Background: High Volume and Manual Friction
Illinois State University serves approximately 21,000 students and processes over 5,500 college transcripts annually. The university’s evaluation team handles transfer credit for all populations, including degree audit for every undergraduate and graduate student on campus.
We spoke with Todd Smoak, Executive Director of Technology Solutions, and Theresa Sanchez, Senior Assistant Director of Academic Services. Todd also serves on the board of the Higher Education User Group (HEUG).
The Challenge: A Backlog with Cascading Consequences
Before Smart Panda Tools, the workflow was entirely manual. Staff would view a transcript image on one screen and open the external education page in PeopleSoft on another, then type every term, subject, catalog number, grade, and credit value by hand. Each transcript took an average of 27.5 minutes to process.
At 5,500 transcripts per year, that added up to over 2,500 hours of annual labor committed solely to data transcription.
“We observed that our Student Records area was really struggling, and they could never really catch that backlog. It was a constant pain, so we initiated a project to help.” — Todd Smoak
The consequences cascaded beyond the evaluation office. Students couldn’t register for the correct courses until their credits were processed. Financial aid was delayed. Prospective transfer students hesitated to commit because they couldn’t get answers about how their credits would apply. The backlog also generated a stream of status inquiry calls that further consumed staff time.
The Solution: Automated Extraction Within PeopleSoft
ISU implemented Raptor to automate the extraction of academic history directly from transcript PDFs within their existing PeopleSoft Campus Solutions environment. Rather than typing each course manually, evaluators now review Raptor’s structured output, verify it against the source document, and push verified data into their system of record.
The Express Transcript tab within the Raptor integration consolidated multiple manual steps into a single view.
“That tab is almost worth the whole product. Evaluators don’t even think about it anymore because they don’t have to click on the other tab: open the folder, type what’s needed, back out, then do the next one. It’s all right there on one page.” — Theresa Sanchez
For articulation rule creation, ISU implemented RuleMaker. Building a new transfer rule in PeopleSoft previously required navigating five to seven pages. It’s now a single page with two clicks.
Operational Results: From 27 Minutes to 4
Processing time dropped from an average of 27.5 minutes of manual entry to roughly 4 minutes of review and verification. Evaluators now spend their time confirming Raptor’s structured output rather than typing everything from scratch.
“We found and put in these tools, and they took their processing time from 27.5 minutes on average to about 4 minutes on average.” — Todd Smoak
Evaluation turnaround dropped from 6–8 weeks to 2–4 weeks, with many transcripts completed within days. The team could confidently communicate a reliable turnaround to students for the first time.
“We got to a point where we could just say, ‘your transcripts are going to be done within two to four weeks.’ In half the cases, they were actually done within a few days.” — Theresa Sanchez
Because Raptor handles the extraction, manual typing errors also dropped significantly. Previously, mistyped course codes or grades would make it through to the student record, requiring staff to unpost the evaluation, correct the error, and repost manually.
An unexpected benefit emerged when ISU began using Raptor’s Load History feature, which revealed that some team members were articulating identical courses in different ways. This discovery led to targeted retraining and improved consistency across the team.
“I had staff who were articulating courses in drastically different ways. It gave us some good insight.”
— Theresa Sanchez
Strategic Impact: Changing the Hiring Culture
The operational change fundamentally affected how ISU recruits for evaluation roles. Before Smart Panda Tools, the team had to be explicit in job postings about the heavy data entry required. That language has been removed.
“We used to have to be very explicit when we were hiring new people: heavy, heavy data entry. Now we don’t have to emphasize that.” — Theresa Sanchez
Staff previously buried in transcription now spend their reclaimed time on degree audit for the university’s 3,000–4,000 annual graduates, State of Illinois teacher licensure processing, study abroad transcript management, and special processes for second bachelor’s and simultaneous degree students.
The team now actively advocates for Smart Panda Tools to peer institutions, a recommendation that has directly contributed to new adoptions throughout the PeopleSoft community.
If you’re not using Smart Panda, you’re doing it wrong.
— Todd Smoak, Executive Director of Technology Solutions, Illinois State University