A Comprehensive Look into School Management Software Development - Prismetric

A Comprehensive Look into School Management Software Development

school-management-system-software-development-guide

The education sector has witnessed phenomenal growth over the past few years. According to a report, the global school management system market is expected to reach $ 41.26 billion by 2028. With digitization, traditional classrooms have evolved into hybrid classrooms that use digital technologies to impart education.

Digital classes, online assessments, AR (Augmented Reality), and VR (Virtual Reality) have become regular feature in many schools. As a result, it becomes difficult for the educational institution administration to manage multiple classes, pay the salaries of school staff and teachers on time and maintain discipline.

Today’s schools need to have top school management system software to efficiently manage the school and impart quality education to their students. A smart school management system can help a school automate tasks and handle multiple tasks with hassle-free clicks.

The need for custom school management software has created a lucrative market for a leading custom software development company offering complete school management software development solutions. We shall have a look at the cost and benefits of developing a school management system.

global-school-management-system-market

Table of Contents

How does a school management system function?

The purpose of school management software development is to manage schools’ daily operations including enrolment and attendance of students and managing the exams, assignments, fees, etc.

How does a school management system function?

The school management system has everything for different users with access to different features and information according to predefined roles and permissions: a student panel allows them to view their academic progress; an admin panel allows school administrators to handle the school’s policies, resources, staff, and reports; and, aparent’s panel allows parents to monitor their child’s academic performance.

Benefits of School Management Software Development

advantages-of-school-management-software

It is essential to have school management software ERP to efficiently manage all the school departments, employees, students, and its courses. In addition, software for school management system can provide the school management with many benefits provided you partner with a professional company catering quality education app and software development services. We have listed some of the advantages below.

Better communication

Schools go for the development of Online School Management System Software because school management software facilitates better communication between all the stakeholders associated with a school system like the students, teachers, parents, school employees, and the school authorities.

For example, the school authorities can notify the students and parents about important announcements using a school notification system. The students and parents can also communicate with the teachers and the school authorities regarding studies, attendance, and co-curricular activities.

Automated task management

Effective school management system software can make the complex tasks of a school easier by automating them. For example, time-consuming tasks like taking attendance and sending mass notifications can be automated using a school management system.

Automation not only improves the speed and effectiveness of tasks in a school but also reduces the costs of the school. The cost is reduced because it frees up the time of employees by automating the repetitive tasks of the employees and allows them to focus on more productive tasks that require human involvement. Artificial Intelligence as a revolutionary technology, to improve automated task management has made it a necessity to use AI technology in education.

Transparency

A school management system helps improve transparency in the school system. The parents can quickly check the report cards of their children, check their children’s attendance, and see the comments of teachers regarding the progress of their children.

A higher level of transparency helps to increase the level of trust between parents and school administration. An improved level of transparency is a good reason for schools to opt for developing School Management System Software.

Performance analysis

With school management system software, the students can assess their performance and recognize their weak areas. A school management app can be equipped with advanced analytical tools that assess students’ answer sheets and offer them an in-depth understanding of where they are lacking.

The teachers can also assess the performance of the students and take corrective action to improve it.

Attendance

By going for school management software development, a school can streamline its attendance management system. School management system allows the school to record student’s attendance and make it publicly available for all to see.

The parents and teachers, along with the students, can check the attendance and take necessary corrective action if the attendance levels are inappropriate. The attendance management system of pro school management system software allows the parents and teachers to take timely action if they find that the student is not attending the classes regularly.

Admission

School enrollment is a tedious process for the parents, students, as well as administrators. The admissions process is paper-intensive, time-consuming, and laborious. School administration software can help simplify the process of school enrollment substantially. Because of that, the school administrators do not need to send paper forms or emails to parents to get the details of the students and the parents.

The top school management system software has form builders that allow the school administrators to create forms and distribute them to the parents electronically easily. The parents will not only receive the electronic forms, but they will also receive confirmations once the forms are successfully submitted and reminder messages to complete the enrollment form on time.

