To continue providing quality vocational education and training programmes as well as a unique student experience, the College of Cape Town (CTC) recently upgraded its ITS Integrator System from V3 to the newly released ITS Integrator V4.1.

The TVET College sector has a growing role to play in the provision of the intermediate to higher-level skills required to support economic growth and development. The CTC has the resources and the infrastructure to respond to the education and training needs of our communities and employers.

The CTC is dedicated to creating an enabling environment that is conducive to learning. This is made possible by the ITS Integrator system. The innovative and intuitive student management system enables institutions to manage the entire student lifecycle – applications, registrations, monitor student journey during the studies, integrates with several third-party interfaces including NSFAS, Pay Gate, Home Affairs, etc. through to graduation and alumni relations/management.

What led CCT to upgrade to ITS Integrator 4.1?

At the time of initial implementation, the college elected to implement a minimum of the features included in the ITS Integrator. This approach, while sufficient for the college’s needs at the time, resulted in data silos and did not fully enable the college to realise the true value and benefits that are natively available in the ITS Integrator system. The college employees can now use the system to help them collaborate to better optimise their tasks and create synergy between the different departments within the institution.

The Path to Efficiency

Part of the reason the CCT upgraded to the latest ITS 4.1 version allows the institution to benefit from the numerous benefits the integration and adaptability the new version brings. Also, it allows the institution to adopt a unified approach to data management. Gerrit Botes, CCT MIS Manager, expressed the positive benefits of the additional functionalities offered by the upgrade. “This upgrade comes at a crucial time when the institution is working hard to create a unique student experience. This also applies to our employees, who work with the system daily, to ensure they work on a system that provides an end-to-end solution thus making their work easier and enjoyable. We are working hard to contribute to making the institution a great place to work and a preferred study destination for students

Benefits of Timely Upgrades

Better reliability and security – Software updates offer plenty of benefits. It’s all about revisions. These might include repairing security holes that have been discovered and fixing or removing bugs or bottlenecks. Updates ensure that you are operating within an updated and risk-free environment, and you remove outdated ones. Updates also ensure that your operating system is running the latest version. Updates help patch security flaws and protect your information from data breaches and hackers.

Better productivity  – An upgrade means more functionality and features are added that can significantly benefit and add value to your institution. Because technology is now deeply integrated into the framework of almost all businesses, keeping it up to date has become an essential part of office maintenance. Upgrading to the ITS Integrator 4.1 increases efficiency, usability, security, and compatibility. When we developed the INT 4.1, we did not just make improvements to the back end but also what functions the software can do. For example, on INT 4.1 we have introduced BI & Analytics which is a significant improvement to the reporting capabilities for those in management.

Lower costs – Institutions are faced with multiple information technology challenges: the need to defer software purchases or upgrades because they’re costly including the need to cut costs, and the utilisation of existing software licenses, and boost IT productivity in the face of headcount reductions. However, deferring software purchases may have negative consequences not to mention putting the institution at risk. With the adaptability and functionality of the ITS system, employees can be constantly upskilled and trained to ensure they’re knowledgeable of the system and a timely upgrade means an institution can manage costs. Upgrading your software means you can proactively manage your software assets.

The INT 4.1 brings several new and exciting changes such as: 

• Improved system navigations between the menu options.
• Users can customise their menu to create “a favourite menu option” – there is no limit to menu options.
• The menu display displays properly across the screen – it was previously restricted to 1024 x 768 dimensions.
• Improved screen layout – the fields appear on a single screen layout, and they can be collapsed or opened easily.
• Users can now export the data directly to Microsoft Excel.
• Users can re-create the cash book reconciliation at a specific point in time.
• Major changes have been done to the handling of VAT. The flexibility and maintenance have been improved where clients are registered for VAT reporting purposes.
• Users can convert their local software over an extended period to ADF. The plan is to have no more Oracle Forms and RDF reports after the ITS Integrator 5 version.
• Speeding up software delivery through a more modern release cycle strategy
• The ITS Integrator student experience has a new jacket, including Mobi
• Introduction of Jaspersoft Reports® Server as Ad Hoc Reporting Tool

Words From CCT

The Adapt IT Education team, through this upgrade, offered the CCT a streamlined approach to deploying and managing the new transition and usability of the new software. We are happy to have found a partner that understands our needs and works with us to manage costs and the complexities that come with acquiring, managing, and using new tools. The latest version of ITS 4.1 empowers our users to be more efficient, find functionalities easier at the click of a button, and we can run our institution better while improving our culture and morale,” adds Botes.