1. Monday July 10th, 2017 Room: Bayside A 3:15 - 4:15pm
Tools to Successfully Implement Electronic Transcript Exchange ( Session Id 6634 )
Monday July 10th, Room: Bayside A :15 - 4:15pm

2. Agenda Options to Consider Defining Strategy ROI Getting Started
Security and Ferpa Compliance
Checklists and Resources
Q & A
Options to Consider - Monterey
Strategy - Monterey
Cost Factors – Monterey
Getting started – Doug
Security & Ferpa Compliance - Doug
Checklists & Resources - Doug
Q & A – Monterey / Doug

3. Top Reasons to Be Here! I’m here because…
I want to enhance my edx strategy and impress my boss!
I want to automate my process and save time and money!
I want to attend more conferences after impressing my boss with the money I saved the University!
I want to ease the administrative burden on my staff and students!
I want to increase data integrity and student satisfaction eliminating those pesky complaints and escalated issues!
I want to reduce institutional risk associated with manual work and redundant process steps!
I want to provide faster admission and transfer credit decisions so students can start class and start in the right class!
I want to avoid those pesky paper cuts associated with the paper handling!

4. Decisions: EDI, XML or PDF???
EDX Adoption FAST?
SECURE?
FREE?
METHOD? AACRAO Committee for Standardization of Postsecondary Education Electronic Data Exchange (SPEEDE) gets this questions quite often
Adoption has been steadily increasing especially in the past few years, there are many vendor solutions and choices
define your institution strategy to identify your best fit
EDI is going to be around for some time to come there are lots of potential partners and you get the data for automation
XML also gives you the data but is a newer technology solution in the education records realm so you may have less potential for partners out of the gate
PDF is an easy implementation, most can use it so you have partner potential but you do not get data to do automation without other extraction tools like OCR.

5. EDX Value Proposition Electronic Commerce is the way we do business
Efficiency for students and institutions
Accuracy for student academic record and transfer credit evaluation
Security in electronic exchange outweighs all other benefits combined
Data for mining, without the data entry
Electronic commerce can also be used to enable processes at institutions providing valuable services to students and between trading partners. Banks use electronic funds transfers to save their customers time and secure their business transactions.
Efficiency - saving time (weeks to hours), removing non value added process steps (printing, keying) = staffing efficiencies
Accuracy - lower risk of human error for data entry and evaluation decisions.
Security - Electronic exchange is the most secure method of sending and receiving academic records. The methodology is ferpa compliant and to date has had no breaches.
To summarize the value of electronic exchange:
Faster transfer of student records
Timely and appropriate placement into educational programs
Increased reliability & consistency interpreting records
Increased security over other exchange methods
Reduced direct and indirect costs
Promotion of greater national compatibility
TRANSITION…So you know electronic exchange is valuable but how do you make it work for your institution?

6. Defining Your Strategy: Homework
Consider Pain Points
Research State Initiatives & Funding Opportunities
Identify Best Practices
Districts with eNetworks Between HS and College
Institutions Using the Newest Technology
Analyze Vendor Distribution
Determine Future Needs
Automate Import of Data
Automation of Evaluations
Enable Self Service
PAIN POINTS – budget, do more with less, transfer students,
STATE INITIATIVES – Some states have initiatives and even mandates that can be leveraged to ramp up your exchange process and partnerships quickly.
DISTRICTS – Some districts, states or institutions have some very efficient processes. Look for those best in class processes.
VENDOR – Vendors can be regionalized in some cases. Who do your feeders use?
FUTURE NEEDS – Are you going to try and implement a full lifecycle of EDX out of the gate or are you ok with a phased approach. What IT resources or expertise will be needed. Develop a project plan with a flexible approach in case your preferred plan is not able to be attained. Be ok with baby steps.

7. Defining Your Strategy: Building Effective Partnerships
Relationship exist with your students, vendors, employees and other institutions.
All these relationships impact your customer service and processes.
Before you can build successful partnerships you need to be able to build healthy productive relationships.
Components:
PROACTIVE OUTREACH: Make the effort to research and seek to understand issue that can become problems and resolve them before they become escalated.
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL: Relationships require effort and they serve a purpose for both parties. Remember to provide what they need from you not just what you need from them. It is about flexibility and win win solutions.
TRANSPARENCY: Be real, state your needs clearly, admit shortcomings and mistakes. This will foster trust and collaboration in the long run.
PERSONAL: Make relationships meaningful by making it personal where feasible. Keep notes on preferred methods of communication, best times to contact, names of who is responsible for what. Subtle nuisances about the way you communicate and how much you personalize it can increase the effectiveness of the partnership. When possible have face to face or phone conversations.

