Customer PortalChallenge
Assumption High School came to the conclusion that they were done handing out 13 registration forms to each of their students, then turning around and manually typing up each and every form, every single year. Not only was it a pain for parents to fill out the same redundant information each year, but it would also consume too much of the schools time, roughly 113 hours a year just to manually enter the information from the 5,889 forms collected into their computer system. After Assumption hit their breaking point, they said enough was enough and gave us a call.
Objective
Build a program that would simplify registering for school for both parents and administration.
Progress
The progress made towards achieving Assumption High School's objectives can be broken down into four steps: Concept & Planning, Determining the Look, Priority Features, and Secondary Features.
Twin State started its two-part process by figuring out what Assumption’s ideal outcome was. I wouldn’t call us genies, but we do make wishes come true.
Their goal was to create a student enrollment application process that worked into their current student record management software: JMC. This version included many basic features needed for a smooth process.
Phase one began with discovering their desired design. They wanted the style customizable to Assumption: having its logo, colors, font, and address information throughout all the forms. Along with the design aspect, we needed to gather all the information of their preferred features of the program. A manageable user experience design was an important implementation. The application needed to collect general demographic information, state mandates, and different customized reports they wanted parents to fill out as well, such as: Technology Agreement Contract, Physical Activity Contract, Medical Forms, etc.
We then had to figure out what key features were wanted. A high-priority feature included an e-mail generated with information containing confirmations and any fees that could be due. All e-mails include attachments of the documents and links. The e-mails would not only notify the parents, but there would also be a notification sent to the institution as well. If there were any “red flags,” such as suspension information, the file would get flagged then and would send a notification to the institution for a separate review.
All the reports are stored on a central server and can be accessed at any time by the institution.
At this stage, a meeting was held and Phase two was open for discussion.
This new addition would ease a parent from having to fill out all 13 forms every year. The school wanted the information to be saved in order to transfer with the student for their following years at Assumption. This would allow parents to sign in with their JMC account credentials and pick which child’s reports they’d like to review. When the next year’s application was due, they would just login and review the information from the previous year. If they had to make any changes—such as an address change—this is where they could enter that information and update their forms.
Result
Once the new school year was up and running, Twin State caught up with Assumption’s administrative assistant to see how the registration process went with their new software plug-in. She said that if other schools were, also, still doing handwritten applications, she would definitely recommend the JMC integrated application. Now that the system is up and running the school will not have to waste about 6,000 paper forms each year, but also won’t have to spend so many hours tediously entering in forms.
Assumption feels like the system was not hard to transition into at all; there were no complaints or confused parents. The 2016-2017 registration process was a breeze to get through. In the years to come, registration will continue with ease.
2016-2017 School Year
Interested in learning more? Head on over to our EZ Enroll page see all the features of our Student Registration Application.