Western Nebraska Community College
Planning and executing a successful Perceptive Content upgrade
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Western Nebraska Community College (WNCC) offers all the advantages of a small college, but with the experiences of a large university. With 28 student organizations, unlimited activities, and Cougar Athletics, students find it easy to get involved and stay involved as they advance toward an exciting future that is uniquely their own. Learn more at www.wncc.edu.
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QUICK FACTS
Client Focus: Financial Aid
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Business Location: Scottsbluff, NE
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Shamrock Services & Solutions:
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Upgrades
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Professional Services
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Project Focus: University-wide
business
pain points
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Desire to take advantage of functionality available in a newer version of Perceptive Content.
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Previous professional services vendor options were not optimal.
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New version of Content required some customization to meet business needs.
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Quick access to support needed.
shamrock's
SOLUTION
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Shamrock's dedication to help WNCC get the most from their upgrade experience.
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Shamrock's services were an ideal fit for budget and schedule.
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Test environment enabled WNCC to make adjustments safely and efficiently transfer them to Production.
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Provided guidance on quickly accessing support resources.
Comparing Professional Services Providers
Several years ago, Western Nebraska Community College (WNCC) decided to advance its document and workflow strategy by deploying Hyland's Perceptive Content (formerly ImageNow) enterprise content management software. In early 2015, the college’s information technology team decided it was time to take full advantage of the latest features by upgrading to the recently released 7.0 version.
When James Hashley, assistant director of IT at WNCC, began evaluating options for the upgrade, he received an email from a team member
at Shamrock Solutions, a leading third-party provider of professional services and custom solutions for ECM software products.
He was considering using the vendor’s in-house professional services group, but was glad to have a second partner option to compare and contrast. So Hashley asked Shamrock to submit a bid for the upgrade. He was pleasantly surprised by the result.
“Compared with the bid from Hyland, Shamrock’s proposal was absolutely stellar,” Hashley said. “It was not only far more cost-effective, but they could also start right away. Shamrock’s impressive track record in higher education was another key decision point.”
They've given us excellent customer service, and you can't beat Shamrock on price. They went above and beyond to make our project a success.
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- James Hashley, Assistant Directory of Information Technology
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Benefitting from Well-Organized Professional Services
Before starting the go-live phase of their Perceptive Content upgrade, Shamrock performed a thorough analysis of WNCC’s system and the unique ways in which it is using Hyland's software. Shamrock then worked closely with Hashley and his team to set realistic milestone dates and expectations.
“Shamrock made sure we had all the information we needed when we needed it, and worked hard to understand our goals with Lexmark ECM 7.0,” Hashley said. “I felt comfortable at every stage of the project.”
To ensure a seamless transition to the new version, Shamrock engineers first performed the upgrade in WNCC’s test environment. This gave the IT team the chance to explore some of the new functionality and come back with requests, which Shamrock accommodated before cutting over to the upgraded Production environment.
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“We had quite a few tweaks after testing the new version of Perceptive Content, and Shamrock was able to do all the customizations we needed,” Hashley said. “We were guided through the process step by step and feel like we were in good hands from start to finish.”
We were guided through the process step-by-step and feel like we were in good hands from start to finish.
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- James Hashley, Assistant Director of Information Technology
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Conducting a Hassle-Free Transition
Coordinating the upgrade of a major system requires organization, planning and cooperation, and WNCC’s IT staff found that Shamrock ticked all three of these boxes when it came to going live with the new iteration of Perceptive Content.
“We worked with our financial aid office to schedule the upgrade at a convenient time and Shamrock made sure it went smoothly,” Hashley said. “Our project manager also made himself available the next day so that he could respond quickly to questions, which impressed me.”
Following the upgrade, Hashley needed help with a few product glitches in 7.0. Shamrock was able to guide him to the correct support resources at Hyland, who provided a quick and thorough resolution to these issues.
Looking ahead, WNCC is exploring the possibility of extending Perceptive Content to other departments and business areas across campus, including transcript processing for transfer students and contracts managing for the purchasing department. As the college extends its ECM footprint, it will likely look to Shamrock for further assistance.
“Based on my positive experience with our upgrade, I’ll definitely keep Shamrock in our plans,” Hashley said. “They’ve given us excellent customer service, and you can’t beat Shamrock on price. They went above and beyond to make our project a success.”