The traditional approach to managing student, faculty, and constituent information through technology often starts with a college or university tackling one student, faculty, or constituent information problem at a time. A problem is identified, and then a technology solution is acquired and implemented to solve that individual problem. Over the years and as issues come up, additional technology solutions are implemented. Eventually, colleges and universities are left to manage multiple, dissimilar systems, causing redundancy, maintenance issues, inefficiencies, higher costs, and ultimately unmet expectations. 

Many higher education software vendors, especially those classified as Academic ERPs, created their products the same way.  Rather than having the foresight to build a truly all-encompassing solution from the ground up using a standardized technology, they tacked on registration, application, course management, financial aid, faculty, and development modules and portals to their existing Student Information System (SIS) to meet market demands and to give the impression that they were all-encompassing. The end result can best be explained by the age old saying, “it’s like fitting a square peg into a round hole”. Modules and portals written in different technologies, and at different times, created a non-integrated and inefficient environment.

Amir Tajkarimi knew there was a better way, and in 1985, founded Three Rivers Systems, Inc. His business model then was straight forward and is still the driving force behind the company today. The foundation of that model was to be an Academic ERP partner, not a vendor, that delivers an all-encompassing, scalable, and penalty free solutions and services to higher education institutions one at a time.

"I didn’t want to penalize our customers for being different, or for having ambitions to grow.  The best way I knew how to do that was to develop a business model that gave back and solutions and services that streamlined one’s entire campus, no matter their size or predicted size. A good example of not wanting to penalize our customers would be our annual maintenance fees.  Rather than increasing fees every year, which is the industry standard, I wanted to create a predictable cost of ownership.  It made sense and I did just that.  Another example would be added functionality.  When new functionality is requested by one of our clients, we make it happen and then share that functionality with all of our customers at no cost.  The end result is a system created out of collaboration – a solution for higher education by higher education."

      -Amir Tajkarimi, President and Founder, Three Rivers Systems, Inc.

Amir’s business model was focused on eliminating any boundaries to institutions living out their dreams and resulted in the creation of CAMS. CAMS stands for Comprehensive Academic Management System and is an Academic ERP that was built from the ground up as one seamless solution.

Today Three Rivers Systems is on its third version of CAMS, CAMS Enterprise™. It is an all web-based, integrated and feature rich Academic ERP that is high in functionality, built with 100% Microsoft technologies, and is easy to manage and use. CAMS Enterprise™ addresses the needs of staff, faculty, students, executives, constituents and the public, by streamlining daily activities, reducing costs and increasing productivity. Three Rivers Systems' technologies do this by automating one’s entire campus, delivering self-service portals to students and faculty with integrated course management, and supporting one’s fiscal operations, all through a single vendor.

Additionally, CAMS Enterprise™ provides:

• A complete student information system to handle traditional & non-traditional students
• Fiscal management with HR/Payroll
• Document management for paperless operation
• Financial aid
• A suite of self-service portals for admissions, students, faculty, and alumni & friends
• Fully integrated course management
• Robust degree audit tools
• Full-featured development and alumni relations
• Easy to use point-and-click reporting