Efficiency

Stephen D. Golding Executive Director, HopkinsOne Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins Researches the Ideal ERP System

DIVERSE ORGANIZATION TAPS SAP SOFTWARE TO INTERGRATE HIGHER ED AND HEALTH CARE IT NETWORK

Moving student transactions online and establishing an information hub for the campus - all the while increasing its personal touch with students - was the challenge Butler University faced last year when it took on the task of streamlining administrative tasks that were normally handled by faculty and advisors. The overarching goal was to free up the faculty and advisors so they could spend more time guiding students' college careers and less time performing administrative tasks such as registration.

Until last January, issuing financial aid refunds at Antelope Valley College was a long, tedious process. Instruction files were sent from the school to a remote district office, which printed checks and sent them back to the school to be stuffed into envelopes and mailed to students.

It was a time-consuming and costly procedure, explained Sherrie Padilla, director of financial aid at the community college, located in Lancaster, Calif. “We needed to investigate other ways to disburse refunds to students,” she said.

It’s not easy to get to a bank, especially forstudents without cars. A shuttle stops at the local strip mall but there’s only one bank, so if that’s not your bank you can’t cash your check. That problem is gone with refunds going right into our OneAccounts.

When it came time to mail financial aid refund checks at Des Moines Area Community College each semester, officials always worried about how many of those checks the post office would return as undeliverable. With nearly 27,000 students attending more than 3,000 classes on six campuses, it was inevitable that many of those students would have forgotten to inform the school of a new address.

It’s not easy to get to a bank, especially for students without cars. A shuttle stops at the local strip mall but there’s only one bank, so if that’s not your bank you can’t cash your check. That problem is gone with refunds going right into our OneAccounts.

Wilmington University’s open admissions policy, flexible scheduling and 11 locations in Delaware and New Jersey are fundamental to its mission of offering careeroriented undergraduate and graduate degree programs for a diverse range of traditional and nontraditional students.

IT’S NOT UNUSUAL FOR HUMAN resource departments in higher ed to hire consultants instead of full-time employees to design a program, solve a problem, or reach a specific goal. Consultants typically are cheaper in the long run, possess unique skills, and can introduce HR to creative business strategies used by other educational institutions across the country.

Dowling College, in Oakdale, NY, has 7,000 students, most of whom obtain financial aid refunds each semester. The school implemented Higher One’s OneDisburse "Refund Management" system in 2007.

It’s not easy to get to a bank, especially for students without cars. A shuttle stops at the local strip mall but there’s only one bank, so if that’s not your bank you can’t cash your check. That problem is gone with refunds going right into our OneAccounts.