The Orchid College of Engineering and Technology (TOCET) at Solapur, Maharashtra has completely migrated its email services and process management on web-based (SaaS) technologies.

Using Google Apps in many unique ways, TOCET is providing right from Intranet collaboration portals to online student assessments. The implementation has attracted a lot of attention from neighboring colleges.

"We can''t thank Google enough for this wonderful service. It has allowed us to focus on delivering quality education to our students" said Mr. Nadagouda, a board member of college.

The college is also using Zoho for Inventory, student, Library and Lab management. Mr. Nadagouda said that SaaS based services have decreased their overheads dramatically.

"The No.1 reason we have shifted to web-based technologies is because there is zero maintenance. Due to constant power outages in this area, it was difficult to maintain services with high up-time." he said.

To combat issues with power cuts and problems with lab management, the college has deployed terminals. Mr. Nadagouda said, "We have no computers in the campus. Using N-Computing terminals instead of regular PC's, the labs are powered with four IBM servers with windows server 2003. Equipped with virtual machines, these four servers run the entire campus of the college"

The entire campus is Wi-fi enabled and is secured by SonicWall UTM device. A Unified Threat Management (UTM) refers to a comprehensive security product that includes protection against multiple threats.

"We are still making the transition. We feel the immense need to constantly train our staff and students in many areas." said Mr.Patil, Head of IT. 

The technology has been designed and implemented by Orchidseven Infosec, a Mumbai based IT security certification and consulting company.

Mr.Rajshekhar Murthy, CEO of Orchidseven Infosec said "SaaS will enable a lof of organizations to streamline their business needs in an affordable manner. Schools, Colleges and Universities can take the maximum advantage. The collaboration tools will empower students and teachers to take education at next level."

"Though the service is free from Google, we have outsourced the entire implementation, training and management to Orchidseven Infosec. We also have a dedicated technical expert from their company deployed at our campus for round the clock support. Their technology expertise and experience is allowing us to focus on our vision and mission effectively", said Mr.Nadagouda.

Mr. Patil added that it was a big challenge to shift from traditional practices. "It was difficult to convince the management that the data would be safe online"

He said, "The AICTE team was highly impressed with the technology setup. Though we were initially worried if terminals, virtual machines or web-based services would be accepted in audit; we feel it became one of the primary reasons for approval and recognition from them!"

Just in its first year, the college