STADIO Holdings Limited (“STADIO”) Embraces Digital Transformation as Part of Growth Plans for Private Higher Education in South Africa

State of the Art Systems Will Ensure Excellent Service and Curriculum Management for 30,000+ Students

SIS Global and Unit4, leaders in enterprise systems for higher education, announce that STADIO, a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed company invested in private higher education institutions, has appointed SIS Global (South Africa) to undertake a strategic transformation project to replace legacy finance, HR, and student systems with Unit4’s cloud, next-generation education management solutions, hosted on Microsoft Azure.

SIS Global will deliver and support a modern technology environment and transformation of core applications covering everything from finance and HR, to student and campus management for over 30,000 students.

SIS Global has built a strong reputation in the African higher education market. Together, Unit4 and SIS Global will help STADIO to differentiate from the competition and drive best practice across its institutions to achieve its long-term goal of serving 100,000 students. Unit4’s Business World ERP in the Azure cloud will be used to manage back-office processes across its portfolio of private universities, bringing them onto a single system. Combined with Prevero CPM, STADIO will have full visibility into departments and projects, and powerful reporting and analytics supporting strategic initiatives with actionable data. Fully integrated with Unit4’s market leading Student Management solution, the software will provide a superior user experience for students and staff, best in class curriculum management and an intuitive mobile experience.

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, STADIO is focused on meeting the demand for quality and relevant higher education programs in South Africa. STADIO is in the process of creating its Multiversity, defined as a large, diverse institution covering a diverse range of educational courses through specialist institutions. With six institutions today, the Group’s offerings include undergraduate (higher certificates, diplomas and degrees) and post-graduate programs (Honours and Masters degrees and doctorates), aimed at providing graduates with a real chance of creating employment opportunities (entrepreneurship) or finding employment. Brands within the STADIO group include AFDA, Embury, LISOF, Milpark Education, Prestige Academy and Southern Business School.

STADIO will replace its legacy finance and student management systems across all registered institutions and will roll out the Unit4 Suite as a standard. The transformation project will be led and implemented by Unit4 partner, SIS Global, selected for its ERP, education industry expertise and technology background, along with its ability to demonstrate a clear understanding of STADIO and the South African higher education sector’s requirements.

“Quality, student-centeredness and innovation are our commitment at all institutions in the STADIO Group,” said STADIO CEO, Dr Chris van der Merwe. “We are focused on doing all things reasonable to enable our students to succeed. Unit4 has proven it can help us deliver this success. Unit4 will support our objective to track students’ learning progress and provide appropriate interventions (learning development facilitators, tutors, online academic support, credit re-try) where needed to promote positive outcomes. Most importantly, this single end-to-end system will allow us to monitor business success and drive efficiencies, innovations and best practices across the Group to achieve our long-term goal of serving 100,000 students.”

“This comes at a hugely exciting time for the Student Information Systems market, as more Universities and Colleges seek to expand beyond legacy solutions and embrace cloud functionality,” said Rob Hawley, CEO, SIS Global. “We work with our customers to grow, evolve and digitally transform their business to better meet changing markets. Our knowledge working with many higher education institutions, combined with Unit4’s industry leading technology, will ensure STADIO can work smarter, and more efficiently taking a modern approach to delivering higher education in South Africa.”

“Unit4 is proud to support STADIO as it responds to the need for change in the sector and widens access to education for people in South Africa,” said Austin Laird, Product Director, Higher Education at Unit4. “Our modern integrated solution for higher education combines the latest technology with 30 years’ experience working with education institutions and underpins STADIO’s quality teaching and learning ethos that prioritizes student success.”