transcript processing · unofficial college transcript: provided for students personal records....

TRANSCRIPT

PROCESSING

Henry Ford College

Dearborn, MI

Table of Contents

Team Members 2

Background Information 3

Project Statement 4

Flow Chart: Processing Transcripts 5

Operational Definitions 6

Course Evaluation: Associate Dean Feedback 8

Run Chart: New Course Evaluation (2012-2014) 9

Run Chart: Total Transcripts and Test Scores Evaluated (2013) 10

Institutional Data: Staffing and Transcripts Processed 11

Registration RAIII Duties and Workload 12

Notes from Site Visit to Schoolcraft College Registrar’s Office 13

Cause and Effect (Fishbone) Diagram 14

Improvement Theory and Implementation Plan 15

Electronic Form for Course Evaluation: Rationale 16

Electronic Form: Prototype 17

Recommendations 18

Gantt Charts 20

Steering Committee Feedback 23

Recommendations for Future CPI Teams 24

Acknowledgements 25

Appendix: Perceptive Software 26

2

Team Members

Stacey Buchanan

FT Faculty - Chemistry

Eve Chowdhury

Adjunct Instructor - Computer Information Systems

Jan Jameson

Adjunct Counselor

Kelly Knick

Enrollment Associate III

Jacob Krogol

Web Administrator - IT Services

Joy Locklear

Record Associate III

Team Sponsor

Holly Diamond – Executive Director, Enrollment Services/Registration

3

Background Information

Henry Ford College currently enrolls approximately 26,000 students, with 10,000 new students each

year. Students bring an average of 3.5 transcripts that must be evaluated for transfer credit; 69,900

transcripts were processed last year alone. Each transcript must be scanned, and a staff member in

Registration then enters each course listed on the transcript into HANK. Courses that have

established equivalencies at HFC are analyzed immediately, but if the transcript includes any

courses that have not been previously evaluated, these must be addressed individually. The staff at

registration normally contacts the appropriate Associate Dean, who may then contact relevant

faculty. In the last three years, over 8,000 new courses from accredited institutions were evaluated

for equivalencies. If these requests are not handled promptly, students may wait several weeks (or

even months) to learn if they will receive transfer credit.

The current turnaround time is about two weeks on average. Five years ago, this process could take

as long as eight to twelve weeks. Significant improvements were made with the implementation of

the ImageNow document imaging system, bringing the average time to process to around two

weeks. However, further shortening the turnaround time would provide even better service to our

students, with the potential to impact recruitment and retention. Students may avoid taking a class

they do not need, and may be able to complete degree requirements more quickly.

This CPI team explored the current internal process used to evaluate college transcripts, and was

also able to learn how this is accomplished at another community college in our region (Schoolcraft

College). Additionally, the team gathered data on the number of transcripts processed in regional

institutions and the number of staff who process them. The team also investigated software that

could potentially replace some of the routine aspects of transcript evaluation. Lastly, the team

explored ways to streamline the evaluation of new courses for transfer equivalency.

4

Project Statement

To improve the efficiency of the transcript evaluation process as measured by a

streamlined transfer-in course review procedure, a more comprehensive record

of equivalency decisions, and improved turnaround time.

Flow Chart: Processing Transcripts

Tran

scri

pt

Rec

eive

d

Logged Scanned Linked

Official

If a college isn't built in

HANK-

Create a code for the

school in HANK.

Evaluated (order received)

entered on EXTS screen in

HANK

Save to the student record

Email Sent to Student

Send to Dean for

clarification

Email Response to

registrar

RA III enters to

EXTS

Email Sent to Student

Unofficial Not

Processed

Operational Definitions

Admitted Student: Student who has applied to the College and meets all College admission criteria.

Advanced Placement (AP): A program offered to selected students in area high schools which provides the opportunity to accelerate their educational program by taking one or more subjects which are taught on a college level and which cover material of a college course. The divisions and departments of Henry Ford Community College determine what advanced placement courses will receive college credit at HFCC, as well as the minimum score required.

Applicant: Student who has applied to the College but is not yet admitted.

The College Entrance Examination Board: Gives Advanced Placement Examinations covering advanced work in May of each year. Information regarding these examinations and dates can be obtained through your high school. Students of Henry Ford College who wish to receive Advanced Placement credits must submit an official copy of the Advanced Placement test scores from the College Entrance Examination Board.

College Academic Transcript: Permanent and Complete record of a student’s academic achievements at a place of higher learning – listing the courses and grades attained.

