defining impact on an organization’s bottom line by
delivering significant savings.
Outsourcing also can provide flexibility for school
operations. You can easily contract out functions that
are difficult to manage or too time-consuming. For
functions that are seasonal or cyclical, resources can
be contracted only when they’re needed.
Concerns about outsourcing can be greatly mitigated
with care and due diligence before selecting any
vendor. Research the companies you are considering.
Talk with former and current clients, check references,
and thoroughly interview the company. Make
sure the vendor has a clear understanding of your
organization’s goals, and can clearly state how they
will support them.
Outsourcing non-core services gives your
school access to people who focus solely on a
specific function. The outsourced processes are
a specialized company’s core activity – so they’re
very good at it.
Realize Your Potential by
Strategically Outsourcing
“Outsourcing” is the practice of strategically
delegating certain functions traditionally
handled by internal staff to outside companies.
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Outsourcing helps schools achieve their core mission
by focusing on education, not on activities that can
be delegated to outside companies.
to your school. Outsourcing can shift staffing
from doing mundane functions to monitoring best
practices.
Outsourcing non-core services like payroll,
background checks, tuition management,
bookkeeping, landscaping, and cleaning gives your
school access to people who focus solely on a specific
function. The outsourced processes are a specialized
company’s core activity – so they’re very good at it.
This brings more knowledge, expertise, and efficiency
There can be tremendous cost savings in allocating
activities and functions to outside sources. Reduced
operational and labor costs in the form of wages,
benefits, hiring, and training are examples. Vendors
may also bring consultative support solutions you had
not considered or thought feasible for your school.
When properly executed, outsourcing can have a
There is one major aspect of outsourcing that
is probably more important than anything else
involved in running your school. That is in the area of
payments processing and collections. The regulations
surrounding financial record-keeping, reporting, and
compliance issues are complex. Using a tuition
management company to help you manage your
accounts receivables, invoicing, payment processing,
and late payer follow up will give you increased
peace-of-mind. You’ll gain flexibility, customer
service, reduce concern over compliance issues, and
achieve benefits in areas such as data privacy and
security, disaster recovery, and data reporting and
analysis.
Maintain open communications with vendors to
solidify and build positive relationships to enable
quicker resolution should any issues arise. Make
sure contracts are properly structured prior to
signing them to reduce risk of long-term obligations
or required payments in case you wish to change
vendors for poor performance or changes in
technology.
For many organizations, outsourcing makes
perfect sense, both practically and for longterm organizational flexibility and sustainability.
Strategically outsourcing and delegating non-core
functions can have a powerful impact on your school
growth and productivity!
BIG DATA: Why Is It Important to Schools?
Big Data is the term that refers to the massive amounts of data being collected and analyzed from
technology use. The explosive growth of data in the last few years has provided a storehouse of information
on human behavior. The science of big data, or what was formerly known as business analytics, has
exploded.
Schools will be using big data to analyze financial aid applications, to predict enrollment, and to operate
more efficiently. As part of your marketing strategy, you will want to include research from Big Data.
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