Abstract

Purpose: To study the alumni network and its features of the top ten ranking universities in NIRF-2019 and based on it to design and develop a custom social network for management of alumni of a department or university which are span across the Globe. Methodology: Top ten universities in the NIRF-2019 ranking were thoroughly studied to know the basic features they provide in their alumni site and later on a suitable custom social networking platform were selected to host the alumni network of a university in India that has those basic features in some form. Findings: There are a wide varieties of software available to manage the alumni data, some of which are directly marketed as alumni management software and easy to understand by all kind of people whereas some others are marketed as custom social networking platform or under other terminologies and sometimes even have more usable features than that of software specifically categorized as alumni management software. Research Limitation: The study only covers the top ten NIRF-2019 ranking universities to find out the basic features of an alumni site. However, there may be some lower ranking institutes that even can have more usable features in their alumni site. Practical Implication: The findings of the research can be useful in tracing the basic features of an alumni site and identification of different kinds of software to host such alumni site. Originality: This study is expected to help the people responsible for the design and development of the alumni site and in fine tuning their software to meet the need of their institute and alumni. Paper Type: Descriptive.