EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Seeks Answers To 'Disruptive' Challenges Facing Higher Education Today

Online, November 6, 2012 (Newswire.com) - When higher-education's global business-and- technology leaders convene here this week, no single topic will be more apparent than today's "disruptive" environment challenging colleges and universities around the world.

EDUCAUSE, the annual conference held this year at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver, is the premier confab for higher-education business-and-IT professionals grappling with today's toughest management and technology issues.

A glance at the agenda confirms that 2012's quickly morphing academic landscape is foremost in their minds: "Blueprint for Change in an Era of Rapid Reinvention"; "Turning Change into Opportunity: The 21st Century's Most Valuable Skill"; "Using Games to Effect Organizational Change"; and "Disrupting College."

Not long ago, higher education was a face-to-face endeavor; now it's being disrupted by pervasive new methodologies, global technologies, "flipped" classrooms, "gamification" and social media. Ten years ago world economies were stable; in 2012 uncertainty and flux are the "new normal."

With these challenges in mind, EDUCAUSE 2012 is also designed as an opportunity for senior leaders to see the latest advances in technology for higher education.

Attendees will have a chance to see powerful, new features in Three Rivers Systems Inc.'s CAMS Enterprise, billed as the "only disruptive academic ERP" capable of meeting the demands of today's disruptive environment.

According to Three Rivers Systems President and Founder Amir Tajkarimi, "Business and IT leaders in higher education are more critical to the success of higher education than ever. They need to do more with less, they face unrelenting economic pressures, they do more reporting than ever and they must pay greater attention to metrics measuring student outcomes. All this makes sophisticated business and IT strategies a must," he added.

Tajkarimi said CAMS Enterprise Business Analytics, the academic ERP's powerful business-intelligence feature, gives campus administrators the on-demand data they need in attractive easy-to-use dashboards that simplify and enhance the strategic decision-making process so necessary in today's unforgiving environment of cost-consciousness and accountability.

"Achieving maximum efficiency and productivity that helps deliver the ultimate student learning experience is every institution's goal," Tajkarimi said.

Many forward-thinking EDUCAUSE-member schools are leaders in online education. CAMS Enterprise is also uniquely capable of meeting the special requirements of these programs. Whether it's having the flexibility to offer semesters, trimesters, serial or concurrent terms all with variable start and end dates, CAMS can be readily configured.

About EDUCAUSE
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association and the foremost community of IT leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education. EDUCAUSE programs and services are focused on analysis, advocacy, community building, professional development, and knowledge creation because IT plays a transformative role in higher education. EDUCAUSE supports those who lead, manage, and use information technology through a comprehensive range of resources and activities. For more information, visit www.educause.edu.

About CAMS Enterprise
CAMS Enterprise's disruptive technology makes it a fundamentally different academic ERP. It is an easy-to-use and implement, totally integrated, Web-native management system with everything in one place - admissions; student information; financial aid; student services; fiscal management with HR and payroll; fund-raising; alumni relations; document management, learning management, a full suite of portals, and more for managing the entire student life cycle. With an out-of-the-box configuration and self-service customization, CAMS Enterprise removes all barriers to success seen with conventional systems. CAMS' affordable licensing, off-the-shelf configuration and easy implementation translate into the lowest total cost of ownership of any academic ERP while yielding the quickest and highest ROI.