$how me the money cost benefits of electronic exchange of student transcripts sacrao conference 2015...
TRANSCRIPT
$how Me the Money Cost Benefits of
Electronic Exchange of Student Transcripts
SACRAO Conference 2015
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
Susan Reyes, San Diego State University
Matt Bemis, University of Southern California
Presentation Overview
Electronic Data Exchange Efforts at USC – Big wins and big savings in the last 3+ years
How leveraging EDI data transmission transformed USC’s processing of international degree verification
The big $$$ realized through the implementation of EDI at USC.
The real difference: Enhancing the USC Experience for matriculating students.
Presentation Overview
Electronic Data Exchange Efforts at SDSU – Keeping up the ever increasing number of applicants amid budget cuts the last 5+ years
Leveraging EDI data transformed the transfer admissions processing.
The real difference: Enhancing the Experience for matriculating students.
Building EDI Program at SDSU
• SDSU has been receiving EDI from 3 main feeder districts for more than 10 years
• 4 years ago, with major budget cuts in place, SDSU’s Enrollment Services decided they needed to utilize technology to keep up with the growing number of applicants and students
• 2014 we climbed to over 100 EDI partners
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
Prior to 2011 • Around 50.000 applications for admission• Several days just to get mail open• 8 weeks or more to process college
transcripts during peak time• 15 staff and student workers opening mail and
manually processing or OCRing transcripts• More than 25 evaluators to update SIS and
DARS and verify course matriculation
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
2014• More than 80,000 applications for F2015• More than 110 EDI trading partners• 77% of College Transcripts via EDI)• 4 Full-time staff to support EDI and OCR
processing of Transcripts• 15 evaluators who spend the majority of their
time with the students because the EDI posting rarely requires manual intervention.
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
• Benefits for Staff• No need to manually key in coursework so there
are fewer data errors• Staff deal with exception processing and student
issues instead of handling every transcript• Downside for Staff
• Sometimes feels like all they’re dealing with is problems
• If a data issue is no corrected right away student sees incorrect information and are not always happy when they find out their data was incorrect
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
• Downside for Students• Data is sometimes incorrect so the initial
information may be incorrect if the course data or DARS matching is incorrect
• Student rarely has control over whether the transcript is sent in EDI, paper or electronic PDF format and may be confused as to how to get their transcript to the correct person or processing center in the receiving institution
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
• Benefits for Students• EDI is usually received and posted to the
student’s record within 24 hours of ordering a transcript. Students no longer wait for months to get their matriculation information
• Admission decisions can be made more quickly, although all admissions offers are provisional because they are based upon automated transcript processing and self reported supplemental application information
College Transcript Processing at SDSU
• College Transcripts 2013 – 2014
Year # of EDI Total % EDI2013 18,579 26,329 70.56%2014 22,211 28,605 77.65%
Presentation Overview
Electronic Data Exchange Efforts at USC – Big wins and big savings in the last 3+ years
How leveraging EDI data transmission transformed USC’s processing of international degree verification
The big $$$ realized through the implementation of EDI at USC.
The real difference: Enhancing the USC Experience for matriculating students.
EDI transcripts exchange successes at USC
-- EDI development timeline at USC
Began mapping inbound EDI transactions in late 2009 as part of the EtranscriptCA efforts
Took three weeks to go live in production – found the inbound effort very easy to configure with existing degree audit software application system
Joined the Texas Server Registrant list shortly thereafter and began expanding our trading partner relationships
EDI transcripts exchange successes at USC
What we learned as we broadened our base of EDI trading partners (i.e. Texas Server deliverables): EDI acknowledgement transactions are necessary for
most senders Handling EDI data from district schools Imaging EDI transactions to existing systems (in real
time) Handling prior degree information in EDI transactions Mapping FICE, ACT, and CEEB data reliably Data rendering interface for Advisor use Should have been doing this years ago… and so should
you if you are not actively trading
EDI transcripts exchange successes at USC
Other lessons learned with EDI transcripts exchange:
Handling ‘Unknown’ student transcript transactions Handling unexpected transactions (unknown CEEBs) How to handle EDI data for students not yet admitted Reporting ‘change of data’ instances for administrative
review The importance of weekly reporting of EDI receipt
activity Development and production of outbound USC EDI
transcript transactions – a humbling experience
EDI transcripts exchange successes at USC
Where we were, and how far we have come:
2010 -- 1474 inbound TS130 transactions received 2011 -- 2212 inbound TS130 transactions received 2012 -- 4287 inbound TS130 transactions received 2013 -- 5828 inbound TS130 transactions received 2014 -- 10000+ inbound TS130 transactions received
What really has changed? Hassle free, hands free transfer credit evaluations for every EDI transcript received (almost)
Financial Impact on Operations
Average transaction time per paper transcript processed, including:
Mail routing/delivery to technicians Keying in data, and quality control review Re-keying in data to correct for data entry errors Document management – Routing to image
centers, imaging; and indexing of documents; document destruction management (hard copy and digital copy)
Financial Impact on Operations
20 minutes per transaction, @ 10,000 transcripts per year: 3,300 hours/year in resources were repurposed and moved to other areas
Integrity of transfer data improved dramatically Full automation of transfer credit reporting for EDI
transactions was realized The student experience was enhanced, with
turnaround time updated Transfer Credit reports for electronic transactions was guaranteed within 24 hours of receipt of EDI data.
How EDI Enabled Automation of International Prior degree Verification Services
During the EDI rollout, USC outsourced its processing of credentials evaluation services for international schools.
Worked early in the process with the vendor to discuss the potential of replacing PDF reports with EDI data transmissions
Leveraged the SPEEDE server, and educated the vendor on the use of EDI transaction sets
Since going live in October 2013, more than 2800 credentials have been transmitted through TS130 transaction sets.
Has enabled full automation of data processing and reporting
Two FTEs repurposed as a result of outsourcing/EDI
Contacts
Susan [email protected]
Matt [email protected]
This presentation was brought to you by the
AACRAO SPEEDE Committee