The History Of Hostel Management Systems

INTI International University (IIU) is an education institution that has been rapidly improving for the past few years. As the fast increasing student numbers, therefore, to accommodate part of the students studying in the institution, the INTI International University has had to build up more hostels in the campus.

INTI International University, Nilai campus got 16 Halls of Residence named after great men who have contributed to the well-being of mankind. All these hostels at present are manage by the accommodation office. Internet connection, Wi-Fi, Resident Fellow, security, facilities and convenient stores are some of the facilities provided for the convenient of the students. Coin-operated washing machines and dryers are also available in every hall of residents. The INTI hostels have provided many types of room such as Single, Twin-sharing, Single with air-con and Twin with air-con. (New INTI, 2009)

As is well known, the education institutions are rapidly increasing for the past few years. Therefore, it leads to mushrooming of hostels for the residence of the students who study in these institutions. As the world keep changing with the fast developed information system and information technology, there is a need for the education institutions to apply the information system and information technology in their daily work to improve the workflows and reduce workloads. Hence, there is system appears in managing hostels to avoid the problem when do it manually.

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System Development

The accommodation office in INTI International University currently uses the system which is called Hostel Management System (HMS). This system is software that is being developed to help officers who work in accommodation office in managing various kinds of activities in the hostels. Hostel Management System (HMS) is one of the modules of the Total Campus Management System (TCMS). Unlike the Integrated Library Management Utility (ILMU), HMS is only a module. ILMU is a unique system that management the whole library which is same as the TCMS. TCMS is comprehensive workflow management systems that integrate and manage all key function of work progress. It increases the productivity with real time communication between the front office, administrators, and management. It consist reporting, accounting, financing, examination & grade, etc.

Hostel Module

Hostel management module has features of efficiently and effectively managing the entire residential facility in the institute. It has reducing the staff & paper works and improved workflows. This hostel module will keep the updated records of students, lodging, transfer room and other facilities.

Hostel Management System (HMS) is a system which helps in managing various activities in the hostel. According to Miss Azlinda Binti Alias (Officer Accommodation Office), the previous system used in INTI is called Room Master. The older systems (Room Master) only perform three single functions for the hostel. That is check-out, check-in and booking. It didn’t help the staff very much in the hostel. Many works that also need to do manually by the staff. It required more strength and strain of manual labor needed. For example, the staffs need to go to the finance office to get the list of students who enroll for the semester in order to do the check-in for them. It is because of lacking of data-sharing and availability between finance office and accommodation office. In the previous system, staffs in accommodation office need to record all kind of transactions and processes manually which involves more man power. There are many paper works and duplicate task in data entry. It is difficult to handle and store the data. Besides, there is also difficult to update the data while there is always got students move in and move out every semester. With the help of computerized information system, it can reduce the human errors.

With the new system, it brings many conveniences to the staff. Thus, it has improving their efficiency and productivity in works. As the mention in above, Hostel Management System (HMS) is a sub module of the Total Campus Management System (TCMS). TCMS has improved communication and data-sharing between the departments in a collaborative environment. There is a link between HMS and TCMS which enable the staff in Accommodation office can access the information needed from the finance office. Yet, TCMS also control the access to data and information based on user roles which means that there is a control over information each user can view or edit. Staffs do not need like before do their work manually. Hostel Management System has helped the accommodation office in saving the human resource as compared to the previous system (Room Master). All the edited information or updated information will show in the HMS immediately. HMS has provides the best service to the accommodation office in managing daily workflows.

Through the implementation of Hostel Management System, it has replacing manual system where it able the staff to complete the work more efficient and effectively. The system has helped in managing any problem occurring within the hostel accommodation and avoiding any problem when keying in the detail manually.

Therefore, through the usage of this system, they can easily manage the room details, student records, room vacancy details, mess bill calculation, mess expenditure, allocation of room and hostel attendances. Besides, repetition can be easily avoided. It also has reduced that data redundancy and any inconsistency of data.

The accommodation office uses Hostel Management System to key in all the details of the students who are staying in the hostels. This system is mainly used to do room bookings, check in and check out of the students and also the payment for the accommodation. Reports in regard to the room allocation, room availability, student transfer and evacuation are provided too.

System Functions:

Hostel Management System (HMS) has several functions which enable the staffs from accommodation office such as allocate students to the different hostels, reserve the room for the students, control status of rental payment and edit the details of the students & modify the student records.

Allocating students to the hostels

The officers must check the details in an application form of the students and verify it from database to match the application of students. Therefore, when the students are eligible then they are allocated to the hostel. The officers will also allocate the room according the requirements of the students as there are different types of rooms are available.

Vacating the room

As the students have completed their course In INTI, they will be graduated and vacant their rooms. When the students vacant their room, the officer needs to check whether the room facilities have missing or broken down. If all facilities are completed, accommodation office will return the deposits to the students. Thus, the officers in accommodation office will have to remove the particular student details and records from the student database. This is to ensure there will not be the problem exists when the existing residents’ records coincide with previous residents.

Control status of rental payment

Every student who stays in the hostel has to make a rental payment every semester. The rental payment varies by the types of room available. As the students who need to book the rooms every semester, they need to pass up a form and get the invoice from the accommodation office. The officers need to key in details of the students as well as type of room that the student want, the system will eventually know how much the students has to pay for that particular semester for their chosen room. Lastly, the officer needs to process it and print out the invoice for the students to make their payments at the Finance Office. There is a link between the system of Finance Office and Hostel Management System. Besides, officers are also able to check any outstanding payments which have not been made by the students through the processing of the system.

Editing the details of the student and modifying the students records

As there are new students move into the hostels, they need to register themselves as a residents of the hostels. The officers need to key in the details of the new students who want to move in into the database. Therefore, the officers have to edit the details of the students and modify the student records to ensure the data is updated.

Besides, this system also enable staffs of accommodation office to check whether the student have done their room booking or rental payments, it can also check whether if the students are staying in the hostels or not, and it can retrieve records of where the students have stayed before.

Maintenance

Maintenance of the Hostel Management System (HMS) will only do when the system facing the problem. The systems no need to have a check annually or quarterly. Maintenance always involve system enhancements or corresponding to problems that faced by staffs of accommodation office in the system’s operation. According to the officer of the Accommodation office, Azlinda Binti Alias, she says the system is not facing any serious problem until now.

Regardless to the update, the system will have update when the Hostel Management System (HMS) doesn’t meet the requirement of the Total Campus Management System (TCMS). In this point, Information System Office (INSO) & Information Technology Centre (INTC) which is from the INTI International University departments will handle this update. The staff of the Accommodation office only is the end user of the system. They dun know about the technical problem of the system. The entire problem will pass to INSO & INTC to handle.

Problem that Hostel Management System(HMS) Having

There is a problem that Hostel Management System (HMS) is having. From the interview, we know that when the Total Campus Management System (TCMS) is giving a huge amount of staff is using, HMS will be affected. Example like, when the TCMS is jamming because of many people is using its, HMS can’t send or received the information from the TCMS. The staffs have to wait the TCMS recover only they can do their works.

Future Plan and Recommendation

Future plan of the Accommodation office is to create an E-service for the residents of the hostel. The E-services will provide residents an on-line booking room functions. Residents do not need like before do their room booking manually. But due to some problem they are considering, the panning is still waiting to approve. The problem they are considering have many, one of them is they are considering that now a day resident’s computer skill is very good. They finding a good security for the E-services to provide the system will be hack by the residents.