Thus, the finest school administration system will help the school finish the admissions process smoothly.

Scheduling

Most school admin teams agree that scheduling is a job that eats up a lot of time that could have been devoted to other, more productive activities. Schools still spend hours creating, updating, and reminding their staff members, students, and parents about important meetings and study timetables. However, scheduling with pen and paper is ineffective, and it eats up the already limited hours that a school has to impart quality education.

All-in-one software for school management systems equipped with an automatic scheduling system can put an educational institution in a much better position to manage meetings and timetables. The timetable management feature of school management software will automate the process of scheduling and make the process more efficient.

In addition, the best school management system makes scheduling more interactive as all the participants can give their input to fix the time of the meeting.

Grading

Teachers spend a lot of time grading the answer sheets of students. A leading school management system can help offload the work on the teacher’s part by helping them in grading.

An ideal school management system software can help the teachers;

  • Grade faster
  • Store the data easily
  • Communicate the grades easily
  • Improve grading accuracy

The school management systems can reduce the time spent on grading to interact more with their students. Advanced school management system software contains smart AI systems that can scan the written answer sheets of students and then grade them automatically. The school management system can record the grades and prepare customized reports which allow the teachers and students to assess the flaws in the student’s performance.

Many automated trading systems like LMS Canvas help the students master the concept by taking multiple attempts at answering a quiz. This way, the students can master the subject without the fear of failure. The grading systems allow the teachers to spend more time customizing the quizzes according to the necessities of each student instead of assessing multiple answer sheets.

Another benefit of grading systems is that the teachers can create more tests than the manual way because they know they won’t need to manually assess each answer sheet. Automation of grading systems is a major benefit that successful school management software development provides to the school.

Billing

Fee processing is one of the most important and sensitive processes in any educational institution. It is a sensitive process because it deals with confidential financial information and directly impacts the school’s bottom line.

Through a custom online school management software application, parents can easily deposit the fees of their wards online without visiting the school for the same. The school management can notify the parents regarding their due fees in the school management mobile app, removing the hurdle of calling every parent to remind them about the fees.

Generating the fee receipts of hundreds of students can prove to be a cumbersome and time-consuming process. A prominent school management system can help the school speed up the fee receipt generation process. Once the parent pays the fees, the school management system will send an electronic receipt of the fees paid to the parents.

Keep track of all activities in Educational Institutes with ERP.

How to Develop a School Management System

Developing a school management system is not an overnight task. It requires intense market research and dedication to build every milestone with utter consciousness of coding and feature deployment. Here are the crucial 9 steps to building a school management system solution –

school mangement software development process

Ideation and market research

The ideation is the brainchild. When you get an idea about having a school management system, you start thinking about how to have it as a product and what all you need to do to build it according to your business objectives. The research may include studying other school management software solutions that are in the market and picking the best features it to have in your product. The research also includes the needs of stakeholders such as teachers, other staff, children, and parents.

Budgeting and monetizing plan

Building a software solution requires funds and there should be a way to recover it. When you plan to have a school management mobile solution, it is essential to fix the budget. Going through the guide on software development costs will get you a fairer idea of how much you need to spend to build a customized mobile app solution. You can consult your tech partner to have a ballpark figure estimation. Furthermore, you should also plan for monetization through various mobile app business models to earn back.

Find the best software development company

Out there in the market are many software agencies to help you build a customized solution. When you choose the right tech partner, you save money and get assurance of a quality product. Get a top software development company with you to build a customized school management system according to your needs. Discuss the idea with them and get a free quote.

Pick the right team and engagement model

Once you have the best software development company with you, discussing about the project execution is the next step. Renowned IT companies offer you myriad options to choose a team. You can hire developers in teams as per your need. Certain engagement models also offer you to handpick developers from the team so that you get the choicest programmers to work dedicatedly on the project.

