Leading e-Transcript Services Avow, Credentials Solutions, and Docufide Announce OpenSPEEDE Collaboration


Leading e-Transcript Services Avow, Credentials Solutions, and Docufide Announce OpenSPEEDE Collaboration

Consortia-Supported OpenSPEEDE Server to Succeed “Texas Server” as Shared, Multi-Service Gateway for Electronic Transcript EDI Exchange

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Nov. 1, 2012) – Leading e-Transcript service providers Parchment (operator of Docufide and Avow), and Credentials Solutions today announced a joint collaboration to implement OpenSPEEDE, an AACRAO SPEEDE compliant Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) gateway. The goal of OpenSPEEDE is to ensure the operation and availability of a vendor-independent SPEEDE server following the University of Texas at Austin’s decision to conduct a 12-month assessment of transition options of the operation of the “Texas Server.”

The SPEEDE EDI standards, which represent the first standardized transcript schema, were developed by the AACRAO Committee for Standardization of Postsecondary Education Electronic Data Exchange (SPEEDE) starting in 1988. The first standards were released in 1991, helping to establish and grow the adoption of electronic student records. Today, approximately 300 colleges a month utilize the server.

A SPEEDE EDI server provides a variety of “hub” technical services necessary to facilitate the exchange of EDI records, including acting as a value-added-network ( VAN) to provide a single address to deliver to multiple recipients, registration and vetting of cooperating vendors/institutions and support for encrypted file delivery. As such, the operation of a SPEEDE EDI server by University of Texas at Austin provided a valuable resource to the academic and vendor community by keeping these “hub” responsibilities separate from any one organization’s e-Transcript services. Building on this tradition, OpenSPEEDE will provide more options to colleges in how they send and receive transcripts through EDI or XML standards regardless of their vendor organization. More than 2,000 postsecondary institutions send or receive e-Transcripts through one of the collaborating organization’s services.

In addition to supporting the exchange of transcripts in the EDI data format, OpenSPEEDE will interface with EDexchange, a federated exchange network being developed by the Common Data Services (CDS) Task Force within Postsecondary Education Standards Council (PESC). Tim Calhoon, director of the California Community Colleges Technology Center and co-chair of the CDS task force, describes EDexchange as making it possible for “any provider using these standards and registered in the service network to communicate directly with the appropriate exchange host for a targeted institution.”

This announcement follows the recent news that the University of Texas at Austin has chosen to assess transition operations of the EDI exchange server, which they had hosted for nearly two decades, in collaboration with the National Student Clearinghouse, which operates a proprietary e-Transcript service. “We welcome the National Student Clearinghouse to use this assessment period to join in this effort, unifying the major e-Transcripts vendors in an open and collaborative process around operating SPEEDE EDI,” said Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D., Parchment CEO.

Current plans call for the OpenSPEEDE gateway to be running in the summer of 2013, along with support for the EDexchange network. “This will provide more options to high schools, states and colleges in how they send and receive standards-based transcripts whether as EDI or XML, unifying the network that was built through the work of the SPEEDE committee with the growing adoption of the standards being developed within PESC,” said Michael Sessa PESC president and CEO.

Learn more about OpenSPEEDE at http://www.openspeede.org.

About Parchment
Parchment is the leader in electronic transcript (e-Transcript) exchange. More than 9,000 high schools (over 30 percent of the U.S. secondary school market) and postsecondary institutions have exchanged 6 million transcripts using the Docufide by Parchment™ and Avow by Parchment™ SaaS platforms. Beyond providing the cost and operational efficiencies of electronic transcripts, Parchment works with learners and institutions around the world to unlock the value of transcript and credential data – helping people collect, promote, and share their education credentials in simple and secure ways. Founded in 2003, Parchment Inc. is a venture-backed company headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. with offices in Roseville, Calif., Denver, and Washington, D.C.

About Credentials Solutions
With flagship product TranscriptsPlus® and integrated automation software RoboRegistrar®, Credentials Solutions supports all major SIS platforms while providing online ordering, automated hold checking, integrated student communications with 12×5 customer service, and electronic extraction and delivery including EDI, XML and Secure PDFs. Transcript ExchangePlus™ enables client institutions to send transcripts electronically through Credentials’ secure network as well as industry accepted transcript hubs, while integrating with the eRoboMail™ service, which assumes the printing and mailing of paper transcripts. Founded in 1997, Credentials Solutions has expedited the delivery of more than 11 million transcripts for more than 150 colleges and universities nationwide.

Media Contacts

• Rajeev Arora, Parchment, Inc., 480-719-1646 x1090, pr@parchment.com

• Kristen Plemon, C. Blohm & Associates, 608-216-7300 x18, kristen@cblohm.com

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