Modernization Delivers Automation and Campuswide Value

Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), the largest single-campus community college in Maryland, serves approximately 30,000 credit and non-credit students annually. Known for a commitment to accessibility, affordability, and lifelong learning, the institution has consistently prioritized creating a student-centered environment that supports diverse educational goals.

"AACC truly mobilizes its mission to meet the needs of our diverse community," said Lisa Kraus, Ph.D., Director of Applications Services at AACC. "We offer high-quality, affordable, and innovative lifelong learning opportunities, creating a student-centric culture."

As expectations across higher education evolve, institutional leaders at AACC recognized the need to modernize systems and processes to better serve students, faculty, and staff. Years of customization and aging infrastructure made it increasingly difficult to adapt quickly to institutional needs.

"Higher ed is at a critical inflection point," said Dr. Richard Kralevich, Vice President for Information and Instructional Technology at AACC. "It doesn't matter if you're a large R1 university or a rural community college - the technology decisions we make now will define our futures."

Rather than continuing to maintain legacy systems, AACC chose to modernize with Ellucian Student powered by Colleague.

"I personally see ERP migrations, such as our move to SaaS, not as an 'if' but a 'when' proposition," Kralevich said. "Why not be strategic in planning your journey?"

Building a More Agile Foundation

With a focus on long-term transformation, AACC approached modernization as more than a technology upgrade. The goal was to create a more agile, sustainable operating model.

"Among our innovation objectives at AACC, we are tasked with building frictionless services and programming to enhance the overall student, faculty, and staff experiences," Kraus said.

Transitioning from their on-premises Colleague environment to SaaS allowed AACC to modernize infrastructure while maintaining continuity across campus operations. The modernization effort also helped reduce technical debt by eliminating over 6,000 customizations, enabling the IT team to redirect resources toward more strategic initiatives.

"Having the right system behind me shifts my role from managing technology to partnering strategically with the institution, supporting people, improving processes, and helping the college adapt in a rapidly changing environment," Kraus said.

In total, the school projects a 20% reduction in downtime and maintenance-related costs and a 25% reduction in duplicative enterprise application costs over the next five years. With those streamlined operations in place, faculty and staff are better equipped to support students efficiently and consistently.

"Our success really comes down to one thing — our people," Kralevich said. "That investment has become the foundation for our culture. It fuels our ability to innovate."

How AI Delivers Speed, Clarity, and Scalability

As part of their modernization initiative, AACC intended to shift away from heavy customization toward more intentional, scalable tools. Business process automation and the AI Writing Assistant became key components of that strategy.

"We had a problem worth solving," Kraus said. "At AACC, faculty contracts are high volume, high risk, and high visibility. We process approximately 15,000 contracts per year. That's where business process automation and the AI Writing Assistant came together. Our goal was to deliver a modern workflow for routing contract approvals."

Using business process automation, the team redesigned the institution's faculty contract approval workflow to move contracts through the process faster and more efficiently. The improved workflow even added automated reassignment capabilities that trigger when approvers are unavailable.

With five different approval roles, 18 approval tasks, and nine automated emails, creating a clear and concise user experience was necessary for success. The embedded AI Writing Assistant helped staff simplify contract language and generate clear instructions in minutes.

"Utilizing the AI Writing Assistant, we took dense policy contract language and made it really easy for faculty to figure out what it is that they're approving," said Amanda Sachs, Manager of Web Applications Services at AACC.

Tasks that previously took 30 to 45 minutes to write, rewrite, and refine were reduced to less than two minutes. Overall, the institution saw a 93-96% process time reduction, saving between eight and 13 hours per approval cycle.

"That's a savings of 28 to 43 minutes every single time, per task, without cutting corners or losing accuracy and control," Kraus said. “This one capability turned days or weeks of effort into minutes, and that's exactly why we leaned into these delivered tools. Once we saw those numbers, we knew this wasn't a one-off win; it's a model."

By streamlining historically complex processes and improving clarity, AACC reduced delays, minimized errors, and created a more efficient experience for faculty and staff.

"This wasn't about doing less work," Kraus said. "It was about removing friction, reducing cognitive load, and giving people their time back."

A Foundation for Ongoing Transformation

For AACC, modernization is not a one-time milestone but an ongoing effort to improve how the institution serves students, faculty, and staff.

"Modernization isn't about reaching a finish line," Kraus said. "It's about creating an environment where change becomes more manageable and more sustainable over time."

With a unified SaaS foundation in place, the college plans to expand automation, AI-supported workflows, and digital experiences to further simplify processes and improve accessibility.

"I'm really looking forward to utilizing the AI Forms Assistant," Sachs said. "We're looking at paring down some of the PDF forms that get passed around all over campus and pulling them into workflows, as well."

As higher education continues to evolve, AACC is positioned to adapt quickly using data, automation, and integrated systems to continuously improve both operational performance and student outcomes.

"The higher education landscape is changing rapidly, and our institutions need to be agile enough to address unexpected challenges and shifting student expectations," Kraus said. "My work requires dependable data, integrated systems, and versatile experiences for students, faculty, and staff. Ellucian powered technology is built for the full complexity of higher education."