UI/UX

Once you build your own team of developers for a school management mobile solution, it is time to kickstart the project with a simple wireframe to get an idea of how your end product will look and feel. After a couple of mock-ups, you can get into the core user interface design built by aesthetic designers. Getting a renowned mobile app development company assures you that your UI will have an attractive design and neat component placement to get the best user experience.

Core development and QA testing

After prospect wireframing, the next step to build a school management system is to enter into the core development phase where experienced mobile app developers shall write codes to make UI components lively and functional. The entire backend is developed using standard codes. Choosing the right tech stack for a school management system will help your team of developers build a bespoke solution that will help you automatize and streamline your school operations. Once the prototype is done, it undergoes vigorous quality checks under stringent testing tools.

Launch the MVP

It is always preferred to have a minimal viable product to save time and money. It means you will have a final product with basic features to roll out initially. Depending on the demand and other requirements of stakeholders, the full-fledged application will be built later in a shorter time and with less money. The launch of MVP for the school management system will give you a fairer idea of how the product is and how should it go in the future.

Marketing of the product

Once the product is launched on the desired platform or network, it is time to market it properly. Depending on the objective or project scope, the marketing of the product is planned and executed. It could be internal marketing among school staff and other stakeholders such as parents and students or it could be for external marketing purposes if you are investing in building a top school management software as a business. Whichever way, marketing and educating about school management software systems is crucial.

Maintenance and support

Your job does not get over with building the best school management system. It is essential to keep it up and running with least downtime. When you partner with the best mobile app development companies in the market, they will offer you viable maintenance and support contracts along with a software development plan. Upon getting a monthly or yearly software maintenance contract, you can be assured of getting regular updates and bug fixing to keep your product functional.

Modules Required in School Management Software

school-management-system-application-modules

The school management ERP is a complex system that contains a lot of different modules. Many schools are unaware of the different modules present in the right school management software and hence cannot take full advantage of their school management system.

Knowledge about the different school management software modules can help the schools prioritize the modules they need in their core school management system software. We have mentioned below the major modules in school management software.

Admission management module

The admission management module helps the school to handle all admissions-related processes smoothly. The admission management module will assist the school staff takes admission inquiries, sending interview notifications to parents, conducting admission tests, shortlisting candidates, and publishing selected students easily.

By choosing school management software development, schools can make the hectic admissions process easier for everyone involved using the student admission management module.

HR management module

For many educational institutions, handling human resource-related processes proves to be a tedious task. Module for Human Resource Management helps the schools to complete HR-related processes efficiently.

For example, the schools can generate salary reports using the HRM, keep track of staff attendance, and complete the mandatory regulatory filings easily. Educational institutions can improve the productivity of their employees by using school ERP software with a human resource function.

Exam management module

An exam management module can help concerned authorities of the schools prepare exam timetables for multiple classes quickly. In addition, schools can prepare report cards with ease using the exam module. Using advanced systems, the schools can even assess the mark sheets of students.

By including the exam management module while opting for advanced school management software development, the schools can save a lot of time for the teachers and students taken up by examination-related activities.

Attendance management module

An Attendance management module makes the process of taking attendance very easy. Using the module for attendance management, the school admin can easily see the attendance record of students and staff on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

In addition, some attendance management modules show attendance in the form of easy-to-read graphs and charts.

Transport management module

A transport management module allows the school management to track the location of the school transport vehicles in real-time. The real-time monitoring of the school vehicles ensures the safety of the students and staff, as in case of an emergency, the school can take immediate action.

The school management can also keep a tab on the costs of transportation using the module for transport management. A school transport management module helps school management monitor the route, maintenance expenses, and fuel expenses of the transport vehicles.

By including a school transportation management module while going for custom educational institute management software development, the school can make transport management more simple and cost-effective.

Library management module

The library management module helps schools to manage library data efficiently. The students can borrow books from the library using the library management module systematically and organized.