Colleague: Ellucian's name for one of their Student Information System (SIS) software packages. Colleague provides tools for managing HFCC's Student, Financial, and Human Resources systems. Used synonymously with HANK at HFCC.

College: Henry Ford College (HFC)

College-level coursework: Courses at 100-level or above.

Developmental coursework: Courses numbered below 100-level, intended to remediate students to succeed at the college-level.

Direct equivalent credit: Courses taken at another college that match a course offered at HFC. For example, course XXX ###: Intro to Data Processing from State College equals CIS 100: Principles of Data Processing at HFC.

Datatel: The software vendor that originally developed Colleague. Datatel was combined with SunGard in 2012 to form Ellucian. Some HFCC employees will still refer to HANK as Datatel.

eForms: A product from Perceptive Software that provides electronic forms necessary to support its Intelligent Capture product(s), as well as deploying web-based forms.

Ellucian: Vendor for our Student Information System software package (HANK, Colleague). An educational software vendor based in Fairfax, Virginia. The company was formed through the 2012 combination of educational software rivals Datatel, Inc. and SunGard Higher Education.

HANK: HFCC's local branding of the Ellucian (formerly Datatel) Colleague system. It stands for Henry Ford's Automated Network of Knowledge.

Hawkmail: Google based email that is assigned to students at HFC. The official form of communication from the college to students.

ImageNow: Software suite from Perceptive Software that enables employees to organize content from many different sources, including paper documents. Once imported, files can be processed and stored in an easily accessible database.

7

Operational Definitions, cont.

Intelligent Capture: A product from Perceptive Software that uses OCR on scanned documents to process documents and help automate workflows. Dependent on Perceptives' eForms product. There are different 'flavors' of Intelligent Capture; the Processing Transcripts CPI team examined Intelligent Capture for Transcripts.

Accredited college or university: A college or university that has been certified by a third party commission or association as meeting a set of standards. HFC considers colleges or universities to be accredited if they are accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Western Association of Colleges and Schools, the Higher Learning Commission, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Non course equivalent (NCE): Courses taken at another college that do not match courses offered at HFC.

Official College Transcript: Sent by the school directly to Henry Ford College. Can be received by Mail, Fax (as long as it has the sending school’s cover sheet) or Parchment.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR): The conversion of images of written or printed text into computer-encoded and recognized text.

Pending Admission: Not fully admitted to the College; official documentation is still required.

Perceptive Software: Vendor for our enterprise document management system (ImageNow). Develops and sells a number of related add-on products (Intelligent Capture, eForms, etc). Based in Shawnee, Kansas. Acquired by Lexmark International in 2010.

Pre-requisites: Courses that must be completed in order to be eligible to enroll in other courses.

Regionally accredited college or university: Regionally accredited higher education institutions are predominantly academically oriented, non-profit institutions.

Reverse Transfer: A process by which a returning student may transfer credits in to HFC from a four-year college in order to satisfy the requirements of a two-year degree.

Prospective Student: Someone who has inquired about the College.

Transfer credit: College level coursework from regionally accredited colleges and universities with a "C" grade or better will transfer in. Grades and Grade Point Averages (GPA) do not transfer.

Transfer credit posting: Posting transferrable credit to the student's record.

Transfer evaluation: (See Transcript evaluation)

Transcript evaluation: Reviewing the official transcript and posting the transferrable credits to the student’s record. Students are notified via e-mail when the transcript has been evaluated. Transcripts are evaluated in the order they are received.

Turnaround time: The amount of time it takes to evaluate transfer credit from the time the transcript is received in the Registration office until transfer credit is posted on the student record. Students are notified via e-mail when the transcript has been evaluated.

Unofficial College Transcript: Provided for students personal records. Cannot be used to evaluate and post transfer credit. (See Official College Transcript)

WebAdvisor: A web application that allows students, faculty, and staff to access the HANK system for class information, grades, and HR details.

8

Couse Evaluation – Associate Dean Feedback

Associate deans were asked to briefly describe how they handle requests from Registration in identifying

whether an equivalent course is offered at HFC. Five out of six associate deans responded.

Four out of five associate deans will identify the equivalency if they see a clear match to a course offered.

All five associate deans indicate that they solicit additional input from appropriate faculty (e.g., program

directors, chair of the curriculum committee, etc.) when needed.

