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information are to be expected when compared to other implementation of ERP solution to institutions of higher
organizations, arriving from its management, administrative education needs to be observed in the same context.
personnel, professors and students. Of great impact and Has it ever been more challenging for universities, colleges,
importance here is the high level of independence certain and research institutions to succeed in their core missions?
departments and persons within university have when Reduced funding from traditional sources has trimmed
compared to regular companies. Regular and often changes in revenues, and competition for private funding including
Rectors office (elections of new Rector, Deputy Rector, and grants, endowments, and alumni donations is growing.
dean) also imply different approaches to IS. Burgeoning student populations are creating physical space
and service challenges. Government regulations pressure
VI. ERP ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING AND institutions to operate with a high degree of transparency,
which intensifies the need to report, document, and track
SPECIFIC DEMANDS OF ACADEMIC financial, demographic, and educational information.
COMMUNITY Demographic and regulatory reporting requirements are
prompting additional spending on human resources
ERP is one of the most successful tools for resource management systems. Demand for corporate outreach and
management of a certain organization. It is also an integral continuing education programs is increasing.
software solution with client-server architecture and Competition has intensified for the best students, faculty,
software architecture enabling business process management and academic and research professionals. To address these
in real time. The main goal and task of ERP is integration of myriad challenges, higher education and research institutions
all departments and functions inside an organization with the need to leverage IT that aligns with business requirements and
help of integrated computer system that covers all needs of supports change. Organizations need to operate more
that organization. ERP systems represent integral support to efficiently and integrate processes, from business services to
business processes of organization thus creating prerequisites academic affairs and student care, while collaborating
for integration of all business processes of an organization externally with government agencies, service providers, and
into an information system [11]. other constituents. Yet many organizations still use
Conceptually designed and constructed by the end of the fragmented, non-integrated business systems. Inefficient,
1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, their orientation is to outdated, and expensive to maintain, these systems foster
production and planning of material movement through decision making that is tactical and reactive at best.
productive cycles. Nowadays, it can be firmly stated that an ERP solutions for Higher Education is a portfolio of highly
ERP represents the backbone of a company. No matter what scalable solutions specifically designed to meet the unique
possible difficulties arise when implementing and ERP, the needs of public and private universities, multicampus
implementation itself becomes a necessity in contemporary institutions, research agencies and medical colleges. It
organizations. Upon implementing an ERP system, supports all organizational processes, including campus
transactional information systems rise from business and management for student and academic services, grants
bureaucratic operations to networks of service delivery. management, Student Lifecycle Management, financials,
Parallel to this, integration of different applications later saves operations, human capital management, procurement,
time and minimises possibility of errors. analytics, research, and asset management. With these
When we first start implementing an ERP system, we are solutions, it is possible to sustain the continuing cycle of
dealing with many disconnected systems. We have a set of innovation and standardization in a single technology
isolated applications to which business events are written and environment [12].
these applications are not technologically connected.
Gradually, individual modules of an ERP system are
implemented and the system becomes partially functional. VII. ERP FUNCTIONALITIES FOR HIGHER
Still, the consolidation on the level of organization is still EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
not achieved. Further development brings us to the phase of
complete functioning in individual business units which is For the purposes of this research it is necessary to mention
well manifested in large and spatially dispersed organizations. some ERP solutions used in higher education institutions:
Finally, in the last phase an ERP system becomes completely Grants and funds management Solution which helps
connected and fully functional. institutions for and manage a variety of department and
The sophisticated and most frequently used ERP systems sponsored grant programs, endowments, and research awards
worldwide are SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SCALA software across their life cycles including proposal development and
solutions for resource planning of an organization. These are submission, budgeting, award, spending and payroll,
integrated sets of solutions which cover implementation into reporting, renewal, closeout, evaluation, and analysis. It
almost all business segments and hyphenate structural provides principal investigators, fund administrators with
functionality (based on best business practices) and reliability timely and accurate information on financial activities,
of the system. Experiences from using and ERP system give accountants, and research and transactions, ensuring that
proofs of positive effects on efficiency, positive influence on sponsored programs are conducted according to a sponsors
relationships as well as customer satisfaction external requirements. In this way, improved effectiveness of grant
customer satisfaction when dealing with this company. The administration from pre-award to post-award, across multiple
fiscal years, with enhanced accuracy of spending tracking is
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reached. Unified sponsored-program life cycle regulations and (Serbia) of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and
guidelines are made, such as the ones for enhanced funding Sports and Serbian Ministry of Science and Technological
streams while supporting academic research missions. Development, to which the authors of the article are grateful
Competitiveness in pursuing grant funds is enhanced. Manual for substantial support.
processes and workload in planning, managing, and reporting
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University of Belgrade, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
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