Xap Corporation Brings New Statewide Electronic Transcript Systems Online
Systems facilitate the exchange of standardized electronic transcripts between participating institutions.
Culver City, CA – November 14, 2005 – Xap Corporation, the national leader in the development of statewide college planning portals, is under contract to develop electronic transcript exchange systems, both high school to college and college to college, to meet growing demands in numerous states nationwide.
Since the deployment of its first statewide transcript system two years ago, Xap’s network of transcript systems has expanded to statewide implementations in North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Illinois, and additional systems in Oklahoma and Kentucky and for the California Community Colleges are scheduled to go live in 2006.
Two years ago, Xap developed the first-of-its-kind statewide electronic transcript system for all North Carolina public and independent colleges and universities, which enabled a user-friendly, end-to-end process of electronic exporting, transmission, receipt and importing of official high school transcripts.
This integrated tool added to an increasingly comprehensive online college admission suite of services available to North Carolina schools at www.CFNC.org.
"North Carolina, through its statewide college access web portal, www.CFNC.org, created a one-stop shop for students to plan, apply and pay for college.
One of the portal's unique features, which became operational in 2004, is the ability for students to send their "official" high school transcripts electronically when they apply for admission, followed automatically by their final transcript upon graduation from high school.
Best of all, there are no fees to the student or to the college.
Colleges across NC have applauded the transcript exchange for its ease of use for students and for the campus efficiencies realized by electronically importing transcripts directly into a student’s data records.
Campus savings, in both time and costs, have allowed colleges to offer faster turnaround on admissions decisions and to reallocate data entry personnel to other roles,” said Robert C. Kanoy, Senior Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs in the University of North Carolina Office of the President.
Xap has successfully launched a statewide electronic transcript exchange system this year for Tennessee, with rollouts scheduled shortly for the states of Georgia and Illinois.
In addition to being an important component of the college admissions process, both Tennessee and Georgia will use the electronic transcript data to help administer statewide merit-based scholarship programs in a more timely and efficient manner.
"The Xap Transcript Exchange will enable us to receive transcripts electronically from hundreds of Georgia high schools," said Timothy A. Connell, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC), which administers Georgia's HOPE Program, the nation's largest merit-based scholarship program.
"GSFC will use that transcript data to determine HOPE eligibility for approximately ninety thousand high school seniors every year.
The Exchange also will greatly enhance our GAcollege411 website, allowing students to submit transcripts to colleges electronically at the same time they apply online."
Xap will also deliver electronic transcript exchanges for Oklahoma, Kentucky, and the California Community Colleges within the next year.
"Electronic transcripts are a logical extension to the Internet-based services, including online admission applications, that colleges and universities have been utilizing," says Phil Moss, vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
"Oklahoma's public and private institutions will benefit from sending and receiving official transcripts electronically.
In addition to the obvious efficiencies, including cost savings from automated processing of transcripts, our institutions will be offering the technology that is expected by today's students."
"After an extensive RFP process, we are pleased to have selected Xap to develop an advanced, online student transcript system customized to our specifications," said Catherine McKenzie of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office.
"As the largest college system in the country, we expect the CCCTran System to set the industry standard for efficient transcript processing and to cut per transcript costs from the current $6-$10 for a conventional manually-issued transcript to $0.50 per electronic transcript."
Xap has been a pioneer in integrated statewide and systemwide college planning web portals with 36 Mentor systems in 28 states.
The electronic transcript exchange is a tool of increasing value to these state portals, as well as the individual secondary and postsecondary institutions.
Xap is an active member of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC).
One of Xap’s officials serves on the PESC steering committee, thus ensuring that clients’ interests are represented in the development of standards for college and high school transcripts.
"Xap has been the leader in providing innovative technologies that increase college access and streamline the college selection and application process for over 10 years.
With Xap’s secure electronic transcript exchange systems, everyone benefits.
Sending institutions save time and money.
Receiving institutions get a complete digital package for faster application processing.
And most importantly, students can rest assured knowing that their transcripts are securely, accurately and speedily transmitted to the schools of their choice," Xap Corporation CEO Liz Dietz said.
About Xap
Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, Xap Corporation (www.xap.com) focuses on the creation of comprehensive Internet-based information management systems relating to secondary and postsecondary education.
Founded in 1990, Xap is the leading developer of online student services systems for associations and statewide groups of colleges and universities across the United States.
