Vernon College

Challenge:

Vernon College's on-premises student information system (SIS) necessitated multiple student accounts, siloed information, and manual student information uploading by staff the day before classes started.

Results:

• Colleague SaaS's unified, comprehensive platform automates student course assignments and improves back-office efficiency across the school for students and staff
• The single sign-on feature and robust, user-friendly interface boosted student outcomes
• Partnering with Ellucian optimized implementation and encouraged Vernon's continued innovation

Vernon College is a two-year public institution in Texas serving a total of more than 2,000 full- and part-time students. For 20 years, the college relied on its previous student information system (SIS), but over time, staff found it increasingly outmoded and cumbersome. Information silos meant faculty often navigated up to three separate systems just to gather the information needed for a single class. The outdated SIS required faculty to manually upload entire student rosters into their databases just one day before classes began, creating unnecessary stress and inefficiency during a critical time.

With the college's needs rapidly evolving and its on-premises capabilities struggling to keep pace, Vernon College recognized the urgency of transitioning to a modern, SaaS-based SIS platform to better support its goals. They began assigning stakeholders to vet technology providers and see which software — and provider — would best serve Vernon College.

"We went through multiple [vendor] demonstrations," Shana Drury, Vice President of Instructional Services, said. "It came down to two […] and we chose Ellucian Colleague as our SIS."

According to Drury, Colleague's ease of access and student-friendly interface have simplified students' interactions with the system. She added that Vernon staff also find Colleague easier to use and more robust than their prior SIS.

"Not only is it student-friendly, but it is staff-friendly as well."

Partnering with Ellucian for a Successful SIS Deployment

After selecting Colleague SaaS, Vernon turned its focus to implementing the new system. Roxanne Hill, Ed.D., Vice President of Information Services and Technology, led the charge to implement Colleague SaaS at Vernon College. Vernon brought valuable experience from previous software implementations. Hill described the SaaS migration as an exciting opportunity to unlock significant potential for the college. She emphasized that Ellucian provided consistent support throughout the modernization journey, ensuring a smooth transition every step of the way.

"I don’t think we would've been successful had the Ellucian Project Manager not been a part of that experience," she said. "The Ellucian team was instrumental."

Drury agreed. "Ellucian was very good about listening to us and trying to help in every way they could."

Although Hill's expertise lies outside financial aid and advising, she credits Ellucian with equipping her to confidently support her staff across every business area at Vernon. Her Ellucian partners provided in-depth guidance, unpacking the full capabilities of every module of Colleague SaaS and showing her and others how each of those modules, such as Financial Aid, seamlessly integrates into their new system.

Implementation was achieved in 12 months.

"[The Ellucian team] opens the door and [asks] 'Have you thought about this?'" she said. "It's paying dividends now and we're seeing such success. Students love the system; faculty and staff love the system."

Integrating Systems and Improving Efficiency with Colleague

Before implementing Colleague SaaS, Drury said, Vernon's previous systems were separated in disparate "buckets," meaning that one office couldn't access the student information that another office had. Staff would call one another and request the information be sent over.

Since deploying their new SIS, both Drury and Hill recognized the benefits — and so have their staff. Manual, complex processes shifted to direct and focus-oriented ones.

"Faculty really like it," Drury said. "It's one system; we're fully integrated. It's all a collaboration now."

Hill said that because of this integration, different teams and departments around Vernon's campuses can grow, innovate, and collaborate in ways they never could before.

"It has broken down silos and made us a well-oiled machine," Hill said. "We're more innovative, collaborative, and forward-thinking than ever before."

Drury highlighted how Colleague boosted efficiencies across the school as well. During the modernization process, Vernon reimagined workflows by automating some tasks while reassigning others to different departments — resulting in substantial benefits. With Colleague, these processes are now more streamlined and efficient than ever. A standout improvement is the automation of student registration through Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform, a tool that Vernon has fully embraced. This advancement has eliminated the cumbersome, last-minute manual uploads required by their previous SIS, freeing staff from the chaos of rushing to update student information just before classes begin.

Another outstanding process improvement is a YTY increase of nearly 10% in completed FAFSA applications, which directly supports the college's enrollment goals and student success.

Powering Student Success with Easy Access to Information

Vernon College's mission is teaching, learning and leading. Hill and Drury both said students benefit from the efficiency of Colleague SaaS’s unified, universal system and single sign-on capability.

"Seeing the benefit to the students is what I enjoy. How easy it is for them to register, to look at classes, to look at office hours for instructors, to look at their progress tabs, to be able to plan for the future two and three semesters out — they never had that option before," she said.

"They know exactly where they stand in their progress, they know exactly what they're missing with the click of a button. Having that for students is so beneficial."

Shaping the Future with Adaptable Solutions

Vernon prides itself on its bold innovations and thinking outside the box, often weaving future-focused strategies into team discussions.

The college is exploring further integration of Ellucian Experience, Insights, and Ellucian Intelligent Processes. Drury agreed that the best is yet to come.

"We're implementing and changing as we go," she said. "We're making things better for the student as we learn more about Ellucian and what its capabilities are."