The module for library management allows the school staff to manage everything from cataloging, circulation, serial control, and generation of MIS reports.

Online learning management module

During the pandemic times, many schools realized the importance of having an online learning system or E-learning. Even after the pandemic, many schools plan to include online learning in their teaching system. Through an online learning module, schools can impart personalized education to students even after school hours. Hence the learning management module becomes one of the core school ERP modules.

Whenever your developers design the e-learning application, ensure that they keep in mind the students’ learning behavior. If the learning management module is for small kids then it should have a lot of colorful animations and other eye-catching features to engage the kids. Similarly, if the learning management system is aimed at college students, then it should include features that appeal to them.

Finance management module

The finance module of school management software helps the schools manage all the activities related to finance like the collection of fees, payment of salaries, and stationery purchases easily.

A module for finance management allows the school authorities to easily access the school’s financial records and identify any irregularities. Using the accounting software module for school management activities related to finance, the school staff can generate receipts for various financial transactions like fee payments, salary slips, and deposit payments.

What is the cost of School Management Software Development?

The cost of building school management software can range between $10,000-$120,000. The cost of building a school management mobile app can range between $25,000-$70,000. The costs given here are broad, and the school will need to contact an offshore school management software development company such as Prismetric to get more accurate budget which is calculated based on your requirements.

Before hiring a software development company to build school management system software, the cost of developing the system must be taken into account. The cost of school management software development depends on a few factors.

factors-affecting-cost-of-school-management-software-development

We have provided a brief about some of the most important factors that have an overbearing effect on the final cost of the school management software application.

UI and UX

Who doesn’t want a visually appealing system? The visual appeal of the magnificent school management system software helps the app attract more customers, and an easy-to-use UI/UX helps keep those customers. However, sophisticated UI/UX design demands more work from the designers, translating into increased costs as the designers have to put in more hours to prepare such designs.

The UI/UX costs also increase with the number of devices that the school management system must support. The UI/UX designers have to ensure that the software for school management system is easy to use on different screens, and that requires extra effort from the designers.

Location of the developers

The cost to develop educational institution management software is directly correlated with the hourly charge of the developers developing the app. The software development companies located in developed regions like North America and Europe charge 3-5 times more per hour than their counterparts in developing nations such as India.

Despite the low cost, it is possible to find a top educational institution management software development company in India. Often, clients are apprehensive that as the outsourced developers work on many different projects at a time, they might not give justice to their project.

Therefore, many Indian companies also offer dedicated developers for hire who will only work on the client’s project to solve this issue.

The number of operating systems

Android and iOS are the most popular mobile operating systems, while Windows and macOS are the most popular desktop operating systems. As the number of operating systems that top school management system software needs to support rises, so do the costs.

The costs rise because more dedicated developer hours and different development teams are required to ensure that the school ERP system is compatible with different operating systems. For a mobile app, it is possible to reduce the cost of supporting the app on different operating systems by building a cross-platform app.

It is important for schools to ask about cross-platform apps while hiring a mobile app development company.

Number of features

The number and complexity of the features included in a school management app would directly affect the cost of app development. While an app with some basic features will cost less, an app with advanced features like AR and VR, analytics, cloud integration, and student monitoring through CCTV (Close Circuit Television) would cost significantly more than a basic app.

To build a complex app with many features, many third-party APIs must be integrated with the school management application. The cost of purchasing these APIs gets added up to the cost of developing the online school management mobile app.

In addition, more complex apps require more experienced app developer hours to complete, and that translates into escalated costs.

Maintenance

An academic institute management software development is not a one-time task. A school management system would require regular updates and bug fixing to help the app function as per the user’s expectations.

In addition, regular upkeep of the app would require maintenance costs that must be considered while academic institutions prepare the budget for developing software for academic institution management.

App Maintenance is critical to ensure that the system performs as per the expectations of the users.

