities, and skills-building activities. They also offer job search support, including résumé and interview preparation, access to job and internship listings, and career advising, as well as mentoring and networking capabilities that connect students with employers, alumni, and professionals for guidance and professional relationship building.
Catalog Management
A Catalog Management System in higher education enables institutions to create, edit, and publish comprehensive academic catalogs, including course descriptions, schedules, policies, and procedures. It serves as a centralized resource for students and faculty to access up-to-date information on courses, prerequisites, and degree requirements. Additionally, it facilitates collaboration among faculty and administrators on course development and program approvals, while supporting compliance with accreditation standards, ultimately enhancing the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of the institution’s academic offerings.
Conferencing
Conferencing Systems in higher education facilitate remote communication and collaboration among students, faculty, and staff. These platforms support diverse online interaction modes, including webinars, video conferences, virtual meetings, and online classes. Common features include screen sharing, session recording, polling, breakout rooms, and digital whiteboarding. Conferencing systems play a critical role in enabling effective online instruction, virtual meetings, and distance learning programs.
Content Management System
Content Management System (CMS) in higher education are digital platforms that enable educational institutions to efficiently create, organize, manage, and publish web content across their websites and online portals. It allows academic departments, faculty, and administrative staff to collaboratively update information such as course descriptions, research outputs, events, and institutional news without requiring advanced technical skills. By supporting role-based access, version control, and integration with learning management systems or student databases, a CMS ensures consistent branding, accuracy, and accessibility of institutional content while streamlining workflows and enhancing the overall digital experience for students, staff, and external audiences.
Curriculum Management
Curriculum Management Systems in higher education support the design, development, review, and approval of academic programs and courses. These platforms streamline the collaborative process among faculty, departments, and academic committees by managing proposals, tracking revisions, and ensuring alignment with institutional policies and accreditation standards. By centralizing curriculum data and workflows, these systems enhance transparency, reduce administrative burden, and support consistent, high-quality academic offerings across an institution.
Customer Relationship Management
A Customer Relationship Management system for admissions in higher education is a software platform designed to manage and improve communication with prospective students or applicants. The system helps schools streamline the admissions process by tracking applicant information and automating the outreach response. Admissions teams can monitor the applicant’s progress, schedule interviews, and personalize communication based on the prospective student’s interests and needs.
A Customer Relationship Management system for alumni in higher education is a software platform that leverages technology, social media, and other communication channels to engage alumni and provide them with opportunities to stay connected with their alma mater. The system tracks contact information, donation history, event attendance, and other relevant data to help schools communicate with their alumni community effectively. This category includes advancement solutions.
A Customer Relationship Management system(general) in higher education is a software platform designed to manage and improve communications with the institution’s community, from prospective students to current students, alumni, faculty members, and other partners. The system helps centralize the information collected, personalize communication based on individual interests, needs and behaviour, as well as streamline various processes.
E-Portfolio
An e-Portfolio system in higher education is a digital platform that enables students to collect, organize, and present their academic work, achievements, and learning experiences over time. It supports a variety of multimedia formats and allows content to be structured around themes, competencies, or academic goals. These systems often include features for reflection, feedback, and assessment, helping students articulate their growth and providing educators with tools to evaluate progress and support development.
E-Procurement
An E-Procurement system in higher education is a digital platform that streamlines the purchasing of goods and services in higher education institutions. It enables universities and colleges to efficiently search, compare, and order from multiple vendors, helping to reduce costs and improve procurement workflows. These systems also generate valuable data and insights to support informed decision-making and enhance visibility into institutional spending.
An Email System in higher education is a formal communication platform that enables students, faculty, and staff to exchange information efficiently. It supports the distribution of important announcements, academic updates, and administrative communications. These systems often include integrated features such as calendars, task management, and contact directories to enhance coordination and productivity across the institution.
Faculty Information
A Faculty Information System (FIS) is an integrated platform designed to centralize, maintain, and analyze comprehensive information about academic staff. Beyond housing faculty profiles, these systems track teaching assignments, research output, scholarly achievements, and service contributions. They support institutional processes such as workload allocation, performance evaluation, promotion, and tenure review by providing accurate, up-to-date data. By streamlining reporting and enhancing transparency, FIS tools help institutions align faculty activities with strategic goals, accreditation requirements, and resource planning.
