Background: An Open Access Mission
As a member of the University System of Georgia, Georgia Highlands College (GHC) serves as a vital open-access institution for Northwest Georgia. With over 5,000 students across five locations, the institution serves a 29-county region with a focus on changing family trajectories.
We spoke with Gina Floyd, GHC’s Registrar, who highlighted the college’s role as an open-access institution where many applicants are first-generation students. She emphasized that the efficiency of the admissions office has stakes far higher than just hitting enrollment targets.
“You can change someone’s whole story, for generations to come. That is a big focus for us.”
The Challenge: Preserving Institutional Knowledge
For decades, the institution’s workflow was 100% manual. A single staff member, who had served for over 25 years, managed transcript evaluations by hand. When she retired, the team faced a significant challenge: how could they maintain their high standards of service without that deep institutional expertise?
“She typed everything 100% by hand.”
The manual process also created hidden infrastructure costs. Because the staff was fully occupied with typing data, they lacked the bandwidth to maintain the database of transfer equivalencies. Gina recognized that asking a new hire to manually type every course was not a sustainable way to onboard them or serve the students.
The Solution: Automation that "Learns as it Goes"
The institution implemented Smart Panda Tools to modernize their infrastructure. They chose Raptor to automate data extraction, creating a workflow that supports the staff rather than just digitizing the backlog.
Gina noted that the AI’s ability to learn and improve over time was a key factor in the decision.
“I think the fact that it learns as it goes attracted us to Smart Panda. It can take the input that we have as we are working in Raptor and do it even faster next time.”
Throughout the implementation, the Smart Panda support team acted as partners, ensuring the system was configured to meet Georgia Highlands College’s specific needs rather than forcing a generic setup.
“They didn’t let us settle for less. They kept advocating for us, saying, “It’s not a success for Smart Panda if it’s not a success for you”.”
Operational Results: Accelerating New Hire Proficiency
The most significant impact was on staff onboarding. Typically, matching the speed of a 25-year veteran takes years of experience. By using Smart Panda Tools, the new staff member was able to reach full productivity almost immediately. The technology handled the rote data entry, allowing the new hire to focus on complex decisions.
“She’s now as fast as the 25-year veteran and that is pretty amazing.”
This shift has already cut processing turnaround times by 50%, even as the new team member is still learning the nuances of the role.
“Processing transcripts used to take two weeks, but right now we’re seeing that it’s closer to a week. That’s already a huge improvement.”
Strategic Impact: Reinvesting in Student Success
By removing the manual data entry burden, the institution has freed up capacity to update their transfer equivalency database, which will further accelerate future decisions.
Critically, the institution utilized surcharge financing from their transcript requests to fund the solution. This essentially neutralized the cost, allowing them to reinvest funds directly into student services.
“We’re putting it right back into services that directly impacts students and student success.”
“[Our new hire is] now as fast as the 25-year veteran and that is pretty amazing.”
—Gina Floyd, Registrar