One associate dean mentioned that having information beyond the transfer course’s description (e.g., a

syllabus) is helpful.

“Here is a fairly brief answer. I receive this email, and I look carefully at the objectives listed on our

course master and compare them to the course description from the originating institution. If it is clear

match or mismatch, then I send that opinion back to Registration. If it is less clear, then I will send it on to

the chair of the curricular committee that is impacted and have that person help me determine what if any

credit can be offered.”

“I forward the course names and short descriptions to the faculty in whose area the course to be credited

falls. They provide feedback, either yea or nay and I send that to the registrar. Having a copy of a course

master/syllabus of the transfer class would ensure the decision is accurate.”

“I forward requests to the lead faculty member for the department, sometimes with a recommendation (if it

is obvious enough) simply to save them some time. In many cases, I really don't know enough to make a

recommendation. They read the course descriptions and reply back, then I forward their response to the

Registrar's Office.”

“We rarely get these types of requests in [in this division]. If we do and they are program specific courses,

we will send those requests to the Program Director for review. If they are generic courses the AD will

approve. Hope this helps.”

“For [this division], I handle [a specific subject area] unless it is a [specialized course], then I will seek out

the appropriate faculty member. (When it is not their specialty, they seek advice from their colleagues.)”

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2012 122 173 169 112 93 160 123 490 35 264 323 178

2013 329 206 455 440 430 625 381 612 165 65 167 113

2014 209 233 140 210 140 235 147 254 75 102 5

New Courses Evaluated By Month For Last Three Years

122

173 169

11293

160

123

490

35

264

323

178

329

206

455440 430

625

381

612

165

65

167

113

209233

140

210

140

235

147

254

75102

5

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

2012 2013 2014

Total Transcripts and Test Scores Evaluated at HFC: 2013

Month Total transcripts/test scores evaluated: 2013

Jan-13 7,200

Feb-13 2,800

Mar-13 3,500

April-13 3,800

May-13 4,500

June-13 5,700

July-13 7,600

Aug-13 9,900

Sep-13 5,600

Oct-13 5,000

Nov-13 5,800

Dec-13 8,500

These numbers can include multiple transcripts for the same student, sometimes the same school, received

multiple times. But the document is still required to be reviewed. Multiple documents may not be recorded in

HANK, and that is the reason the HANK numbers will appear lower.

7,200

2,800

3,500 3,800

4,500

5,700

7,600

9,900

5,600 5,000

5,800

8,500

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 April-13 May-13 June-13 July-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13 Nov-13 Dec-13

TRANSCRIPTS AND TEST SCORES EVALUATED: 2013

11

Transcripts Processed by Institutions: 2013

InstitutionTranscripts

processed: 2013Number of Staff Notes

Delta College 6,000 1 FT FT-full-time

Henry Ford College 69,900 2 PT PT- part-time

Macomb Community College 30,000 4FT staff have other

responsibilties

Schoolcraft College 21,000 1FT has other

responsibilties

UM-Dearborn 6,300 1 FT

Wayne State University 16,000 4 FT, 1 PT, and a Manager

Delta College4%

Henry Ford Community College

47%

Macomb Community College

20%

Schoolcraft College14%

UM-Dearborn4%

Wayne State University

11%

NUMBER OF TRANSCRIPTS PROCESSED 2013

12

List of Job Duties – HFC staff (RAIII) that process transcripts

Transcripts (Collegiate, Military and International) - (2013 = 69,900)

Graduation Audits completed: (2013 = 25,000) (note not all people graduate)

Graduation Applications (including Web Advisor applications) - up to 1000 each semester

Change of Program - receive up to 100 COP's per day (2013 = 8,200)

Commencement - months of intense planning, cannot quantify

Posting of degrees (2013 = 1,800)

Printing of diplomas (2013 = 2,000) (including duplicate diploma requests)

Printing of transcripts with diplomas (2013 = 1,800)

Verification letters verifying degree complete but degree not posted yet or student can't get

transcript due to balance (2013 = 2,100)

Credit for Prior Learning – varies

Duplicate Diploma Request Form – varies

MACRAO Request – varies

MTA Request – varies

Reverse Transfer – varies

Substitution Forms – varies

Test Scores (AP and CLEP) - included in transcript totals

Respond to RAII e-mails in the Registrar mailbox including e-mails to the work account

13

NOTES FROM SCHOOLCRAFT VISIT (site visit 11-19-14)

The team visited the Registrar’s office at Schoolcraft College to see how they process transcripts. The team

met with Sheba Oliver, Graduation Records Coordinator, who processes in-state transcripts. The following

are our notes from the visit, with corrections and details provided by Sheba.

