Pacifyca is an exceptional innovation in education system that introduces synergy between teachers, students, and parents. This school ERP software enables school authorities to carry out all day to day activities of the school such as admission, attendance, accounts etc., making them all real time, fast, easy, efficient and accurate. It is a simple yet powerful one point integrated platform that connects all the departments of an institution. We tried to dig further into its features and functionalities. The director gave us a detailed account of their venture and how the education sector is in great need of solutions like Pacifyca.

In Conversation with Ivan Fernandes, Founder & Director, ATC Online LLP

For an individual, a nation, and humankind to survive and progress, innovation and evolution are essential. Innovations in education are of particular importance because education plays a crucial role in creating a sustainable future. What’s your stand in this and how is Pacifyca spreading the message of equality of innovation in education in India?

this ecosystem irrespective of his economic status. Without compromising with the product functionality, the pricing has been maintained at a very affordable level so that it is available to all. This implies that the depth and breadth of the platform has been very comprehensive and in line with the best in the industry. Going a step further, children who are unable to pay school fees are provided this facility free of charge. ATC Online LLP has shown excellent domain understanding and technological knowhow to build this system. While the product is less than two years old, it has already gathered huge acceptance in the market. Over 40 schools have deployed our system, some of which have strengths in excess of 15,000 students from Pre-school to Post Graduation. To keep the costs low, the product is developed using open source technologies and the entire software is on cloud, thereby saving costs on software licenses, requirement for Servers, data management and support costs. These parameters aside, the system serves the opportunity to go live within a week. More so, the training is imparted online, thus saving costs on travel & stay, making it further affordable to all schools.

This rapid change in the education and business models is also impelling the growth of education ERP software market. How does Pacifyca provide one point integrated platform that connects all the departments of an institution?

Pacifyca is designed and developed as a fully integrated ERP with all modules tightly held together with no data redundancies. The entire process flow is clearly defined and well managed based on the requirement of the institution during implementation. Pacifyca today handles all the needs of education institutions, right from primary school to the most complex autonomous universities. This includes stages from applying for admissions, scheduling interviews, verification of originals, payment of fees, class scheduling, time table, attendance, to notice board, staff – student and staff – parent interaction, homework, assignments, online tests, examination and report cards. Every aspect is handled online using this system. When the management handles multiple schools, the ERP operates across schools and the top management is in receipt of all the information on its dashboard online. The exceptions that are critical to manage day to day operations with utmost efficiency, too are made visible through our ERP system. Instead of letting the management search for information, the system automatically notifies as and when an intervention is required for the smooth running of the institution.

What kind of features does Pacifyca provides in the field of ERP education?

Operational efficiency is the hallmark of Pacifyca. For instance, earlier, one of the institutions required nearly 50 staff to handle admissions and these staff had to work during the holidays. Now, they only need 10 percent of these staff and that too mainly to support those students who are not well versed with use of technology. Probability of human errors due to manual data entries has now disappeared. The institution is now witnessing a significant rise in the number of applicants with students from within the country and abroad

being able to apply online. All payments are automatically reconciled whether it is paid online or deposited directly into the bank account. The management now is able to keep a check on all the staff and students present in the campus at the beginning of each class.

Please share a success story about one of your implementations.

One of our largest and noteworthy implementation is St. Aloysius Institutions (Mangalore). This implementation includes all their institutions from Gonzaga School for Primary, St. Aloysius High School, St. Aloysius Pre-University College, St. Aloysius College for Graduation and Post-Graduation and St. Aloysius Institute of Information Technology and Management. All these institutions use all the modules of the ERP right from admissions to transfer of a child. The college is autonomous and has its own permutations and combinations when it comes to courses and grading of students etc., but the system handles these requirements with ease. Overall, it currently handles over 13,000 students across these institutions. While the Principal gets all the information on his dashboard, the Rector who is responsible for all institutions is able to monitor all related activities of all his institutions through his dashboard without having to enquire on any details with any of his Principals. There, you have utmost transparency and operational efficiency.

Pacifyca has already taken such a giant step towards quality education to all. What further strategies do you have in mind for this domain?

The company is now gearing to provide the same ERP to professional colleges – mainly the engineering and medical colleges and it has already got some very encouraging feedback from these institutions. It also is looking at other growing markets especially in Africa and the Far East where there is similar need for very cost effective solutions.

Result Driven Implementations

This is an extract of a statement given by the principal of st. Aloysius autonomous college last year in one of the press release – “we are proud to be the first college in the coastal region to implement a fully integrated online admission system.” Said fr. Dr. Praveen martis, principal, st. Aloysius degree college. “even though i was out of the country for some time, i could still oversee the entire admission process without any hiccups. Another remarkable thing we witnessed was a significant increase of around 40 percent in the applications as compared to the last year which is something we have not seen in the past, which also includes a considerable number of applications from overseas applicants. Earlier, with the manual process, we needed our staff used to spend time after office hours to do data entry of all paper applications, sort out applications, call for interviews, verify documents etc. However, this huge workload has been completely eliminated, saving time and increasing the productivity of our staff. We are very happy with the performance and results derived from the Pacifyca online admission system, as it has impacted our admissions positively.”