Gartner defines student information system (SIS) software as a service (SaaS) as a core system of record for higher education institutions that serves as the central hub for storing, organizing and processing student academic and administrative activities. The SIS supports student, faculty and staff-facing functionality, including management of information assets, while also supporting back-end administrative functionality. SIS SaaS is delivered under a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription license model (with regular updates), where application support and infrastructure provisioning and management are the responsibility of the vendor. Serving the students, faculty and administrative staff, the SIS provides a chronology of business transactions, academic activity, advising interactions and educational outcomes. Additionally, it manages vital information assets, including course offerings, course catalogs, course registration, student accounts, financial aid, grades and transcripts throughout the student life cycle. The SIS may be part of a larger administrative ERP application suite and a critical component of an education institution’s larger digital technology platform.
The student information system of the typical K-12 organization continues to sit at the center of nearly all its data management. It provides back-office administrator functionality, as well as student-, parent- and faculty-facing functionality to manage key organizational information assets. Such assets include not only demographic data, enrollment, grades, and transcripts, but also state or other governmental agency reporting capabilities. Systems vary widely in size; scope; state, regional or national markets; and functional capability — and they range from individual components to enterprise-wide integrated solutions. They also function as the system of record for several other critical applications, including the LMS, demanding interoperability.