Additional pricing is often overlooked

Many additional pricing factors come with school management software development. Before a school hires software developers to develop school management software, the members of school management should consider the following additional prices.

SMS/Email

In many school management systems, the notifications are sent to the parents, students, and teachers through bulk email and SMS messages. To send these messages, the school has to incur a recurring cost.

To avoid surprises, the schools should discuss with the software development vendor the expected costs associated with sending bulk SMS and email messages before the schools start with the development of school management software.

Hosting charges

For enterprise-level software products, there is a separate hosting fee. The schools need to ask their hired school management software development firm about the hosting charges for their ERP software developed exclusively for school management.

Other costs like Barcode/RFID (for library management) or GPS tracking

Apart from the costs mentioned above, there are other costs like the procurement of the barcode stickers or RFID sensors for library management and GPS sensors for real-time tracking of school buses.

The procurement of hardware, school management tools, and data backup costs are also important aspects that one must include in the package cost of school management enterprise planning software.

Schools must consider the cost of hardware procurement before they assign the project to develop school management software to the hired professional software developers.

What is the cost to build e-learning app?

Basic features of School Management Software

eatures-of-school-management-software-system-basic

Before the schools pursue to develop school management software, they should ensure that the school management system software accommodates certain basic features. We have mentioned below a few basic features of an educational management system.

Parent’s panel

  • Secure sign-up
  • Updates about student performance
  • Access attendance records and results
  • Pay online fees
  • Access school calendar and diary dates
  • Push notifications about upcoming exams
  • Communication with teachers

Teacher’s panel

  • Communication with parents
  • Add study material for students
  • Upload assignments
  • Give online lectures
  • Upload pre-recorded lectures if required
  • Check attendance and reports online

Student’s panel

  • Secure sign-in
  • View study tips
  • Download lecture notes
  • View School Newsletters and e-magazine
  • View and submit homework
  • View course information and books related to it
  • Push messages and instant alerts for exams
  • Tips from teachers
  • Submit attendance

School admin panel

  • Answer parents query
  • Assign teachers and courses
  • Manage fees and notify parents
  • Create and manage events
  • Schedule upload and inform parents
  • Academic calendar

Advanced features of School Management Software

features-of-school-management-software-advance

A school can ask leading school management software development agency to add a few advanced features in its school management software. The addition of new and modern features will help improve the experience of the students, teachers, school administration, and parents.

The innovative features will also make the school stand out from the competition and help cement its position as a tech-savvy educational institution. Here are a few advanced features that a school can consider while developing school management software.

Online assignment and assessment reports

During the pandemic, schools started the practice of sending the assignments to students online. Many education institutes would like to continue the practice to save time and make it convenient for students and teachers to track assignment submissions.

An online assessment feature can help a school take tests online. An online proctoring system can help ensure the authenticity of the tests using the device cameras, face monitoring system, mics, and screen access.

The online assessment feature can also provide a detailed report to the students. The report shall help the students assess their performance and identify the areas where they lack.

Analytics to monitor student behavior

A detailed analytics system can be integrated into smart school management system software. The school authorities can enter data related to attendance, grades of the students, participation of the student in various non-academic activities like sports, poetry, elocution, debate, to name a few.

The school authorities can also enter data related to the student’s behavior with other students and teachers. The analytics system will provide clear insights and analytical reports regarding the academic and non-academic performance, attendance and discipline of the students.

Based on the analytics, the school authorities can make decisions to assist student’s overall growth.

Student monitoring through CCTV feed

A school can think about a student monitoring system through CCTV feed while going for custom school management software development. The school can monitor the activities of students in the classroom as well on the school premises using CCTV (close circuit television) cameras.

The student monitoring through CCTV feed allows the school to intervene if students are misbehaving with other students or teachers. The CCTV system also helps the school provide the parents with proof of the unruly behavior of their children. Sophisticated AI algorithms can be combined with the CCTV system of a school to find out whether students are interested in the lecture or not.

