Three Rivers Systems Shows Off Degree Audit Features at Annual Meeting of College Registrars, Admissions Officers

Online, April 2, 2012 (Newswire.com) - As the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers annual meeting kicks off in Philadelphia this week, it's no secret that retention and student success are top-of-mind priorities at higher education institutions today.

As recruitment costs spiral upward while colleges and universities face daily challenges to demonstrate their value, retaining students and assuring appropriate outcomes have never been more important.

Degree audits are an essential tool in raising retention and student-success rates but are time-consuming and onerous when using most enterprise resources planning - ERP - or academic management systems. With CAMS® Enterprise academic ERP from Three Rivers Systems Inc., however, degree audits are built in and easily configured.

"We're demonstrating CAMS Enterprise Degree Audit functionality and offering a case study in which one of our clients set up a complex auditing program in a mere two days," said Jami Morshed, Three Rivers Systems' vice president of global sales and marketing. "That's unheard of with other ERPs."

CAMS excels in this and all types of reporting because it is built on a secure, single shared Microsoft SQL database that serves all major departments and portals. So, all system-wide data is always available in real-time for any report. Thanks to CAMS Enterprise's simplified yet "disruptive" architecture institutions using CAMS enjoy quick and widespread adoption by students, faculty and staff.

In July 2011, U.S. Department of Education rules took effect requiring for-profit and not-for-profit career colleges, including community colleges, to show they are preparing students for "gainful employment." Among the rules these colleges are now required to show that at least 35 percent of former students repay loans and that loan payments don't exceed 30 per cent of a graduate's discretionary income.

Schools that fail these metrics may become ineligible for federal lending programs. While for-profit career colleges are the most affected, all higher-education institutions are taking notice.

"Higher education in general is bracing for intense scrutiny, more reporting and greater attention to metrics related to successful student outcomes," Morshed said. "Achieving maximum efficiency and productivity that helps deliver the ultimate student learning experience is every institution's goal."

According to Morshed, CAMS Enterprise Analytics, its sophisticated business-intelligence feature, empowers faculty, administrators, department heads and others to get the on-demand data they need in attractive easy-to-use dashboards that simplify and enhance the strategic decision-making process so necessary in today's unforgiving environment of cost-consciousness and accountability.

Colleges and universities around the world are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in many other ways with CAMS Enterprise while their huge increases in productivity allow them to focus their resources on better serving students.

CAMS Enterprise is uniquely capable of meeting the special requirements of online programs as well. Whether it's having the flexibility to offer semesters, trimesters, serial or concurrent terms all with variable start and end dates, CAMS can be readily configured. CAMS provides everything colleges and universities need to manage the entire student lifecycle, including recruitment; marketing; online applications; block-and-sequence registration; registration and payment; integrated financial aid; built-in degree audit; outcome tracking; built-in portals; mandated reports and much more, all integrated with medical applications.

About CAMS Enterprise
CAMS Enterprise's disruptive technology makes it a fundamentally different academic ERP unlike all others that were designed for the past and are incapable of operating efficiently in 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.