What’s Changing
When talking with schools about Unite, one of the first questions we are asked is what is changing. Aside from the obvious differences in the user interface and web-based platform, there are a number of features that are quite different and may change the way you think about your recruiting, admissions, and administrative processes. To help prepare you for the transition, this document provides a summary of some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite.
Admissions Workflow
One of the biggest differences between ACES^2^ and Unite is that in ACES^2^ you had to run reports to see the most current information and determine next steps for application processing. In Unite, the most current information is available to you immediately on home page dashboards and admissions workflow grids. The following table lists some of the key differences that change the way you manage your applicants and process applications.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Manage applicant pool by running reports | Log on and navigate to a home page dashboard or grid to manage your applicant pool |
| Check multiple places in the system to determine if an application is complete | Set up and use a verification checklist for each application type |
| Enter conditions and run a report to see applications by status | See current applications by status on different workflow grids |
Emails and Events
Unite makes it easy to engage with people and manage events without having to schedule a report and with minimum number of events to create. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Run an email report to send emails | Select people and send an email |
| Schedule an email report | Design automated, interactive email campaigns |
| Incorporate limited design in email messages |
Use pre-built templates to quickly design attractive and effective messages |
| Associate people with events in order to group them |
Add and associate people to groupings when events are not applicable |
Group Actions and Edits
In Unite, you can perform group actions and edits from multiple grids rather than jumping around the system to complete different tasks. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite with regards to group actions and edits.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Jump around to different areas to perform a single group update |
Access an Actions menu on every workflow grid |
| Multiple steps to perform a batch update | Select the records, then make the edits |
| Data edit grid | Inline edit grid |
| Identify deferred applications by current and/or decision status |
Identify deferred applications by sub-status |
Insights and Trends
Rather than running reports to see insights and trends, Unite provides insights and trends on different dashboards and grids that you can organize for more focused views. You can even save different views on grids to see the latest information without having to organize the grid each time. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite capabilities for viewing insights and trends.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Schedule a report based on conditions | Organize grids and dashboards (filtering, sorting, grouping), and save custom views |
| Run export reports to see current information about prospects and applicants | Navigate to a workflow grid to see current information |
| Run Crystal reports to see current and historical trends |
See current and historical trends on dashboard |
| Integrate with SAP Crystal Reports | Build custom, interactive dashboards with the information that is most important to you |
| Run an email report to send an email | Email and report functionality are completely separate |
Prospects and Applicants
Instead of having a prospect record and potentially multiple applicant records for the same person, Unite allows you to manage everything about a person in a single record. Fewer clicks mean more efficient record keeping for prospects, applicants, and matriculants. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite when it comes to managing details about people and applications.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Prospect records and applicant records | Person records with application records included |
| Archived records for applicants | Archived records for prospects, applicants, and matriculants |
| - | Closed applications |
| Fast edit | Contact card |
| Application documents | Person profile documents and application documents |
| Open and close records when reviewing from a grid |
Browse through records currently showing on a grid |
Review Administration
Unite has new features to help you manage applications that are ready for review and in review. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Use review process administration (RPA) reports to assign applications for reviews | Select applications from a grid, and assign them for review |
| Facilitate sequential or concurrent reviews with multiple reviewers | Facilitate sequential, concurrent, and committee reviews with multiple reviewers |
| Select multiple reviewers to create an ad-hoc review group |
Add and work with standard review groups or create ad-hoc review groups |
| Look at a standard Concat score to assess summary reviewer recommendations | Build your own reviewer recommendation summary view on the workflow grids |
Statuses
Unite offers a standard admissions workflow that uses stages, statuses, and sub-statuses to organize people and applications. Where current statuses and decisions statuses were unique to each school in ACES^2^, statuses in Unite are more consistent across schools and are used much differently to manage people and applications. The following table lists some of the key differences between how statuses work in ACES^2^ and Unite.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Prospect record and applicant record | Stages to identify whether a person is a prospect, applicant, or matriculant |
| Custom statuses that are unique to every school |
Standard statuses that every school uses |
| Decision reporting to LSAC at the end of each admissions cycle |
Integrated and streamlined status reporting throughout the admissions cycle |
| Current / decision status to categorize applications |
Status / Sub-statuses to further categorize both people and applications |
| One current / decision status per application | One status, multiple sub-statuses to categorize both people and applications |
System Settings
Unite automates and consolidates system settings and fields, making system administration easier and quicker. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite regarding system configuration settings.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| 27 general settings | Ten general settings |
| Matching settings | Automatic matching |
| Configure data flow settings for CAS reports |
Configure data flow settings for CRS queries, applications, and CAS reports |
| System fields, user-defined fields, and default values managed in multiple places | One area to manage system fields, user-defined fields, and default values |
User Administration
Instead of each user account having a unique set of permissions, Unite uses role-based security to manage access rights. With role-based security, users acquire permissions through assigned user roles. The following table lists some of the key differences between ACES^2^ and Unite user accounts and permissions.
ACES2 |
Unite |
|---|---|
| Assign permissions to a user account | Assign permissions to a user role |
| Copy permissions from one user account to another user account | Assign a user role to a user account |
| - | Optionally customize user accounts and override user role permissions |