Financial Aid
Financial Aid Systems in higher education are software platforms that support the administration, management, and distribution of financial assistance to students. These systems handle a wide range of functions, including application processing, eligibility determination, packaging of aid, disbursement tracking, and compliance with institutional, state, and federal regulations. They help institutions streamline complex workflows, improve communication with students, and ensure timely and accurate delivery of aid such as grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study funds. By centralizing financial aid operations, these systems enhance transparency, support reporting requirements, and contribute to improved student access and retention.
Financial Systems
Financial Systems in higher education are integrated platforms that manage budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, and overall fiscal decision-making. They enable institutions to track and allocate funds for students, researchers, scholarships, and grants, while optimizing financial resources to support both academic and administrative priorities. By providing realtime insights, detailed audit trails, and robust reporting, these systems enhance transparency, ensure regulatory compliance, and empower institutional leaders to make informed, strategic financial decisions.
Grant Management
Grant Management (GMS) is a cornerstone of the operational framework in higher education research institutions, playing a critical role within their ecosystem. A robust Grant Management System enhances institutional efficiency by streamlining grant application, approval, and reporting processes. It also facilitates the tracking of grant-related tasks, deadlines, and budgets, while offering real-time reporting and monitoring capabilities.
Research-focused GMS include subcomponents that address key institutional priorities:
- Sponsored Project Management Systems (pre- and post-award) help track the end-to-end lifecycle of grants;
- Compliance Systems ensure adherence to protocols related to human subjects, animal care, and financial conflicts of interest;
- Facilities Research Systems manage physical and operational infrastructure tied to sponsored work;
- Funding Opportunity Systems help faculty identify and pursue external funding; and
- Technology Transfer Systems handle intellectual property arising from funded research.
Help Desk
A Help Desk system in higher education is a centralized platform that enables users to submit support requests for issues such as IT problems, password resets, or software installations. It allows support staff to efficiently track, prioritize, and manage requests, assign tasks, and communicate with users throughout the resolution process. By streamlining support operations, Help Desk systems enhance service delivery across departments and ensure timely assistance campus-wide.
Human Resources
Human Resource Systems in higher education (HR HED) are integrated platforms that manage the full employee lifecycle, including recruitment, hiring, onboarding, payroll, benefits administration, performance evaluations, professional development, compliance, and employee relations. By centralizing and automating these processes, HR systems streamline workforce management, ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance, and provide data-driven insights to support strategic decision-making. In addition to improving operational efficiency, they play a critical role in enhancing employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, ultimately contributing to the long-term success and competitiveness of the institution.
Identity and Access Management
Identity and Access Management in higher education refers to the systems and services used by colleges and universities to create, manage, authenticate, and authorize digital identities for students, faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates. IAM controls access to institutional applications, data, and resources through functions such as user provisioning and deprovisioning, single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role-based access, and compliance auditing, ensuring secure, appropriate, and efficient access across academic, administrative, and research environments.
Learning Analytics
Learning Analytics Platforms in higher education leverage advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and data mining to detect patterns and trends in student behavior and performance. These insights enable educators to make data-driven decisions that enhance student success and engagement throughout their learning journey.
Learning Management
Learning Management Systems (LMS) in higher education institutions serve as core digital infrastructure for managing instructional delivery, communication, assessment, and academic administration. They enable faculty to design and deploy course content, facilitate student interaction, automate grading, and support personalized learning through integrated analytics. These systems also handle critical operational functions such as enrollment tracking, course scheduling, and compliance reporting, and are typically integrated with systems like Student Information Systems (SIS) and identity management solutions.
Library Information – ILS
An Integrated Library System (ILS) in higher education is a comprehensive software platform that manages the core operations of a library, including cataloging, acquisitions, circulation, serials management, and patron records. For academic institutions, the ILS is critical because it connects high-level research tools with the university’s broader digital ecosystem, often integrating with single sign-on (SSO) systems and student billing portals. By consolidating these functions, an ILS enhances resource discovery, improves user experience, and supports data-driven decision-making in academic libraries.
