01 / CIO-as-a-service

Tech consultancy for institutions

Most Indian institutions run hundreds of systems and thousands of users with an IT team built for a much smaller campus. Decisions that shape the next decade, such as which ERP to buy, how to secure student data or how to answer NAAC on infrastructure, end up made in a hurry by whoever is free that week.

Our CIO-as-a-service gives you a senior technology lead who sits with your Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Principal, owns the roadmap and is accountable for it. We work alongside your existing IT staff, not around them, and we leave behind documents, contracts and systems your own team can run.

The problem we solve

The pattern is familiar to any registrar. An ERP was bought five years ago and only the fee module is used; admissions, exams and the library each run separate software that does not share a student ID. Wi-Fi works in the admin block but not in the hostels. Nobody is sure who would report a ransomware attack to CERT-In, or within what time. Vendor contracts renew automatically, with no exit clause and no data-export right. Then the NAAC or NIRF window opens, and the IT cell spends six weeks assembling evidence by hand from systems that should have produced it on demand.

What you have at the end

  • A written, costed NEP 2020 digital roadmap approved by your governing body, with owners and dates for every item
  • One student identifier shared across admissions, ERP, LMS, exams and alumni systems
  • A CERT-In-aligned incident response plan, a named point of contact and a disaster-recovery plan that has been tested, not just written
  • Vendor contracts with clear service levels, data-export rights and exit clauses
  • NAAC Criterion 4 and 6 IT evidence, and NIRF data, produced from live systems instead of rebuilt each cycle
  • An internal IT team that knows what it owns, with documented runbooks for each system

Scope of service

01

NEP 2020 digital roadmap

We assess where your institution stands today against what NEP 2020 expects: multidisciplinary programmes, multiple entry and exit, credit transfer through ABC, blended learning and data-driven governance. The result is a three-year roadmap that sequences projects by dependency and budget, so you are not buying an LMS before the student record that feeds it. Each item has an owner, a cost range and a measurable end state.

Deliverables

  • Current-state assessment of systems, data and skills
  • Three-year roadmap with phasing, budget ranges and owners
  • Board-ready summary for the governing body or academic council
  • Quarterly roadmap review with progress against plan
02

ERP and LMS selection and integration (Samarth, Moodle, custom)

We run a vendor-neutral selection for your ERP and LMS, whether that means adopting the Ministry of Education's Samarth e-governance suite, an open-source LMS such as Moodle, a commercial product or a custom build. We write the requirements, score the options against your real processes and negotiate the contract terms that matter. Then we integrate the chosen system with the student record, fee portal, exam platform and ABC/APAAR so data is entered once.

Deliverables

  • Requirements specification drawn from your actual workflows
  • Scored comparison of shortlisted options, including total cost over five years
  • Integration design with a single student identifier across systems
  • Data migration plan with reconciliation checks
  • Go-live readiness checklist and hypercare plan
03

Campus network, Wi-Fi and smart classrooms

We survey your campus, design the network and Wi-Fi for the number of devices students actually carry, and plan smart classrooms that faculty will use. We specify equipment by capability, not brand, and supervise installation and acceptance testing. Where your existing network can be fixed rather than replaced, we say so.

Deliverables

  • Site survey and Wi-Fi heat-map of academic, hostel and admin areas
  • Network design with segmentation for students, staff, exams and CCTV
  • Smart-classroom specification and faculty adoption plan
  • Acceptance test reports signed off before payment milestones
04

CERT-In cybersecurity audits and DR planning

The CERT-In Directions of 28 April 2022 require cyber incidents to be reported within six hours of being noticed, ICT logs to be kept for 180 days within India, and system clocks to be synchronised to the national time sources. We audit your position against these Directions, close the gaps and build a disaster-recovery plan with defined recovery times. Where a formal audit by a CERT-In empanelled auditor is required, we prepare you for it and coordinate with the auditor; we do not claim empanelment ourselves.

Deliverables

  • Gap assessment against the CERT-In Directions and the DPDP security safeguards
  • Incident response runbook with a named point of contact and a six-hour reporting path
  • Log retention and clock synchronisation set-up
  • Disaster-recovery plan with recovery-time and recovery-point targets
  • Annual tabletop exercise and DR test report
05

IT procurement and vendor governance

We help you buy well and hold vendors to what they promised. That means writing tender and RFP documents, evaluating bids on substance, and inserting the clauses most institutions forget: data residency, data export on exit, uptime credits and security obligations. After award, we track vendor performance and flag renewals before they happen automatically.

