OUAC Integration Helps the Universities of Ontario Import Undergraduate Admissions Applications into their SIS

Ontario based colleges and universities now have a new Advanced Import method, specifically created by Axiom for Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) institutions. Designed in-house by Axiom developers, this application was established specifically for the 30 institutions that use OUAC to receive, process and transfer student information. Through Axiom's Extract, Transfer, Load (ETL) integration process, OUAC schools can now import data with ease between their student information system (SIS) and CRM. With our new specially produced functionality, student information can now be obtained seamlessly, saving energy with manual data entry, all in real time automation.

We recently spoke with Tim Didier from Wilfrid Laurier University about his experience using the Axiom Elite OUAC application -

Axiom: How has the Axiom Elite integration allowed you to efficiently process OUAC applications?

Tim: The Axiom Elite integration has allowed us to more reliably import OUAC xml data into our systems. Previously, our integrations would fail outright if there were anomalies in singular records of data. This would result in emergency tickets to ICT to resolve the data anomalies as the entire day's dataset would not be available to the functional teams as a result. Axiom Elite's ability to recognize, hold, and mark as errors when there are problems with the data has allowed a better division of responsibility between ICT and functional units. Not every data anomaly requires a technical resolution. The Axiom Elite interface gives the functional units the ability to reprocess, update, or ignore these errors. This reduces the number of tickets and investigation time for ICT.

Axiom: What is the typical processing time between a student's application to first contact with the student?

Tim: I believe it's 24 hours. This timeframe was not significantly shortened by the Axiom Elite integration but the reliability has improved, and ICT based maintenance has been reduced.

Axiom: What other processes have you been able to implement because of the automation of the integration?

Tim: The Axiom Elite software allowed us to complete an aggressive migration away from our existing Admissions module to a Salesforce based system that also required data sent regularly to Banner. Without the Axiom Elite software and its development team, we would not have been able to complete the integrations on time. This shortened the integration development time, allowed us to use built in Banner integration procedures along with enough flexibility to adapt to our customized Banner installation, to complete a reliable integration between Salesforce and Banner.

Axiom: How has the automated OUAC integration made you more efficient?

Tim: Yes. Our estimate of effort to maintain our previous integration was 0.5 of an FTE solely dedicated to day-to-day issues and regular updates to this process. ICT no longer triages OUAC distributions on a daily/weekly basis. Many more of the issues that do come up on a regular basis are able to be addressed by the functional team in the Axiom Elite interface rather than needed ICT support.

Axiom: Would you recommend the OUAC integration to other Ontario based universities?

Tim: Yes.