ABOUT WALSH COLLEGE

Founded in 1922 in Troy, Michigan, Walsh College has spent more than a century preparing students for careers in business, accounting, finance, and technology. Its student body includes working adults, career changers, and international students who benefit from rigorous, flexible education designed to fit alongside professional and personal responsibilities.

That student-centered mission places a premium on responsive service, accessible information, and technology that can evolve with changing academic, regulatory, and operational needs. As Walsh's strategy continued to develop, the College identified an opportunity to modernize its technology environment and create a more integrated foundation for the future.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR MODERNIZATION

Like many institutions that have operated enterprise systems over many years, Walsh's technology environment had evolved to include multiple platforms supporting admissions, student records, financial aid, reporting, document management, and other institutional functions. These systems supported the College's operations over time, while changes in institutional priorities and technology created an opportunity to simplify the overall ecosystem and improve how information moves across functional areas.

Walsh established several priorities for its modernization initiative:

A more unified view of student information. Walsh sought to make relevant student information more readily accessible across appropriate functional areas, reducing the need to consult multiple systems and sources.

Greater accessibility to institutional data. The College wanted to expand its ability to access, analyze, and use data efficiently to support timely decision-making.

Simplified processes. As technology and institutional requirements evolved, certain workflows had developed multiple steps, integrations, and supporting tools. Walsh saw an opportunity to streamline those processes through a more integrated platform.

Reduced reliance on manual reconciliation. The College sought to reduce manual data validation, duplicate entry, and reconciliation activities where automation and system integration could provide greater efficiency.

A more scalable technology environment. Walsh wanted a technology model capable of supporting evolving academic programs, regulatory requirements, enrollment strategies, and student-service expectations.

Long-term cost management. Consolidating systems, infrastructure, and supporting technologies also created an opportunity to evaluate and manage the College's overall technology cost structure over time.

WHY STUDENT FIRST

Following an evaluation of available alternatives, Walsh selected Student First because its approach aligned with the College's modernization objectives. The College identified several capabilities and potential advantages that supported its decision:

• Unified student record. Student First brings admissions, registration, academic records, financial aid, student billing, and advising into a more connected environment centered on the student record.

• Cloud-based architecture. The platform supports Walsh's objective of reducing reliance on institution-managed infrastructure and simplifying ongoing technology operations.

• Financial aid and student account functionality. Integrated functionality provides an opportunity to connect important student-service processes more closely with enrollment and academic records.

• Data access and reporting. The platform's data architecture and API capabilities were aligned with Walsh's goal of making institutional information more accessible for reporting, analysis, and decision-making.

• Technology consolidation. The implementation created an opportunity to retire or reduce reliance on certain separate applications, integrations, and infrastructure components as functions move into a more unified environment.

• Implementation approach. Student First worked with Walsh's team and its data migration approach, allowing the College to align implementation activities with institutional priorities and internal capabilities.

• Partnership model. Walsh valued direct access to a team with higher-education experience and a willingness to work collaboratively through implementation decisions and evolving needs.

MODERNIZATION AS A PROCESS-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITY

The transition to Student First also gave Walsh an opportunity to review longstanding business processes across enrollment, financial aid, student accounts, academic records, reporting, and related functions. This review was approached as part of the College's broader commitment to continuous improvement: identifying where processes could be simplified, where responsibilities could be clarified, and where technology could better support employees and students.

Rather than treating the implementation as a judgment on prior systems or practices, Walsh viewed the work as an institutional evolution - building upon capabilities that had supported the College while adapting the technology environment for emerging requirements and future priorities.

EARLY OUTCOMES AND EMERGING BENEFITS

As implementation has progressed, Walsh has begun realizing benefits from the new environment while continuing to refine processes and measure longer-term outcomes. Because several academic and administrative cycles are still maturing, Walsh is intentionally distinguishing between observed progress, projected efficiencies, and results that will require additional validation over time.

Early areas of progress include:

• Greater integration of student information. Relevant information can increasingly be accessed through more connected workflows across functional areas.