Student body is 11,000 to 13,000.

Schoolcraft processes about 4000 transcripts per year.

1 FT person does transcripts and other duties (such as, front desk coverage, grad audits and

commencement) She will work overtime (Saturdays) as needed.

ECE/WES (international) and military transcripts are handled by the Assistant Registrar, Tracy Miller.

The peak time to receive transcripts is July/August with about 800-1000 being received.

Sheba Oliver processes about 20-30 transcripts per day. During peak times that changes to 30-40

with focus on evaluation of incoming transcripts only.

Currently there were 430 transcripts in the queue to be processed.

They are at 2 to 4 weeks for transcript evaluation processing time.

Total number of transcripts evaluated is reported to the Registrar each month.

Record is kept of all students with over 45 transfer credits. It is not common practice to transfer

more than 45 transfer credits.

They scan transcripts into FEITH imaging system. They look for the student number in ASUM

(Colleague mnemonic) to see if they have applied. Then attach document to student record.

A student transcript is not processed as received if the student has not applied. The paper copy

retained for a year in the Records Office. Occasionally they go through the stack to see if the student

has applied.

They only bring in credits towards the program the student has active, but the scanned document is

part of the student record in case the student changes programs they can go back and see if other

credits would apply to a new program.

Scanned transcripts are retained for 3 years from graduation date or last date of attendance.

Transfer equivalencies are built in mnemonic TCEQ. Students can see equivalencies built on the

student menu in Web Advisor through the Transfer Equivalency Guide link.

They do not have an equivalency guide for out-of-state schools built in to their system.

The mnemonic EXOV is used for course substitutions that complete degree audits. This is used in

graduating students with a clean and complete audit. This mnemonic is not used for other purposes.

It is up to the student to get course descriptions and/or syllabi for courses that they want credit for.

If Sheba still can’t decide on the transfer credit equivalency it goes to the specific department for

review.

The mnemonic EXTS is used to input incoming courses from a transcript. If courses are being

accepted as an exception or if all courses are not applicable, then reasons can be detailed in the

comments field.

14

Cause & Effect (Fishbone) Diagram

15

IMPROVEMENT

THEORY

AND

IMPLEMENTATION

PLAN

16

Proposed Electronic Form for Course Evaluation

A transcript consisting entirely of courses with previously-established equivalencies can potentially be scanned, processed, and entered into HANK within 20 minutes. When a transcript includes courses that have never been evaluated by HFC it is much less straight-forward. When a new course appears, the Records Associate will locate a course description or master for that course from the catalog year it was taken by the student. Often, there is a direct and obvious match with a course offered at HFC and it is granted equivalency in HANK by the Records Associate. However, sometimes the subject matter is more esoteric or opaque to someone outside the field, such as courses in Science, Math or Technology. When such a course is on a transcript with no prior equivalency, it is submitted to the corresponding department's Associate Dean for review via email. After some time, the Records Associate will receive an email reply with the credit to be granted. Gathering data for the transcript evaluation process as a whole has been a challenge, but with email it is somewhere between prohibitively time-consuming or nigh impossible to analyze. While email does provide a virtual paper trail, it is scattered amongst the hundreds of messages a person might receive or send in a day. In addition to this absence of useful data, we have no record of the rationale given for equivalencies granted. HANK has no “notes” field for this information, and since a single course transferred in might be broken up into several pieces at HFC depending on the number of credits granted at HFC, the length of the original institution's semesters (or quarters, or trimesters), and the degree of correlation with HFC's curriculum the reasoning is not always so clear. The Processing Transcripts CPI Team proposes the creation of an electronic form for the review of incoming courses, engrafted into the Curriculum website at https://courses.hfcc.edu, and serving as a repository for credit granted for newly-transferred courses and the rationale for the decision. This form would capture:

The student's name and HANK ID number, if a currently admitted student, the college's name and code, and the course transferred in, its original credit hours and link to its applicable course description

(or attached/entered if unavailable on the college's website) This form would be stored in the system and a notification would be sent to the corresponding Associate Dean (or Program Coordinator, if that is deemed feasible). Once notified, the AD, PC or other contact would be able to enter:

