Boston (
www.boston.co.za
) is one of the country's largest tertiary institutions spanning almost 40 campuses nationwide. Boston offers its students a wide menu of courses ranging from degrees in law and accounting, through a spectrum of management courses to secretarial diplomas. It even offers a course on HIV/AIDS.
As result of this diversity, Boston has to manage a wide range of complexities relating to the conglomeration of students and lecturers. It needs to track all the relevant information, give students and staff assistance with managing timetables. It also needs to deal with the intricacies of the financial management that results from such a complex system.
Craig Stollard, financial director of Boston, is outspoken about how the flexibility of ICAS assists him to deal with this heterogeneous situation. He says that from an accounting perspective, the flexibility offered by ICAS allows him to optimise the efficiency of the college's accounting systems and seriously impacts on its overall profitability. Examples of this include the fact that ICAS enables him to complete age analyses at any time of the month and for any prior period or year.
Stollard believes the age analysis technique is unique to ICAS. He says the advantage is being able to print out an age analysis without needing to run a month-end, something no other system offers. He appreciates pulling control reports at anytime and for any required period, allowing him to compare daily turnovers with cash received. Cashing up reports also generate breakdowns which enable him to compare cash with records, thus minimising the opportunity for fraud.
As far as staff productivity is concerned, Boston uses ICAS to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the college. The flexibility of the system allows it to evaluate the direct cost of each staff member per class, giving direct comparisons of profitability.
Boston also uses ICAS to track student records and attendance because ICAS can integrate all the records.
Results are closely monitored in ICAS, ensuring that records are kept of previous years. These results can be presented in an Excel format, thus allowing any configuration of reports to be generated.
In the current highly competitive educational environment, where colleges need to ensure their business viability, the integration and efficiency that is provided by ICAS, gives them the ability to ensure their sustainability.
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