8. ROI: Benefit Analysis Sending Requesting & Receiving
Paper generally at least twice as costly as electronic
Staffing efficiency is proportionate to % sent electronically
Increased security
Requesting & Receiving
Staffing efficiency is proportionate to % requested and received electronically and level of data integration
Cycle time drastically reduced
General Expectations
25-35% savings for sending
65-75% savings for receiving (impacted by amount of automation upon receipt)
General ROI Expectation vary greatly by institution based on process and volume

9. ROI: Cost Factors Computer hardware / software
ELECTRONIC COSTS
PAPER COSTS
Computer hardware / software
Technical expertise with programming & networking
Printer / toner
Functional expertise with mapping data
School seal
Staff training
Stuffing / sorting / collating / data entry
Altered business process
Fraud prevention efforts / security paper
Trading partners (# can effect ROI)
Mailing / postage
Printer / paper if you are not fully automated
Cost of slower service (rework or student changes mind)
Format conversion (PDF, EDI, XML)?
Vendor fees if outsourced
Import (imaging, SIS, Degree Audit)
Staff inefficiencies higher FTE ratio
Relationship building (staff position)
Increased errors due to manual handling
Vendor costs (if applicable)
Increased risk of compliance breech PII
Cost factors to consider when calculating your ROI. Costs will vary based on internally developed processes vs. vendor process as well as total volume and number of trading partners. These are just some generic considerations to keep in mind. Some may be more or less relevant for your plan.

10. Getting Started: Your Project Charter
Elements of your
Project Plan
Elements of your Implementation
Visibility / Sponsorship
Problem Statement
ROI
Milestones
Quick Hits
Medium Term Goals
Long Term Goals
Tactical vs. Strategic Implementation
Phased Approach
Your Environment vs. Industry
How will you measure success
PROJECT PLAN: Champion your project, build awareness and understanding, find an executive sponsor and a good project team
Problem statement: What are the unique needs of your institution…do you want to improve service? decrease cycle time? maximize resources? … state the problem to be solved clearly.
Quick Hits: obvious improvements, easy, low/no tech, example: accept PDFs
Med & Long Term Goals: specifically stated yet flexible. Keep a laser focus on the overall goal.
Tactical vs. Strategic: tactical to fix specific issue, enables experience, strategy may come naturally later, phased approach is a way to incorporate tactical with strategy (lower dollars and resource drain) (brief discussion of UOP / OUAC implementation)
Your environment vs. industry: trend might be to convert to XML but maybe your feeders are doing EDI. Regional and state initiatives are key to help with decisions. Mandates, particular vendor bids, grants, innovative movements.

11. Getting Started: Questions to Ask Service Providers
What processes do they support? (ordering, sending, receiving, reporting)
What flexibility can they offer for various methods of transcript exchange (PDF, EDI, XML)?
Do they use a proprietary format or the PESC Standard?
Do they send their transactions through the SPEEDE Server or a private network?
Are you required to pay any transaction fees as a sender/receiver? Where do the fees go - to the vendor or the institution?
Are there maintenance or licensing fees and what is the frequency?
Are you required to sign a contract? Do they guarantee service levels?
Make a list of questions that is important to you plan.
Are you doing EDI homegrown?
Does your vendor work with other vendors?
Set up conference calls, ask for references, call the references.
Normally it is best to not compromise your plan but keep an open mind.
Consider supporting various methods of exchange to optimize partners and impact.

12. Getting Started: Questions to Ask Service Providers
What security audits has the service provider been through?
Is the solution in production or in development?
What is your implementation timeline?
How many trading partners can you realize (what are their in network institutions)?
Which institutions specifically are active senders, receivers, or both?
Will their member institutions and process fit your operating process and needs?
Can you get several institution contact names for references (senders and receivers).