Whether the course is eligible for any credit, if it's eligible for a one-to-one transfer, and if so, the corresponding course and master already stored in the curriculum site, or, if it's not eligible for a one-to-one transfer, the type and amount of credit granted, and the rationale for any decision made. Once the form is complete (and marked "Published" in Curriculum website parlance), the Records Associate would receive a notification detailing the credit to be granted. These completed forms would be stored indefinitely, available for review at any time.

https://courses.hfcc.edu/

17

Transfer-In Course Review Form (Prototype)

18

Recommendations

Ideas for improvement are as follows:

1) Streamline course equivalency evaluation via an electronic form sent directly to

department chairs and the associate dean

(see the two preceding pages)

2) Establish a "no credit transfer" pseudocourse in HANK to identify transferred courses that

have no HFC equivalent

We currently have no way of marking a transferred course in HANK worth no credit at HFC. Because

this appears the same in HANK as a course that has never been evaluated, it is again submitted for

review, duplicating effort and wasting time of multiple offices better spent carrying out other duties.

By working with the Registrar to implement a code in HANK to signify that a course has been

evaluated as being worth no credit at HFC, we could prevent this waste of effort, and provide more

efficient service to students.

3) Provide two status updates for the student in WebAdvisor's My Documents screen: when

the transcript has been received, and when it has been processed.

Financial Aid and Admissions both utilize the My Documents screen in WebAdvisor (via CRI) to

notify students when important documents have been received and processed. It is proposed that a

similar practice be adopted for college transcripts to provide the information to students who would

be interested, without inviting unnecessary calls and emails from students who otherwise wouldn't.

4) Re-establish previously filled part time RAIII position

HFC hires one substitute or Entech employee to only process official transcripts during peak times of

the year. The college pays Entech approximately $30 per hour. The Entech employee is given three

days of training before they are allowed to enter transfer credit on their own. The full-time RAIIIs

review the transcripts’ accuracy and need to be available to answer the questions the temporary

employee will have. The department would not expect the employee to sit on their own and enter

transfer credit without questions.

At one time, the Registrar's office had three RAIII positions on the team that performs the duties

listed in this document - two full-time and one part-time. When the part-time staff member left the

college, the position was not backfilled; rather, the funds were used to promote an RAII. That

promoted staff member proceeded to leave the college as well. We are not recommending the

creation of a new position, but instead the reinstatement of a role that was previously filled. Re-

establishing this position would decrease the processing times for transcripts and improve student

service.

19

5) Work with other areas on campus to reallocate other duties currently performed by

Registration & Records

A number of roles were previously held by the Counseling office before they were transferred to the

Registration office, such as processing change of program forms. The team recommends, with the

cooperation of other departments, the reallocation of some of those duties to help improve

turnaround time and thus improve student service.

Activity Parties Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Develop online form

Develop form specifications Registration, ITS

Build form into curriculum site ITS

Initial training and testing

Registration,

ITS, Assoc.

Deans

Implement form, collecting data

for initial review Registration

Analyze, review and revise form

for peak registration Registration, ITS

Monitor form with revisions during

peak registration Registration

Analyze, review and revise for the

future Registration, ITS


Establish "no credit transfer"

pseudocourse in HANK

Establish and program a subject

prefix and course number Registration

Revaluate existing

communications sent to students

upon transcript processing,

accounting for new zero-credit

courses Registration

Test codes to ensure they function

as expected Registration

Train Welcome Center staff on the

purpose and meaning of new

psuedocourses Registration

21


Implement Webadvisor status

updates

Work with ITS and subject matter

experts to modify existing CRI

codes to account for "pending"

status

Registration,

ITS, Enrollment

Services

Test codes to ensure they function

as expected

Train Welcome Center staff on the

purpose and meanings of the new

status updates


Re-establish part-time RAIII

position

Update job description Registration

Open position for application

Test and vet candidates

Interview candidates

Offer position and determine start

date

Provide training and mentoring

22


Reallocate certain Registration

duties to other areas on campus

Assess workload of current

Registration staff Registration

Identify duties to be reallocated

Meet with departments for

possible task reallocation

Work with cooperating

departments to train staff & plan

Evaluate reallocation of duties

Steering Committee Feedback

Team Name: Transcript Processing

Date: Fall 2014 Sponsor: Holly Diamond

Idea for Improvement Support

1) Streamline course equivalency evaluation via an electronic form sent directly to department chairs and the associate dean

_______

2) Establish a "no credit transfer" pseudocourse in HANK to identify transferred courses that have no HFC equivalent

_______

3) Provide two status updates for the student in WebAdvisor's My Documents screen: when the transcript has been received, and when it has been processed

_______

4) Re-establish previously filled part time RAIII position

_______

5) Work with other areas on campus to reallocate other duties currently performed by Registration & Records

_______

Team Feedback Meeting – Date: ______________________

Sponsor: ______________________ Leader: _____________________

24

Recommendations for Future CPI Teams

1) Improve accuracy of HFC’s transfer-in equivalency information online (e.g., MCC is listed three ways)

2) Explore when Hawkmail is assigned to new students (i.e., at what stage in the process of attending the college – students can miss information about bills that are due, etc.)

