A Case Study by Tata Tele Business Services

The world came to a standstill with the outbreak of COVID-19. Everything around us changed unimaginably. Globally, the governments-imposed restrictions and complete lockdown to prevent the spread of the diseases. However, after a few months, with the easing of limitations, the markets opened to resume business and minimize the economic impact of the pandemic. While the pre-pandemic normalcy was no-where to witness, every segment had started functioning in one way or the other during the new normal. The on-campus education system faced an insurmountable challenge. While the government relaxed the restrictions on businesses, the ban remained in force on educational institutes. Months after the first wave ceased, the government had permitted schools, colleges, and academies to operate with due care and extreme precaution. Few educational institutes restarted campus education before the second wave rattled the preparations, and the government re-imposed necessary constraints.

However, education did not suffer. Technology came to its aid and saved students from wasting precious years of their lives. It helped educational institutes to continue spreading the light of knowledge and wisdom. The unprecedented situation forced educational institutions to shift the entire learning and education process online.

However, the shift to digital was easier said than done. Finding a digital learning infrastructure that could support the large user base of the numerous students was a challenge. They needed a scalable, secure, and cost-effective solution that could help them conduct their online campaigns to extract requests in a structured way as most of its employees were working from their homes. In such a scenario, Cloud-based services emerged as a boon for them. The numerous benefits offered by cloud-based platforms solved the challenges the sector was facing and gave it wings to fly high. Why the education industry should use cloud communication Cloud communication comes with myriad benefits that facilitate online learning effectively.

Some benefits are as below-

• Ease of accessibility- Digital medium has empowered students and teachers to connect easily in the time of need, no matter how far they are. Daily lessons can be delivered and attended on any device from anywhere through a virtual classroom. Cloud-based tools have not only improved online interaction but also made it easier to utilise knowledge tools on multiple devices. They acquire round-the-clock access to their course content, apps and data.
• Improved flexibility- Cloud solutions offer educational institutions the flexibility to respond instantly to changes. They can accommodate a sudden surge in demand for tech capabilities. The use of cloud platforms simplifies the scaling of resources up or down, without the time-consuming, costly and (sometimes) tedious bureaucratic planning essential to deploy on-premises hardware.
• Source data backup- Easy and quick recovery of data sometimes becomes essential. This creates problems for students and teachers, who increasingly use IT resources to create, share and assess data in virtual classes. The cloud addresses this hurdle by imbibing all the academic activities-related data and storing it in virtual vaults that can be accessed through multiple devices and effortlessly shared for collaboration.
• Accurate lesson plan- Cloud technology makes it easier to update academic content and keep it relevant each year. Teachers can meet their curriculum goals more effectively through daily lessons and ensure that students learn with the most relevant materials for each subject.
• Cost-effective- Delivering education via cloud technology classes is cost-effective. It allows schools and colleges to spend their IT budgets more judiciously and save expenses on hardware and furniture. By offering online classes, educational institutions can also attract special batches of students for distance learning programmes to create a new revenue source.
• Leveraging AI and Machine Learning – The power of cloud platforms to hold terabytes of data for different students allows organizations to use AI and machine learning to make education delivery more fruitful. Teachers can analyze each student’s performance more efficiently and leverage such analytics to create personalized knowledge modules. Data mining can also help them in cognitive psychology research to restructure the academic curriculum and improve learning

How cloud communication is helping institutes – Case study
Due to the multiple benefits a cloud platform provides, it has become the most sought-after technology for educational institutions offering online education. They are in the constant search for dependable solutions to meet the rising demand and push their growth. For instance, Cloud Communication suite can support the long-term needs of educational institutions and maintain its continuity amidst the pandemic. Cloud communications solutions suite are highly flexible, secure and can optimize anytime and anywhere connectivity.

An institute, counted among the top coaching institutions in the country, started facing various challenges after shutting down the physical classroom. It was trying to ensure that the aspirants gain knowledge through the targeted courses and provide them with an enabling environment that motivates them to tap their potential and inherent caliber.

For the institute, the challenge was to handle the diverse telephonic queries from students while investing in its outbound campaigns to generate more business. They needed a comprehensive communication suite with intuitive features to manage the processes efficiently. Since the absence of physical classes made the students and parents anxious, the institute needed to provide continuous support to its prospective students.

Smartflo helped the institute to build operational resilience and enabled them to deliver exceptional consumer experiences across channels. The comprehensive and advanced features of the platform helped fulfil the emerging requirements of the coaching institute while adding value to its business processes.

The cloud-based technology helped the institute fulfil countless dreams of making it to prestigious engineering and medical colleges in the country and abroad.