Frequently Asked Questions

Practically all institutions- Universities, Engineering Colleges, Medical Colleges, Degree Colleges, Colleges of Education can use PI 360 to effectively manage their quality and performance

PI 360 is an andvanced anlytics framework focused on quality, performance and achievement. On the other hand a campus ERP/MIS ocused on operational management of the institution like managing admissions, academic records, hostels, transport, fees etc. An ERP does not have advanced capabilities to provide qualitiative insights into the output and outcomes of an institution. Hence, PI 360 provides features and capabilities beyond traditional ERP/MIS packages. Analytics and Business Intelligence based IT systems are finding wide adoption in businesses world-wide and the education sector will soon see the adoption of such innovative systems. Deploying advanced IT systems for better governance and institutional management are the hallmarks of progressive, proactive institutions which are quality conscious.

PI-360, the patent-pending analytics software from Perpetual Innovation Media is fairly simple in its working. Individual faculty members and students keep adding data to the system on various parameters such as results, placements, research and development, staff development and training, institutional activities and achievements etc. Each faculty member enters only the data pertaining to him/her. From our initial pilot studies, we found that the users spent less than 5 minutes per month entering data into the system. The system then performs advanced analytics for the individual faculty collating this data for the whole department and then for the whole institution. The output or performance of the faculty and the department is quantified by assigning weights to data entered for each quality parameter. Percentile ranks are aso computed for the faculty members on each parameter and the top performers identified. Trend analysis reports are available to gauge the year-over-year performance of the individuals and the departments. Thus, PI 360 is not only a great tool for managing quality and performance, it effectively archives all objective evidence of institutional achievements and performance. Hence, it is extremely useful for institutions which are already accredited by NAAC/NBA or are planning to volunteer for accreditation in future.

Performance Insight 360 provides detailed insights into individual performance and in relation to the peer group. This helps creates a culture of performance and healthy competition. For faculty maintaining their complete output and measuring their impact on the organization is of paramount value since it affects their carrer growth and development. Data from Performance Insight 360 is used to perform the annual performance appraisal for the faculty providing intrinsic motivation to update data in the system on time. For students their performance data is verified and acts as authenticated input for the generation of their resumes which are essential during the placement process, thus creating sufficient motivation to enter their data. Proper orientation of all stakeholders ensures that everyone is alligned with the quality objectives of the institution.

The system imports data from excel sheets and automatically creates all the user accounts. If the quality of data provided in the excel sheets is good and there are no discrepencies the system can be made operational in less than a day. For instance engineering institutions can directly import the AICTE standard format excel sheets for facutly and student data into PI 360. Our support team will guide you through the configuration and setup procedure making the entire experience hassle-free for the institution.

It is difficult for any institution to maintain IT systems which require a lot of data to be input into the system. In those cases dedicated data-entry operators are required and a lot of effort and coordination is required within the institute to ensure that the data remains current. PI 360 moves away from the heavy data-entry model by requiring only individual faculty members to enter their own data into the system. The faculty members see their complete profile which stores all details on their professional career, yearly performance, output on various quality parameters etc. Plus, the effort required to enter the information is pretty less. In our pilot study, it took institutions an average of 5 working days to compile data for one whole year. PI 360 works because data-entry is not a big-bang affair, but a completely distributed affair requiring very little individual effort. On an average entering one data item, for instance details of a research paper published, into PI 360 takes less than one minute. A faculty member spends less than 5 minutes per month using the system, but this results in rich, insightful data for the whole institution being generated.

During the trial period, some advanced features shall not be available to the institution and hence it is recommended that the institute create a few faculty accounts only to experience first-hand the rich features and ease-of-use that PI 360 offers. After the trial period ends and the institution decides not to avail the service, the entire database and its content shall be deleted. If the institute decides to avail the services a new institutional account on a dedicated Virtual Private Server (VPS) is created and the services started.

Perpetual Innovation Media Pvt. Ltd. provides a guarantee of data-privacy that the institutional data shall not be accessed, shared or misused in any way. Even though the data is on the web, it is secured through very stringent security access policies at the server level. The institution also needs to be careful in managing the user accounts. Individual accounts for faculty members who leave the institution should be deactivated as per a defined policy so that unauthorized access can be controlled.

The data on the server is backed up on a daily basis and in case of server failure also an alternate server shall be immediately made available by the service provider.

The institutional data in the system shall be exported out to excel files and returned to the institute within a period of 4 weeks. The company shall certify that is has deleted all institutional data including backups created after termination of the contract.

PI 360 is available only in the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model with a web-based interface. This allows for quick online troubleshooting by our support team and hence a better customer experience. Moreover, for some of the advanced features to be rolled out in the near future, the institutional database needs to be online 24x7 which is not always possible at the institution level.

PI-360 is offered in a SaaS model and is based on a per-user costing model. The pricing structure is transparent and simplistic with no hidden elements. Based on the number of users our sales team will work out a customized pricing model which includes dedicated support and free product upgrades. Prices start from as low as Rs. 10* per user per month.