3) Explore feasibility and return on investment for ImageNow and eForms for Financial Aid

25

Acknowledgements

A big thank you to the following:

Henry Ford College

o ITS: Nancy Meyers and Bryan Johnson

o Associate Deans: Jennifer Ernst, Paul Fisher, Janice Gilliland,

Randy Knight, and Susan Shunkwiler

Schoolcraft College

o Sheba Oliver, Graduation Records Coordinator

o Tracy Miller, Asst. Registrar

Perceptive Software

o Andy Dierks, Sales Representative

26

APPENDIX - Perceptive Software – Intelligent Capture for Transcripts

The team investigated Perceptive's Intelligent Capture for Transcripts product, a system that helps

automate the processing of transcripts scanned into the college's Image Now document imaging

system from the same vendor. The team participated in a number of calls with Perceptive, as well as

a live demonstration of the system. Nancy Meyers, imaging administrator from ITS was invited as

our resident expert.

Perceptive bills the software as being able to "decrease data entry time, eliminate human error, and

provide staff with more time to focus on activities of value." It's claimed that a process that might take

15 minutes manually may be shortened to 30 seconds, during which a staff member would manually

validate the identified equivalencies.

The process is as follows:

1. A college transcript is added in to ImageNow and entered into the Intelligent Capture workflow

2. Intelligent Capture performs OCR on the text in the document, using contextual awareness to

identify information such as the institution's name, student's name, courses and credits included in

the document, etc.

3. Because of the system's error rate (currently at around 10-15%) manual verification of the

scanned text is required before proceeding.

4. Once the OCR is verified by a human the information is used to populate a canned eForm* - an

electronic document used by Intelligent Capture to eventually push the data to HANK. *The form

includes fields for institution and student names, courses and any equivalencies previously

defined in HANK

5. A human must verify this information. At this point, any courses without prior equivalencies must

be manually evaluated and entered into the eForm.

6. The student's transfer credit is pushed to HANK.

The price estimate provided by Perceptive Software was in the ballpark of $200,000.

There are different "flavors" of Intelligent Capture: There are the Intelligent Capture and eForms

platforms themselves, which provide a framework for OCR and information collection systems, and

there are various solution-specific suites, such as Intelligent Capture for Transcripts, Intelligent

Capture for Accounts Receivable, and so on.

27

Perceptive Software – Intelligent Capture for Transcripts, cont.

Through our communication with Perceptive, it was difficult to identify clear lines between the

concepts of the Intelligent Capture framework and the Intelligent Capture for [Process] products. It is

the team's understanding that an institution first buys into the Intelligent Capture system, and then

purchases the process-specific systems (for Transcripts, Accounts Receivable, etc.) - not too

dissimilar to Colleague modules purchased from Ellucian. Presumably, the first purchase would

involve the highest investment.

With this understanding, the team could not find a positive return on investment with Intelligent

Capture for Transcripts as the first implementation.

PROS

Even with the multiple verification steps, the

software would decrease some of the

manual data entry.

The college currently uses Image Now for

document imaging, which is also produced

by Perceptive Software.

The initial investment into the Intelligent

Capture system could pave the way for

applications in other HFC departments

(e.g., Financial Aid, Financial Services,

Human Resources, etc.)

CONS

Upfront cost around $175,000-200,000

At least one new ITS employee would be

needed to support the system.

The software still requires a significant

amount of manual data entry, which would

likely require more time than the advertised

30 seconds.

No canned solution doesn't require some

degree of customization or consultation.

Customization could further decrease the

need for manual entry, but would result in

additional cost.

Perhaps most importantly, our processing time is already better than average, even considering the

volume of transcripts received and processed by HFC. This solution does nothing to address the

weakest link in the chain - the review process for transferred courses with no prior equivalencies.