Deliverables

  • RFP and tender documents, including GeM-compatible specifications where relevant
  • Bid evaluation reports with scoring rationale
  • Standard contract clauses for data residency, export, exit and security
  • Vendor register with renewal dates and performance reviews
06

IT evidence for NAAC Criteria 4 and 6

NAAC Criterion 4 looks at infrastructure and learning resources, including IT facilities and bandwidth, and Criterion 6 looks at governance, including e-governance in administration, finance, admissions and examinations. We set up your systems so the metrics and supporting documents for these criteria come straight from live data. When DVV queries arrive, the answer is a report, not a search through old files.

Deliverables

  • Mapping of Criterion 4 and 6 IT metrics to source systems
  • Evidence folders that update through the year
  • Draft responses for the IT-related parts of the SSR and AQAR
  • DVV clarification support for IT and e-governance metrics
07

NIRF data pipeline

NIRF asks for faculty, student, financial, research and graduation-outcome data in fixed formats each year, and expects the same data to be published on your own website. We build a pipeline from your HR, admissions, finance, exam and placement systems into the NIRF data formats, with checks that catch inconsistencies before submission. Your numbers then match across NIRF, AISHE and NAAC, which is one of the first things reviewers notice when they do not.

Deliverables

  • Data dictionary mapping each NIRF parameter to its source
  • Automated extracts with validation rules
  • Consistency report across NIRF, AISHE and NAAC figures
  • Website disclosure page in the format NIRF expects

How an engagement runs

  1. 01

    Listen and survey

    Two to three weeks on campus and online with leadership, IT staff, faculty and students. We inventory systems, contracts, data flows and security controls, and we read your last NAAC and NIRF submissions.

  2. 02

    Diagnose and prioritise

    A written current-state report with risks ranked by impact and urgency. Statutory gaps, such as CERT-In reporting or DPDP consent, come first because they carry legal exposure.

  3. 03

    Roadmap and approval

    A costed roadmap presented to your governing body or management. Nothing is bought until the roadmap is approved, and every purchase traces back to an item on it.

  4. 04

    Lead the work

    Our consultant acts as your technology head: chairing vendor reviews, running procurement, supervising implementation and reporting monthly to leadership.

  5. 05

    Hand over or stay on

    When your own team is ready, we hand over with documentation and runbooks. If you prefer an ongoing CIO, we stay on a retained basis. The number of days each month is set in the contract, not on this page.

Who this is for

Regulations covered

Questions, answered

We already have an IT head. Why would we need this?

Most institutional IT heads are stretched across daily operations: networks, labs, help desk and exam-day support. We add the strategic and regulatory layer they rarely have time for, and we work for them as much as for leadership. The aim is to make your IT team stronger, not to replace it.

Are you tied to any ERP or LMS vendor?

No. We recommend what fits your institution, including Samarth or open-source options where they suit you. If we ever propose a product in which we have a commercial interest, we disclose it in writing before the evaluation.

Can you conduct the CERT-In audit itself?

We assess your position against the CERT-In Directions and fix the gaps. Where a formal audit by a CERT-In empanelled auditor is required, for example by a government directive or your own policy, that audit must be done by an empanelled firm. We prepare you for it and work with the auditor.

How long before we see results?

The current-state report arrives within the first month. Statutory items such as the incident reporting path and log retention can usually be fixed in the following weeks. Larger projects such as an ERP change follow the roadmap and typically run across one or two academic years.

Will this guarantee a better NAAC grade or NIRF rank?

No one can honestly promise that. What we can do is make sure your IT and data evidence is complete, consistent and accurate, so your grade or rank reflects what the institution actually does rather than what could be assembled in a hurry.

Book a free compliance and infrastructure audit.

A senior consultant reviews your data, systems and regulatory position with your team and gives you a written gap report. There is no cost and no obligation to buy anything.

A senior consultant reviews your data, systems and regulatory position with your team and gives you a written gap report, at no cost.