Raj Mruthyunjayappa is the Bangalore-based managing director (Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa) of the Boca Raton (USA)-based Campus Management Corporation (CMC) which offers a complete ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution to over 2,000 higher education institutions in 26 countries. In this capacity, Mruthyunjayappa manages CMC’s business in all geographies except the American continents. An alum of Mysore University with a Masters in computer applications, Mruthyunjayappa acquired valuable professional experience with nGenera Corp, Austin (Texas), Aditi Technologies and Visual Commerce in Seattle, prior to signing up with CMC in 2007.

Newspeg. In April, a national survey conducted by the US-based Tambellini Group adjudged CMC the #1 student information systems vendor in the US. Almost simultaneously CMC acquired the Bangalore-based IDenizen Smartware Pvt. Ltd (IDenizen), a leading developer of ERP-based automation solutions for medium and small education institutions in India.

History. Promoted in Boca Raton, Florida in 1988, CMC provides its ERP and administrative software systems to post-secondary education institutions in 18 countries. Its comprehensive ERP solution includes the first fully online student advisory system and a two-way integration of commercial student administrative systems. In 2008, when CMC acquired the Bangalore-based Talisma Corp whose CRM (customer relationship management) software is used by banks, financial institutions and business organisations in 32 countries worldwide, Mruthyunjayappa relocated to Bangalore to assume additional responsibility as chief executive of the company.

Direct talk. The higher education market in India is rapidly modernising and becoming customer-conscious, a development well-suited to our solutions portfolio. Institutional users of our end-to-end ERP solution in India aggregate 40 and include IIM-Udaipur, SRM University, Chennai, Educomp-Raffles and the FLAME Academy, Pune, among others, he says.

Future plans: According to Mruthyunjayappa, a Campus Preparedness Survey covering 500 institutions of higher education conducted by CMC, indicates that India’s higher education sector needs to be urgently enabled by ICT (information communication technologies). The survey identifies several pain points of higher education institutions with a critical infirmity being low faculty productivity. Our ERP solution which covers the entire gamut of institutional operations, is ideal in the circumstances. We believe there’s a huge latent demand for our ERP in deemed and private universities in particular. Helping them to upgrade their operations, and improving faculty efficiencies and learning outcomes are our prime objectives, says Mruthyunjayappa.

Fair winds!

Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)