Library Information – Others
Library Information – Others in higher education refers to library-specific digital tools that support access, discovery, management, and dissemination of information but do not perform the core operational functions of an Integrated Library System (ILS). These solutions enable activities such as organizing and sharing research and instructional resources, supporting reference and user inquiry services, managing digital and archival collections, facilitating resource sharing across institutions, and delivering electronic and digitally loaned content. They also play a role in showcasing and preserving institutional scholarship and knowledge assets, improving user engagement, and extending the library’s services within the broader academic and research ecosystem.
Massive Open Online Courses
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in higher education are standalone online courses designed for large-scale public enrollment, typically offered by universities or their partners to provide open access to academic or professional learning. In higher education, MOOCs are commonly used to extend institutional reach, support lifelong learning, pilot new content, or offer non-credit and low-cost credential pathways. They focus on course-level delivery through centralized platforms and emphasize accessibility and scale, rather than the end-to-end development, marketing, and ongoing management of degree programs.
Online Program Management
Online Program Management systems in higher education provide support and assistance to higher education institutions in developing, launching, marketing, and managing their online programs. These programs involve curriculum design, targeted advertising, technology infrastructure, instructional and student support, quality assurance, and data analytics, which assist in enrollment and retention.
Portals
Portals in higher education are secure, role-based web or mobile platforms that serve as a centralized access point for institutional information, systems, and services for students, faculty, staff, and sometimes alumni. Higher education portals aggregate personalized content—such as course schedules, learning management systems, grades, registration, financial aid, billing, email, announcements, and campus resources—into a single interface, often integrating data from student information systems (SIS), HR, finance, and library systems. Their purpose is to streamline access, improve communication and engagement, and support academic and administrative workflows across the institution.
Portfolio and Project Management
Portfolio and Project Management Tools in higher education are software applications used by colleges and universities to plan, track, and report on projects and project portfolios across academic, research, IT, facilities, and administrative units. These tools support functions such as project scheduling, resource allocation, budgeting, milestone tracking, risk and issue management, and performance reporting, enabling institutions to monitor progress, improve visibility, and support data-informed decision-making aligned with institutional priorities.
Proctor
Proctor Systems in higher education are digital tools used by colleges and universities to ensure academic integrity during in-person and online assessments. These systems support secure testing through four core functional areas: Authentication, which verifies the identity of the test-taker; Plagiarism Testing, which analyzes written work for originality and similarity; Test-Taker and Behavioural Review, which monitors and evaluates student behaviour during and after exams to detect irregularities; and Testing Environment Assurance, which safeguards and standardizes the exam setting through controls such as browser lockdowns and environmental scanning.
Retention Management
A Retention Management system in higher education is a technology platform designed to help institutions monitor, analyze, and improve student retention and persistence rates. It integrates data from various sources—such as academic performance, attendance, engagement metrics, and student services—to identify at-risk students early. By providing alerts, predictive analytics, and intervention tools, the system supports advisors, faculty, and support staff in delivering timely, personalized support aimed at improving student outcomes and reducing dropout rates.
Scheduling and Room Management
Scheduling – Room Management Systems in higher education are designed to optimize the allocation and use of physical spaces across campus. These tools support the scheduling of classrooms, lecture halls, labs, and meeting rooms by coordinating academic timetables, event bookings, and facility availability. They help reduce scheduling conflicts, improve space utilization, and ensure resources align with instructional and institutional needs. Integration with other campus systems enables real-time updates and efficient coordination across departments.
Student Information
A Student Information System (SIS) in higher education is a comprehensive digital platform designed to manage and centralize all critical information related to a student’s academic lifecycle. It often includes processes such as admissions, enrollment, course registration, attendance tracking, grade management, transcript generation, degree audit, and management of financial aid, billing, and other student records. Beyond administrative efficiency, some SIS enable seamless communication and collaboration among faculty, staff, and students, supporting advising, academic planning, and reporting. Modern SIS platforms often integrate with learning management systems, analytics tools, and institutional data warehouses, providing actionable insights for decision-making, enhancing student experience, and ensuring regulatory compliance.