The higher education industry finds its future by moving its tech solutions from self-hosted servers to the cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The modern world uses SaaS products every day but many of us aren't familiar with the term itself. SaaS is a software development model that licenses software to users, usually for fixed amounts of time. Music and movie streaming services serve as fitting examples: Their apps are free to download to your smart TV, smartphone, laptop, or other device, but your monthly subscription fee grants you unlimited access to their content.
SaaS has already begun transforming higher ed. By satisfying students' desires for mobile access to their student accounts, facilitating online programs and virtual classrooms, and helping institutions retire their on-premises servers, cloud-based tech continues to earn its place as a staple, rather than a fad, in higher learning.
SaaS technology emerged more than 20 years ago, but as its popularity has grown and as technology evolves, new questions arise. Your institution's future lies with SaaS. Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know to make it happen.
Why Should My Institution Move to SaaS?
Migrating to SaaS provides higher education institutions with several benefits. SaaS technology removes the burden of maintenance, software updates, and patches from the school and its IT staff, placing them instead on the institution's software provider. By doing so, bug fixes, patch testing, investigating server crashes, and rolling out updates become things of the past. Consequently, SaaS frees up valuable time and saves money, allowing IT staff to focus on other priorities. Many institutions say their IT staff have refocused on services and student opportunities with their newly-available resources.
Implementing a SaaS model for your ERP/SIS software also reduces downtime compared to on-premises software. Higher ed institutions still using on-premises servers must schedule regular downtime for updates and handle unexpected disruptions. Downtime causes user frustration, bottlenecks office operations, and even distracts from and negatively impacts students' study habits. With SaaS, instead of physical servers on your campus, your institutional data lives on the cloud in multiple, remote, secure locations, so downtime is drastically reduced.
This SaaS feature alone — hosting data on the cloud in multiple locations — comes with a number of additional benefits, not the least of which is disaster recovery. Aside from normal downtime caused by server crashes or similar hiccups, higher ed institutions in the path of hurricanes, tornados, Nor'easters, wildfires, or other natural disasters are vulnerable to losing their servers entirely when struck by extreme weather phenomena. When the danger has passed and students and staff are ready to return to school, institutions using SaaS platforms will find their systems unaffected and waiting for them.
In 2019, Hurricane Dorian devastated the northern campus of University of the Bahamas. The campus was destroyed along with their entire infrastructure and records. Had they not moved their data to the cloud the previous year, the loss would have been permanent, but they recovered their data and were able to continue classes — even during the initial COVID-19 outbreak — thanks to the remote education options that the cloud facilitates.
In addition to disaster recovery, SaaS platforms offer higher ed institutions enhanced cybersecurity. Security updates happen often and in the background, and the best SaaS providers offer 24/7 threat monitoring. This also eliminates critical privacy and security issues. Putting this responsibility on the software provider instead of an institution's IT team frees up time and money just like the other provider-based maintenance, while institutions with on-premises software task their IT department with monitoring their security.
Furthermore, SaaS systems are burstable, meaning they can either contract or expand based on use. For example, when a high volume of students attempt to register for classes at the same time, SaaS technology can stretch to meet that need without schools having to pay for that same extra capacity during less busy periods.
SaaS modernization also means retiring two of on-premises software's most infamous nuisances: Physical servers and data silos. Physical servers take up space on campus, cost more money to set up and take more time than SaaS, and have less scalability. On-premises servers are also rarely fully integrated, adding needless steps to any interdepartmental process — steps that waste valuable staff time and resources. SaaS systems feature centralized, fully-integrated software that streamlines workflows and simplifies administrative processes. These integrations eliminate the need for additional external solutions with clunky, quickly-outdated integrations of their own, thus enhancing the user experience, since staff and students alike can perform tasks more easily.
SaaS relieves many headaches from on-premises systems, but how do you realize this journey?
How to Move to SaaS: Four Key Steps for Success
Once institutional leadership decides it's time to upgrade to SaaS, four important goals await: Finding the right tech solutions partner, getting the right information, getting buy-in from key players at your institution, and cementing your change management philosophy. Depending on your school's approach, these may come in a different order, but all play a role in modernizing.
Find an Ed Tech Partner to Work With
Finding the right partner in ed tech depends on your school's individual needs and, even more so, the solutions and services this partner provides. Many institutions say that they've begun talks with a tech provider to bring them onto the cloud only for that provider to send them a list of prerequisites the institution must fulfill before the provider will work with them.
However, your institution has plenty of things to do otherwise to support your student body and shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to deem itself worthy of a provider's services. Rather, your tech partner should meet your staff and students where they are, shaping their services and solutions to meet your needs. Additionally, that partner should be ready, willing, and able to work with you to properly choose what you license from them. No hard upsells, no unnecessary purchases, just a right-sized package to bolster student success on your campus.
Define Goals, Expectations, and Time Frame
Once you've chosen an ed tech partner for your SaaS migration, having a conversation about implementation time and other expectations gives your institution a better concept of what it's getting itself into. Who at your school needs to be trained on the new software? How long should it be from signing a contract to launching the platform, and which factors affect that? Will implementation affect operations in the interim? Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The more you know, the more you prepare your institution for its journey.
Build Your Key Buy-In Team
Advocates for SaaS should also obtain buy-in on the project from key staff in other departments. Convincing your institution's topmost decision makers to invest in a tech overhaul would be much more difficult with just one or two people arguing its merits. If the board or C-suite at your school can see how modernization favors a wide range of its offices, SaaS migration seems to be a much more reasonable ask, since its benefits help everyone.
Create a Change Management Mentality
Finally, develop a change management strategy for your modernization journey. Most people are resistant to change, but good ideas, when presented properly, can turn naysayers into cheerleaders. Obtaining buy-in from key partners helps bring about change, but change management also extends beyond that. Tried-and-true sales techniques like stressing the features and benefits raise your chances of a smooth and enthusiastic SaaS modernization, as does educating your peers and main stakeholders. You should also demonstrate the feasibility of the change you wish to instill.
These ideas adhere to the ADKAR model of change management, created by Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt. According to Hiatt and Prosci, ADKAR is a mnemonic device that stands for bringing Awareness of the need for change, fostering Desire to participate and support the change, educating with Knowledge on how to change, showing the Ability to implement required skills and behaviors, and using Reinforcement to sustain the change. Developing the skill and the will to bring about change at your institution minimizes challenges and resistance to your move to SaaS.
Conclusion
Higher ed tech increasingly moves to SaaS for a safer, more reliable future. SaaS systems unify systems and break down the silos between them while hosting them on the cloud at multiple, secure, remote locations. SaaS solutions providers take on the responsibilities of maintenance, updates, cybersecurity, and other services, saving customers time and money that can be better used elsewhere. SaaS providers even feature solutions roadmaps on their websites, giving customers a peek into the future so they know what’s coming.
As data silos, lengthy downtimes, and on-premises servers become antiquated in the industry, SaaS and its benefits are ready to bring postsecondary education institutions into the future. If your institution is considering a migration to SaaS then this is a great time to explore a partnership with Ellucian.
