New Case Studies Show How Three Rivers Systems Inc.’s Innovative Academic ERP Helps 3 Faith-Based Colleges
St. Louis (PRWEB) December 03, 2013 -- Three Rivers Systems Inc. adds three new case studies this week to its extensive library of client success stories and references. Highlighting the benefits of its flagship academic management solution CAMS® Enterprise, which the company characterizes as “innovative, integrated and intelligent,” the case studies spotlight faith-based colleges in Colorado, Ohio and Texas.
Criswell College’s case study serves as a cautionary tale for higher-education institutions whose processes and procedures may not be in step with their management systems. Though Criswell, a Christian college and divinity school in Old East Dallas offering associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, had successfully used various versions of CAMS since the 1990s, staff turnover and unfilled positions in the information technology department left the system in a less-than optimal state.
When former IT-consultant Bill Watson stepped in as systems manager in 2011, he suspected CAMS was not being used to its fullest potential. “We needed to fix ourselves,” he said. The school did this by forming a CAMS committee with stakeholders from admissions, registration, financial, student life, IT and the bursar’s office.
“Data we had been feeding CAMS needed to be cleaned up. It’s the old ‘garbage in, garbage out’ syndrome,” Watson added. “CAMS gave us a yardstick by which we could measure our processes and procedures — fundamental things like standardizing our administrative vocabulary and data fields,” he said. According to Watson, CAMS Enterprise has become an excellent platform for assessing the institution’s overall health. “Because CAMS is customizable in vital areas like reporting, we are able to measure performance and make adjustments quickly. CAMS is a great software system,” he said.
Interdenominational, nonsectarian 112-year-old God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati offers a wide range of degrees and ministry training including local church ministries; nursing-home ministries; a jail ministry; a prayer station; and others. GBSC’s Christian Service Office manages these programs and is charged with tracking student service hours. Students must also perform two hours a week of community volunteer work.
CAMS Manager George Gardei reasoned that integrating Christian and community service into CAMS Enterprise would make it more convenient for students who could enter reports via the student portal. That done, the system was configured so CSO would be alerted when students made choices or submitted reports requiring approvals, which could be communicated immediately to students via email.
GBSC set up Christian service activities as regular courses each term so CSO could designate global and course-specific parameters for each — for example, required approvals and number of times students can report on the ministries. Christian service add-ons were appended to the student portal as “My Christian Service” and “My Community Service,” making the process easily accessible. The system also displayed individual student reports or all student reports to CSO for statistical information.
Nazarene Bible College is located on a 43-acre campus in scenic Colorado Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. It’s an accredited degree bible college owned and operated under the auspices of the church of the Nazarene, a conservative, evangelical denomination with a Wesleyan, Holiness Theology.
Today, thanks to CAMS Enterprise, NBC is a model of management efficiency. But it wasn’t always this way. Nazarene Bible College Director of Information Services Fred Phillips said the college used to spend three arduous days doing fall registration. “Everyone had to be there — our full IT staff, all the business people, the financial aid personnel, the admissions team, faculty and even the administrative assistants. We would all start first thing in the morning and go until 10 o’clock at night; and our IT staff would be running around, fixing things the whole time.”
Since implementing CAMS Enterprise, however, NBC has to set aside only a day and a half for registration, and it all runs so smoothly that less than half the staff needs to be there. “And the IT department doesn’t have to be there at all. I’m on call the whole time, but my phone just doesn’t ring. It’s astonishing,” Phillips said
CAMS Enterprise seemly runs itself at NBC. “Our IT department spends very little time dealing with CAMS,” Phillips added. “Once the program has been set up, it works flawlessly. Adding and maintaining users is extremely easy, and Three Rivers Systems does almost all of the updates. We spend a little time helping with custom reports and integrating our own user¬-defined routines, but this is all so easy, it is hardly worth mentioning.”
All three case studies are available here.
About CAMS Enterprise
CAMS Enterprise’s innovative, integrated and intelligent technology makes it a fundamentally different academic ERP designed for the modern world. CAMS Enterprise is an easy-to-use and implement, totally integrated, Web-native management system with everything in one place — admissions; student information; financial aid; student services; fiscal management with HR and payroll; fund-raising; alumni relations; document management, learning management, a full suite of portals, and more for managing the entire student life cycle. With an out-of-the-box configuration and self-service customization, CAMS Enterprise removes all barriers to success seen with conventional systems. CAMS’ affordable licensing, off-the-shelf configuration and easy implementation translate into the lowest total cost of ownership of any academic ERP while yielding the quickest and highest ROI.
About Three Rivers Systems Inc.
Three Rivers Systems Inc. is the only privately held, independent, debt-free, one-stop company focused solely on high-quality academic ERP solutions exclusively for higher education. For more than 25 years from its St. Louis headquarters, the company is keenly focused on innovation and service to its worldwide customers. Always innovating, the company invests significant revenues back into product R&D to improve existing products while developing new ones so users always get the exact functionality, industry experience and accurate project management they need. Its business model and products are designed to ensure institutional effectiveness, more-efficient business processes, student success and satisfaction.
Ron Kalb, Three Rivers Systems, Inc., http://www.threeriverssystems.com, +1 (636) 779-1518, [email protected]
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