A Paris-based business school has installed AI systems into its classrooms that detect students’ eye movements and facial expressions to measure their attention levels.

Cloud-based system

A cloud-based system provides the users with the power to conduct operations anytime and anywhere. The students can get and submit their assignments from any location and any device once the assignments are uploaded to cloud.

Similarly, the teachers can also check the assignments and upload the report card from the device and location of their choice through the cloud-based educational institute management system.

Another benefit of a cloud-based system is that in case the school needs to revamp the software, the operations are not harmed.

Better learning with AR and VR technologies

AR and VR technologies can help make schools the learning experience more immersive. Students will concentrate better as lessons taught through AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) technologies are fun to watch.

Students retain knowledge better with lessons taught through AR and VR technologies, as the focus shifts to learning through practice rather than theory with AR and VR lessons.

As students get immersed in the learning experience, the competitive pressure in classrooms is removed, and students can learn at their own pace.

Looking for experts to develop School Management Software?

The technology stack used for a School Management System

In the modern era, technology is taking education beyond classrooms. The selection of a proper technology stack is vital to ensure the success of a school management system.

If the schools want to develop a best school management app, then the schools can hire a top custom mobile app development company to select a proper technology stack.

The following is a suggested technology stack for developing a school management system:

  • Front End: Swift, HTML, Angular, React
  • Back End: Java, Laravel, Node.JS
  • Payment Gateway: PayPal, Braintree
  • DevOps: Jenkins, Android Studio, Amazon Cloud Watch
  • Database: SQL Server, MongoDB, PostgreSQL
  • Cloud: AWS and Google Cloud

Required team structure for developing a School System

Schools need to hire a top web app development company to develop a top-notch school management system.

If the school wants to build a school management app, the school will first need to decide whether to build two native apps for iOS and Android or one cross-platform app that will run on both operating systems. If the school wants to build two native apps, it will have to hire two dedicated teams of experts, one for Android and iOS.

The school needs to hire a skilled and experienced development team of the following members to develop a robust app.

  • Project Manager
  • A team of Developers
  • UX/UI Designers
  • Quality Analysts

Select most suitable Software developers for your project.

Why Hire Prismetric for School Management Software Development?

Students are the future of any nation, and a school management system can help make the future bright. A robust school management system built by a top school management software development company can help a school maximize efficiency and promote sustainable operation for students and school staff.

At Prismetric, we understand the dynamics of e-learning mobile applications and can help you build a robust school management mobile application. Help you in your endeavor hire remote developers team to build custom school management software with a more cost-efficient approach.

Do contact us to build an educational system that will establish your educational institution as one of the pioneers in the industry.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a school management system (SMS)?

The school management system or SMS means building a software solution for mobile or web that includes automatization of all school operations such as education, finance, notification, transportation, content management, human resources, and other day-to-day tasks at schools. It is a comprehensive software solution that helps school owners or managers streamline all the external and internal jobs at schools.

What are the phases of building an effective management system?

Essential phases of building an effective management system include ideation of the product, finding the best software solution development company, hiring developers as per their engagement models, designing & developing the product, deployment, and lastly marketing and maintenance. Building a management system also requires a foolproof school workflow, departments, and their internal/external operation processes.

How much does a school management system cost?

An exact figure for school management system development is difficult to quote; nevertheless, it may range between USD 30000 to USD 250,000. You should also note that as you reduce or increase the size of the product (number of features and complexities) the cost shall vary. The cost also fluctuates depending on the location of the development teams.

Our Recent Blog

Know what’s new in Technology and Development

Have a question or need a custom quote

Our in-depth understanding in technology and innovation can turn your aspiration into a business reality.

14+Years’ Experience in IT Prismetric  Success Stories
0+ Happy Clients
0+ Solutions Developed
0+ Countries
0+ Developers

      Contact Us

      Connect With US

      x