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by rahimnathwani 2812 days ago
Why are they building all these things themselves?

Thousands of schools have exactly the same operating model and the same needs. Is there no one offering solutions off the shelf? Even for billing and payments?

It seems crazy that each school would need to build their own.
2 comments
pete27 2811 days ago
(I work in higher ed IT) If you're a small school, with most of your income from teaching, COTS solutions can indeed work well.

But if most of your money comes from research, things can get interesting quickly. Research usually means high diversity, with the requirement for speed. This is fun. I wouldn't change my job easily.

Typically, uni's outsource <10% of their IT. Higher ed is not a very big or profitable market segment. Regulatory and compliance requirements can differ wildly, even between neighboring states or provinces, and especially if subsidies are involved. So, even less attractive for standardized software. That's why the COTS offerings are limited. Don't be surprised if you hear about larger uni's spending tens of millions on ERP-type systems. Not everybody can afford that, though.

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rahimnathwani 2810 days ago
Sorry, when I said 'school', I was referring to what Americans call K-12, and not to universities.

The comment to which I replied referred to a high school's need for custom software, and that is what I find odd.

A typical high school has probably a tenth as many people (staff+students) as a typical university.

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ian0 2810 days ago
It was a relatively large paid/private high school.

What Pete27 mentions in regards to higher level is also applicable in high schools, at least where I am (Indonesia). They have varying requirements and while they sometimes look for off the shelf solutions in places it still involves a lot of tying systems together.

> Even for billing and payments?

Funnily enough - thats why I was there. We have built a platform for that. But due to the complexities of payments infrastructure it looks very different to what you would typically find in developed countries. And that particular integration was API based to a system they were building in house.

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