The Successful Registrar, December 2004

Every year, millions of student transcripts are sent to colleges and universities across America. The majority of these are still processed by hand from printing, to stuffing envelopes and mailing. The costs to do this work, in staff hours and postage, can make this and expensive process.

Enter Docufide, Inc. The California-based company's Secure Transcript system makes paper transcripts a thing of the past. And since it is free to colleges and universities, you might want to see if Docufide's serve could help your institution.

Southwest Missouri State University recently turned to the secure transcript services of Docufide. "We hadn't seen many other businesses offering this service," says director of admissions Lenord McGownd.

SMSU officials believe today's generation of college students are very comfortable using technology, so it would be natural for them to turn to the computer when requesting transcripts. And while they would love to get all transcripts electronically, they still accept paper transcript and always will, McGownd notes.

The Secure Transcript system was launched this past May/June, and SMSU officials expect it to really ramp up with the fall 2005 applicants. "This cycle starts Nov. 1 and will go through March," McGownd says.

With 50 percent of its admissions applications now submitted online, they also expect to see more high school students and counselors moving to online technology for transcript purposes. "I believe we'll get to the point where the use of Docufide's services is prevalent for our applicants," he notes.

Virginia Tech University is another institution that uses Docufide's Secure Transcript services.

"We're excited about the possibilities with Docufide," says Pam McAlexander, data integrity officer at the university. She says Docufide transcripts are easy to read and the institution is hoping to get other Virginia schools on board. Like SMSU, Virginia Tech only recently signed on with Docufide, but with more than 80 percent of their admissions applications done online last year, the demand for Docufide's transcript service is expected to increase. "I think it will be the only way to go for students and guidance counselors," McAlexander adds.

That's because students and counselors can be kept posted on a transcript's progress. They can track when the transcript is sent and when an institution downloads it via Docufide's Web site.

Michael Truschke, director of admissions at Pepperdine University, signed on with Docufide about a year ago. "A lot of colleges want transcripts digitally in terms of managing their work flow and efficiency," he notes. Pepperdine believes that electronic transcripts will become more prevalent in the coming five to eight years.

It has received some transcripts electronically in the past year, particularly in the past few admissions cycles. "Most people go to the registrar or guidance system at their high school for transcript and that's the way it's still done for the bulk of high school students." Truschke says.

But he predicts that the electronic transmission of data pertaining to the college process will continue to increase. "It's important that schools and school districts feel good about the integrity of an electronic transcript system and the transmission of transcripts," he notes.

And finding a model that jibes with different types of systems is key in that. "I think that Docufide can manage this." Truschke adds.

Consider using electronic transcript services to cut time, costs.

The electronic transcript services offering by Docufide, Inc. could help free up your staff and cut overhead by expediting the transcript process.

At present, there are school districts in 11 states on board with Docufide's Secure Transcript service. The districts sign a no-cost contract with Docufide for its services. "This is put in place to give us permission to send the transcripts on their behalf," says Jeffrey Harris, vice president of Docufide's Secure Transcript services.

Colleges and universities who wish to use Docufide's Secure Transcript service can simply sign up online at no charge. Depending on preference, institutions can elect to receive electronic transcripts as PDF, EDI, or XML files.

If you prefer hard copies, Docufide can send them on security paper.

Once an institution is signed up, a link is provided on the institutions Web site that will take students directly to Docufide's site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There, students register, select the colleges they wish to receive the transcript, and the delivery option. They pay a flat rate of $5 per transcript. "A lot of high schools today charge students for transcript copies. This fee supplants that," Harris notes.

Docufide also provides fee waivers for students who cannot afford the $5. All data is kept private and secure and every sending and receiving institution is authenticated - as are all data transmissions - using secure socket layer technology.

Docufide's Secure Transcript system was launched in late 2002 with the startup of beta sites in California and New Hampshire. "We wanted one site on each side of the country," Harris says.

He and his colleagues learned a lot during the pilot testing. "As far as paperwork and processes, it's very similar at every school, "he notes. And the concerns they heard from students, parents and counselors were also the same. "They worry about transcripts not arriving promptly or not arriving at all," Harris says.

But Docufide's Secure Transcript system has taken a lot of that worry out of the process. A student can track the process of his transcripts online via a unique transcript identification number. The student's counselor can also track the transcript and find out where it is in the process.

Currently Docufide sends transcripts to almost 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide or about a quarter of all higher education institutions.

So far, Docufide has been the only company to successfully roll out a model that serves both the high school and college/university sides. "I think that five years from now every transcript will be sent electronically, whether they use our service or someone else's," Harris says.

For more information about Docufide's Secure Transcript service, contact Jeff Harris at jeffh@docufide.com