Power Platform for School Management System Enhancement

Overview

About the Client

The client is a prominent school management system that oversees a network of schools across multiple regions. They cater to a diverse array of educational needs, with a strong focus on providing quality tutoring and resources to students. The client utilizes a platform for managing and tracking academic sessions, attendance, student progress, and tutor performance across their various schools.

The system allows them to deliver online sessions, track student data in real-time, and maintain a streamlined approach to educational management. The client also works with a wide range of tutors across regions, each contributing various sets of data.

The challenge       

The client faced significant challenges in managing large amounts of data across various regions and ensuring the data was accessible and actionable. The key obstacles included:

1. Fetching Data from Different Regions: Data from multiple schools and tutors across diverse regions needed to be collected and displayed centrally, requiring the integration of various data sources.
2. Customization and Visualization: There was a need to display customized charts and attendance reports based on the specific region, with varying formats and data points depending on the region.
3. Data Limitations: The platform used to store and process the data, SharePoint, had a 5000-record limit, which made it challenging to manage and scale data effectively. This constraint resulted in performance issues, especially when trying to handle large datasets.

These challenges led to difficulties in maintaining the accuracy and integrity of real-time data, and hindered the smooth execution of day-to-day tasks for the client.

Our Solution 

1. We built customized Power Apps applications that allowed the client to interact with data and manage information across various regions in a user-friendly interface. Power Apps enabled tutors and administrators to view and update attendance, session data, and student progress in real-time.
2. Power Automate was used to streamline workflows and automate data processes, including data aggregation and transfer between different systems. It helped reduce manual intervention, ensuring that data was updated automatically without delays, and also handled background tasks like notifying users of specific changes in data.
3. Power Pages were implemented to create secure, region-specific portals for tutors, students, and administrators. These portals allowed users to access customized charts, track student performance, and generate reports. It helped display relevant data without overwhelming the user with unnecessary information.
4. We utilized SPFx to create custom web parts and integrate dynamic content into the SharePoint environment. This allowed us to bypass SharePoint’s limitations and create interactive, responsive, and scalable user interfaces while ensuring seamless integration with SharePoint data.

Technology & tools used

1. Power Apps: Used to build interactive, custom applications for the management and tracking of student and tutor data. Power Apps allowed for region-specific interfaces and provided dynamic dashboards for users to manage their data.
2. Power Automate: Implemented to automate data synchronization between multiple systems, eliminating manual tasks and ensuring that all data was up-to-date in real-time. This also helped manage large datasets by automating background processes.
3. Power Pages: Used to create secure, customizable, and region-specific web portals that allowed users to view and interact with their data, such as viewing charts, attendance, and reports tailored to their region.
4. SPFx (SharePoint Framework): Used for developing custom web parts and integrations within SharePoint to overcome the 5000-record limitation. SPFx helped build scalable and interactive solutions to display large datasets and reports efficiently.
5. SharePoint: Served as the central data storage system, where all school and tutor data was stored and accessed. SharePoint served as the backbone for data management.

    

Results

The Impact and outcome            

1. Streamlined Data Management:

The integration of Power Apps and Power Automate allowed for smooth data aggregation from multiple regions, ensuring that all regions could access and update data in real-time. This eliminated the need for manual data entry and minimized errors.

2. Customized Regional Reporting:

Power Pages enabled the client to create region-specific portals, displaying customized reports and charts that helped the client make data-driven decisions tailored to each region’s needs.

3. Overcoming SharePoint Limitations:

By leveraging SPFx and optimized workflows, we overcame the 5000-record limit in SharePoint, allowing for more efficient data processing and better system performance, even with large datasets.

4. Improved Efficiency:

Automation of workflows using Power Automate reduced the time spent on manual processes, which led to faster report generation and real-time updates of student and tutor data.

5. User Experience Enhancements:

The interactive Power Apps and Power Pages portals provided an intuitive and user-friendly experience, allowing administrators and tutors to easily track performance, attendance, and sessions without navigating complex systems.