Overview:

SEED Infotech Ltd is one of India's leading Training Service Providers, delivering corporate and individual technology training at fifteen different learning centers located in Pune, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nashik and Nagpur. Founded in 1994, the company has a full time staff of 30+, with hundreds of part-time instructors teaching more than 50 different courses. SEED Infotech needed to eliminate data silos that were hampering growth. It required a common database repository to track sales and maintain student records, as well as a business management system to integrate all of its departments so they fed off the same dataset. Leveraging Futurism's expert resources, SEED Infotech deployed SEED Institute Management System (SIMS), allowing information to be shared between multiple company departments.

Business Challenge:

Learning programs at SEED Infotech include Modular Courses, Finishing School, Software Testing Courses, Corporate Training, Workshops, Foreign Language Courses, Management Development Programs, as well as Certification Programs in Information Technology, Project Management, Business Solutions and Administration, as well as Healthcare.

Students can choose specialized instruction in Object Technology, Java Technology, .Net Technology, Databases such as Oracle 9i, Open Source Technologies such as Red Hat and Linux, as well as Software Testing Methodologies - Deployment and Management. Most graduates find careers in the IT software development, networking and testing sectors.

Having skilled IT resources on staff gives SEED another advantage -a pipeline to an extensive knowledge base for solving its own technology issues. So when the company realized its decentralized business records were hindering its ability to manage its operations efficiently, it turned to these internal resources for help.

"When I started the company it was a much simpler operation to manage. But we've grown so quickly that almost before we realized it, all of our valuable data was locked into separate silos of information -none of our applications within the different departments talked to each other" says Narendra Barhate, CEO, SEED Infotech. "With the number of resources we coordinate on a regular basis in order to deliver over 50+ specialized courses, it was clear that we needed an integrated solution so our people could share information more easily."

Futurism's Solution:

After consulting with internal expert instructors, SEED Infotech selected Futurism's eIMS to track sales, maintain student records and integrate all of its departments on a common dataset.

"The Futurism eIMS is providing a powerful platform for our company to better manage its entire business operation through timely, accurate information that empowers the decision-making process," says Barhate. "Although we're a small but growing company, we're finding the solution delivers great value."

The overall project roll out of Futurism eIMS started in Jan 2004 and was completed in August 2006 and was renamed as SEED Institute Management System (SIMS). Three months later, the company is willing to integrate various add-on modules because the add-ons will integrate its entire organization process.

"When we implemented SIMS, we gradually began adding modules, customizing it to suit our specific needs", says Barhate. "A course catalogue had to be entered, as well as some business rules. Really, it's become an ongoing implementation cycle because we keep finding new functionalities that benefit our various divisions."

SEED Infotech initially started to use SIMS as a lead tracker and communications tool for interacting with students and to perform billing. SEED then began using the software to streamline student registration and textbook purchases.

With SIMS, SEED Infotech expanded its marketing activities to include promotional e-mail blasts to its list of qualified leads. SIMS allows SEED to track all the e-mails it sends, then create reports that analyze how successful the outreach was, based on how many direct connections were made with potential students.

SEED Infotech is also planning to deploy various add-on Modules for eIMS as a business management solution that will allow it to extend the benefits of SIMS Dynamics CRM centralized data repository across the company. Seven modules -Financial Management, Training (customized), Sales/Marketing, Purchase, Resource Planning, and Human Resources -will be implemented so that the company's operations, accounting, purchasing and sales departments can interact using a common dataset. The rollout will be completed in 2007.

Business Benefits:

By deploying SIMS, all SEED Infotech employees now have access to the same information, regardless of department or the applications they are using. Business processes are now more efficient because centralized data access means no information is duplicated between departments, reducing the number of hours spent per month by four hundred and twelve. This cuts down on data entry, since the same information can be used for scheduling, billing and marketing.

SIMS is an end-to-end integrated solution. When potential students enter their information at the company's website, it is automatically stored in SIMS CRM. Those students who formally register are then transferred automatically in the database. This gives management and staff an integrated view and control of the entire institute's business activity.

SIMS provides robust enterprise control from the operations, accounting and financial management perspective, while SIMS CRM is used to manage sales leads more efficiently. With SIMS CRM, there are many customized business rules that relieve staff of the burden of more mundane tasks.

"The rules incorporated into SIMS allow us to automate many of our routine operations, saving us time in small increments -in fact, we've calculated that the entire deployment is saving us over 800 hours per month," says Barhate. "For instance, in the sales department, if a lead is entered into SIMS, sales representatives have access to the entire follow-up and interactions with a particular student. Thus every approach is designed based on earlier conversations and effectively targets the concerns prospective students may have."

SIMS enables SEED Infotech to track all enterprise information in one location. Data is entered once and is useable from any department, given approved access. The result is a great reduction in time spent manually searching to find required information.

As well, the customized SIMS training module has helped improve cross-departmental productivity. Operations have immediate access to sales department information, and can begin allocating resources by simply reviewing the new enrollments entered into the SIMS. Purchasing can order the books needed for different courses, based on the number of students who have registered and completed the payment process. Accounts can verify payment history, receipt dates and times.

The ability to control access through SIMS also provides improved data security, and enables auditing of records entry which helps ensure the information being stored is accurate. And because the solution is based on Microsoft SQL Server, the software's automatic backup features have enabled SEED Infotech to simplify the database administrator requirements. This helps make the solution easier to maintain, while providing all the disaster recovery features inherent in Microsoft SQL Server to help protect the ERP system data.

One of SEED Infotech's main goals was to improve its financial system so that management would have a clearer picture of its accounts.

"Before we deployed SIMS, we used other accounting systems and we were always three to four months behind in our financial statements," says Barhate. "We are a small company, but we want to have the up-to-date reporting capabilities of a big company. With our new system, all our financial numbers are in real-time."

Management adds that the solution is helping SEED Infotech reduce the amount of staff time spent on reporting.

The new solutions are also helping SEED Infotech to provide better customer service. According to SEED, the company's sales department has had great success using the call notes feature in SIMS CRM to resolve student issues quickly and also to track customer concerns.

"We continually evaluate our performance with students because we're a quality-conscious company. As soon as we began using SIMS, the number of student complaints dropped significantly because the call note feature made everyone aware of outstanding issues until they were resolved," said Barhate.

As a result, evaluations by students showed strong improvement.

Technology Used:

eInstitute Management System

eIMS is in the line of Financial, Customer Relationship and Supply Chain Management Solutions that help businesses work more effectively. Futurism Technologies Pvt. Ltd. provides specialized services, that,when integrated, adapt business management solutions to streamline processes across an entire business.

For more information about eIMS, Click Here:

Features:

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