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3 Things to Look for in an eTranscript Platform: Start With Convenience

Parchment Staff  •  Aug 23, 2017  •  Blog

When you’re evaluating how to offer your student transcripts electronically, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the features and functions that should be included in a college transcript software solution. The truth is, of the major eTranscript solution providers, everyone is offering pretty similar solutions. As with any competitive situation, one vendor’s new feature is soon replicated by the others.

So how do you choose? What are the criteria that are harder to replicate? It basically comes down to the organization’s philosophy and approach to credentials. To help you in your research, this is the first in a three part series on the three categories that we recommend you evaluate as part of any student transcript management system selection.

First: Convenience That Goes Beyond Reducing Time Spent Processing Orders

The primary motivator in moving to an electronic (or digital) student transcript processing system is convenience. Making it simple for you and for your students. No one would adopt this technology if it didn’t make lives easier. Which it definitely does! Our members uniformly tell us that after adopting Parchment, they have seen the time spent on processing and following up on transcript orders drop by 90% or more! This is true for any of the systems you could select.

But here’s where convenience starts to get differentiated:

Convenient Ordering For Anyone

Having one place to order transcripts, another to request replacement diplomas, and a third for enrollment/graduation verifications leads to errors and confusion for your students. Parchment believes that no matter who needs to order, there should be a single point to order and track all of your academic records. As a student moves from high school to community/4-year college, to professional certification programs, they will have one place where they can collect their achievements — from any of these institutions — and order official copies, share with employers, or post on their social profiles like LinkedIn. Convenient ordering isn’t restricted to the institution they happen to be currently affiliated with.  

They would be able to order any and all records that are available to them, choose to send them electronically or in print and get tracking at every step of the way.  

Not only can students and alumni order, but third parties including admissions offices, scholarship boards and parents can all conveniently order transcripts or verifications on behalf of the student. Learn more about how to manage student and third party ordering.

Convenient Fulfilling Of Any Student Record

Just as having a central place to order any record type, it’s vital that it’s very convenient to receive and process incoming orders from students, alumni and third parties. By streamlining the way your office receives requests for transcripts, replacement diplomas, verifications, etc into a single channel it will make it easier to manage staff responsibilities, generate comprehensive reports, and collect fees securely. With simple integration and automation options, processing requests can be done by uploading the PDF record, retrieving and sending with or without administrator review, or print and mail/pick up. Parchment has flexible Connectors to integrate directly with Banner, PeopleSoft, CampusVue, Colleague and other major Student Information Systems that will honor the customizations to your workflows. And implementation is fast – within 3-4 weeks! (Read the case study)
Going digital has brought ease and convenience to almost every other industry. But, it’s not the only thing that you should factor in as you’re evaluating your eTranscript options.  

Stay tuned for our next category: Doing More. Your Credential Management Platform Should Give You Superpowers.

There’s always more to learn.

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Admissions Enrollment Advisor looking at student transcripts