• Improved accessibility of data. The new environment is expanding opportunities for reporting and analysis without relying on the same number of separate tools and data sources.

• Reduced application and infrastructure complexity. As functions are transitioned and legacy components are retired, Walsh expects to reduce the number of technologies that require separate maintenance, contracts, and integrations.

• Less manual reconciliation. Integrated records and workflows are creating opportunities to reduce duplicate data entry and cross-system validation in selected processes.

• More connected enrollment and student-service workflows. Admissions, registration, financial aid, student accounts, and academic records can be managed within a more integrated technology model.

• Greater visibility into student needs. The College is developing reporting and workflow capabilities intended to help teams identify student needs earlier and support more proactive outreach.

HOW WALSH IS MEASURING THE TRANSITION

Walsh is evaluating the modernization effort across a combination of technology, operational, and student-service measures. The College will continue validating performance as additional terms, financial aid cycles, and reporting periods are completed.

THE DAY-TO-DAY DIFFERENCE

The most important change for Walsh is not a single feature; it is the opportunity to create a more connected operating environment. As adoption continues, the College is seeing or working toward several practical improvements in daily work:

More intuitive access to information. Employees can increasingly work from a common platform and more standardized workflows, reducing the need to navigate multiple applications for the same student interaction.

More efficient reporting. The new data environment is intended to make recurring reporting and ad hoc analysis more accessible and timely as reporting capabilities mature.

More connected cross-functional work. Shared records and integrated workflows can reduce unnecessary handoffs and make it easier for enrollment, financial aid, student accounts, and academic teams to coordinate around student needs.

More capacity for higher-value work. As manual steps are reduced, Walsh expects employees to have greater capacity for advising, outreach, analysis, problem-solving, and other work that directly supports students and institutional priorities.

A simpler infrastructure model. Cloud-based delivery and technology consolidation are designed to reduce the operational effort associated with maintaining separate infrastructure and integrations.

THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Walsh's modernization strategy is ultimately intended to improve the experience of the students the College serves. The new environment is designed to support a more connected path from inquiry through enrollment and ongoing academic progress, with fewer unnecessary handoffs and better access to relevant information.

• More connected service. When appropriate information is available across functional areas, employees are better positioned to help students without requiring multiple contacts for routine questions.

• Greater visibility into status. Integrated workflows can make it easier to identify outstanding requirements, next steps, and process status across enrollment and student-service functions.

• More proactive support. Improved reporting and workflow visibility are intended to help Walsh identify stalled applications, unregistered continuing students, incomplete requirements, or other indicators that may warrant outreach.

• A foundation for continued improvement. As additional cycles are completed, Walsh will continue using data and user feedback to refine processes and evaluate the impact on responsiveness, persistence, and student satisfaction.

TECHNOLOGY COST AND INFRASTRUCTURE OUTLOOK

Technology consolidation is also an important part of the business case. By moving toward a more unified, cloud-based environment, Walsh expects to reduce costs associated with maintaining multiple software platforms, supporting integrations, and operating selected infrastructure components.

Any public statement regarding five-year savings, server reductions, contract retirements, or other quantitative before-and-after comparisons should reflect figures validated by Walsh's Finance and IT teams. Until those measures have been fully confirmed, the College's position is that the modernization initiative is projected to produce a meaningful reduction in total technology cost of ownership while improving scalability and access to institutional information.

LOOKING FORWARD

For Walsh College, the transition to Student First represents more than a technology implementation. It is part of a broader institutional modernization strategy focused on improving access to information, simplifying operations, supporting employees, and creating a more responsive experience for students.

The transition also reflects an important principle for Walsh: technology must continue evolving alongside the institution it serves. Rather than characterizing the transition as a correction of the past, Walsh views it as an investment in the future - building upon prior institutional capabilities while creating an environment designed to support the College's next chapter.

“Our goal is to create a technology environment that evolves with Walsh College - one that gives our teams better access to information, supports simpler processes, and helps us serve students more effectively. Student First is an important part of that modernization strategy.” — Walsh College