John Carroll University

The challenge

At John Carroll University (JCU), the academic petition process is the single means by which students request and seek review of academic overrides and permissions, putting it at the heart of maintaining and managing student records. With a dated solution at the front end of this critical process, staff was forced to decipher vague or unclear student requests and suffered from poor visibility and reporting.

Instead of creating another niche application to resolve its petitions dilemma, JCU turned to Hyland's OnBase. The opportunity to invest in a single platform that could grow over time to help solve challenges campus-wide, rather than continue to add multiple solutions to a disparate suite of technologies to manage, was a huge differentiator.

The solution

Enhances the student experience to facilitate student success

Prior to implementing OnBase, the Registrar’s Office at JCU relied on manual, low-visibility tasks in its academic petition process. Now, students fill out more detailed petitions in a simple e-form, with drop-down options that identify specific requests — such as overriding a course prerequisite, repeating a course or registering for more than 18 credit hours.

With OnBase, JCU takes advantage of easy-to-configure forms and an automated workflow that cuts manual steps and adds clarity to the process. The solution is flexible, so JCU staff are able to quickly adjust the routing process, even after it kicks off. If a request affects more than one department or requires a second opinion, staff simply add another step so the request routes to all necessary parties. And the best part is, with the academic petition process centralized in the Office of the Registrar, service to students and faculty, as well as the accuracy of the student record, have greatly improved.

“With this solution, we instantly changed how petitions are handled, provided visibility into the process, and as a result are able to move petitions through the system quicker,” said James Kohan, senior project manager at JCU. “This allows students to deal with unexpected issues that might prevent them from continuing on their degree path in a timely manner.”

Provides a foundation to build on

After seeing the flexibility and potential of OnBase in the Registrar’s Office, JCU began efforts to deploy the solution across the institution. In just 10 short months, JCU’s lean team of 1.5 OnBase administrators was able to release nine major solutions across campus. The university now has a backlog of requests from many departments asking to use the solution. They expect to complete a similar number of projects in the next 12 months.

“In the past, John Carroll has struggled with the support challenges of one-off, dated and difficult-to-use workflows. Through the strength of the OnBase platform, we have quickly developed multiple, easy-to-use campus-wide solutions without significantly increasing our support efforts,” said Mike Bestul, chief information officer at JCU.

Enables quick, strategic expansion campus-wide

JCU’s rapid deployment of solutions proves that institutions of any size can harness the power of OnBase to make a large impact across campus. By making a strategic investment in OnBase, JCU was able to find an enterprise solution with unlimited potential for expansion across the entire campus. The university has enabled faculty and staff to work more accurately and efficiently, and can devote more time to better serving students — facilitating improved graduation rates and, ultimately, student success.

“With OnBase, there is no coding or scripting needed for design. It’s all point and click with one-click publishing. This removes a number of steps that used to go into creating forms and lets us get changes live much faster.”

The results

Frees up time and resources: OnBase enables JCU faculty and staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focusing on strategic initiatives to improve the student experience.

Empowers staff to focus on goals: The solutions are strategic uses of technology to ensure excellence in all academic and administrative processes. The implementations align with institutional goals of advancing a culture of data-informed decision-making.

Provides an enterprise platform: JCU now has a central database — giving the university a strong foundation to build on. By replacing a portfolio of niche, dated, custom-code applications, OnBase supports departments across the university and JCU’s goal of nurturing an engaged campus.

Hosts secure solutions in the Hyland Cloud: Implementing solutions in the cloud means that faculty and staff reap the benefits of process improvements without adding campus infrastructure. Now, JCU can invest more in professional development rather than installing software on each user’s computer.

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