From schools and universities to libraries and museums, public sector organizations are constantly battling with budget restrictions. The trade-off between offering better services with reducing costs is always a challenge, especially for those in the public sector. Indeed, considerations like this have played a crucial role in the emergence of Business Intelligence in the public sector.

Although BI can be used to improve public sector performance in general, the role of BI is starting to gain momentum in educational institutions in particular. With reliable information, schools are becoming aware of the usefulness of ERP software in tracking student examination results, submission of assignments, teacher absences, student-teacher satisfaction rates and even comparing course grades with other schools in the country. With this information, teachers as well as parents can assess the areas that need attention – whether it’s with the syllabus, teaching method or absence rates.

One company that promotes use of ERP software in education is an India-based company, Foradian. Through its plugin architecture and API model, Fedena allows schools to develop integration with other software, while also enabling schools to add plugins to meet their needs and enhance the features on the ERP software. Fedena School ERP software capitalizes on the vibrant ecosystem surrounding their product – from freelancers to resellers — and schools can leverage the expertise of open source enthusiasts to support the changes they need for their schools.

Although the company is helping schools across India – 15,000 education institutions are powered by Fedena’s ERP software in Kerala alone – it has also been received globally with 40,000 schools and colleges using the software worldwide. Currently, Fedena’s open source attracts 200+ downloads a day and has 65000+ downloads in total. Moreover, Fedena’s work has not gone unnoticed. The company has received a number of awards in recent years for their innovation in the education sector – Edustars, which is supported by Accel Partners, awarded Fedena a prize for being the “best education start-up from India.”

With education leaders trying to think creatively about maximizing performance through streamlining their processes, technology and people, ERP software solutions will become a popular source in securing these goals. While there are a number of companies offering similar products, Fedena’s cloud servers and well-priced software is a shining example of how the public sector – and especially schools — can use ERP and BI to increase efficiency, reduce costs and ultimately reach their desired targets.

Foradian is a company headquartered in Bangalore that was founded by six friends in 2009. In 2010 they launched their first product called Fedena. Fedena is a multipurpose school and campus management software which is used by thousands of educational institutions in India but also in Africa for all their administration, management and learning related activities.