Philippine computer school modernizes IT infrastructure

By Eden Estopace | Jan 20, 2012

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The AMA Education System (AMAES), a network of universities and colleges in the Philippines offering computer training, has upgraded its IT infrastructure with Oracle's PeopleSoft Campus Solutions.

The solutions provide a web-based system that enables the institution to manage student administration processes, including prospect management, admissions, student records, enrollment, curriculum, advisement, transfer credit, student financials, financial aid, graduation and alumni relations.

AMES has an annual student population of 150,000 in more than 196 campuses in the Philippines and around 10,000 in 4 international sites -- Hong Kong, China, US and Bahrain. Two more branches will be opened this year in Dubai and Indonesia.

Edwin Santos, Chief Information Officer, AMAES, said the deployment of the new IT infrastructure took 12 months to complete for the first 12 campuses. That includes the AMA Computer University and  11 trimestral campuses of the AMA Computer College.  The application suite will also be implemented across the rest of AMAES entities, including AMA Computer Learning Center (ACLC), AMA International Institute of Technology (AIIT), ABE Colleges, AMA School of Medicine and AMA International Aviation Academy.

"The idea is to deploy Oracle Campus Solution as our prime administrative solution for educational services so it will be deployed in all branches in the Philippines as well as our international campuses," he said.

It is practically a running investment and return on investment is seen within the next five years, according to the AMAES executives.

"The primary advantage of the solution for us is it enhances service delivery," said Santos. "That includes service delivery to our students, who are our prime customers, and service delivery to the parents, as both would have access to the portals. The second advantage is ease of deployment. Since AMAES is also expanding its business base, it gives us a lot of flexibility in deployment to other campuses since the solution is centrally hosted and in the cloud."
 
The most important benefits to students and parents, according to Santos, is the real-time access to information about their payments, grades, courses taken, schedules and information on future subjects to be offered. AMAES is also working to include an online payment gateway to allow students to do any transactions at home.

"Mobile integration is something we are looking forward to," Santos disclosed. "For now, our concentration will be more on deploying the serve to all our branches and campuses."

Engineer Arnel Hibo, First Vice President of AMAES, added that the management side of AMAES will also have access to real-time information covering academic and administrate functions for all the campuses.

"I think the move (to Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions) changed a lot, not only for AMAES, but  for other educational institutions in the Philippines," said Elder Panlilio, Country Manager for application, Oracle Philippines. "The partnership will not end here. We will definitely be doing a lot more innovations in the future."