13. Getting Started: Trading Partner Agreement Tips
Why
Include
Information provides a valuable starting point to document relationships & guidelines
Provides a common set of expectations prior to full implementation
Communication details for establishing connectivity
An agreement of what is considered official
Testing requirements
Financial agreements
Functions or transactions that are required/optional
Data Clarifications
Why
Not a legal document just an informational guideline.
Include
Communications details for establishing connectivity or for transmission of transactions.
Define what a trusted relationship means to each partner (legitimate educational interest)
Determine what is considered official (test vs live transcripts)
Data Clarifications that supplement the specifications in the Implementation Guide
Include mapping issues specific to the trading partners involved
Institutional Code Qualifier (for example FICE Code, NCES or IPEDS)
ISA Qualifier (routing info/transmission header for the package)
N1 Qualifier (info regarding name and location of sending institution)
So what’s next? You have your trading partners and agreements next you will test the process between your institutions.

14. Security
Greater security with electronic transcripts will ensure smooth sailing for your institution. To date there has been no known issues with transcripts sent via electronic methods having compromised in relation to FERPA.

15. Paper System Issues and Pain Points
Security Features
Possible Problems
Security paper
Color background/foreground
Formatting
Watermarks
University Seal
Signatures (hand-written, stamps,
pre-printed)
Security Envelopes
Federal Postal System
Color Printers
Desktop Publishing software
Wrong seal?
Digital Scanners
Old–fashioned steam iron
“Black-Hole”

16. Electronic Acknowledgements
Notifies sender of delivery
EDI: TS997, TS131, TS147
XML: Functional Acknowledgement, Transcript Acknowledgment, Request Response
Implies recipient has processed transcript
Yes and No
Alerts sender if document sent by someone not authorized
Careful if you share code/mappings ;-)
Provides checks on data items to assure complete transmission
Convenient - can be programmed into automated system
Allows for an open system
Another good service to the student
Point about sharing code/mappings – heard of 2 schools who shared TS131 mapping, and didn’t change hard-coded Trading Partner ID

17. FERPA Compliance
FERPA Regulations support electronic exchange of transcripts under the following conditions ...
FERPA regulations do not prohibit the use of electronic methods of exchange
The business process really determines if exchanging a request electronically is appropriate
These transactions are compliant as long as they are initiated from a trusted source
Protect your students and institution by having them sign the consent/release form to authorize a request
FERPA regulations do not prohibit the use of electronic requests and receipt of transcripts for those with a legitimate educational interest in the student
Document your business process clearly and ensure you are comfortable with your trading partners practices this will make them a trusted source
Involve the student and obtain consent to request their electronic transcript.

18. EDX Research Checklist
Electronic Communications
VAN (value-added network)
Internet (ftp, , http, web service)
Vendor fees
Operational Integration
Mapping EDI or XML into existing business processes & systems
PDF data “extraction”
Content management & business rules
Multiple standards (X12 EDI,
PESC XML, proprietary)
Versions
Audit / Reporting
Volume
Successful and unsuccessful transmissions
User Interface / Access
Tools for users to monitor data
Interface for users to review and process transcripts
Sending and/or receiving transcripts and related documents

19. Pre-work Research Checklist
Learn what vendor-delivered software tools and programs are available
Build on experience of others (networking from conferences like this one!)
Identify experience / knowledge of existing staff
Identify cost share opportunities
Partner institutions
Other groups at your own institution (Records, Admissions, Fin Aid)
State/Regional Initiatives (mandates or grants)

20. ROI Analysis Checklist Identify one time vs. recurring costs
Learning curve
Mapping
Trading partner relationships
Integration
Recurring
Software license fees
Standards upgrades
Maintenance contracts
Staffing

21. Resources
EDI & XML Technical Resources (IG’s, RIPS)
committee/technical-resources
AACRAO SPEEDE Committee Info (members & links to resources)
committee
SPEEDE
SPEEDE Server Registrant Report, Sender and Receiver Reports

22. Resources http://www4.aacrao.org/publications/catalog.php?item=0123
EDX Primer publication & other AACRAO Technical publications
NSC SPEEDE Server Documentation, FAQ’s & Software
SPEEDE Google Group for Q&A in the SPEEDE Community
P20W Education Standards Council ( electronic exchange community, workgroups, schemas and implementation guides )

23. SPEEDE – A Professional Development Committee of AACRAO American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

24. This presentation was brought to you by the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee
Contacts
Doug Holmes
Monterey Sims
This presentation was brought to you by the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee