Registrar and Enrollment Services
Answer it for the whole list, not one student at a time
Graduation clearance, at-risk advisees, credential counts, and reverse transfer candidates run as lists your team defines once and every advisor runs every term. Every document that is not a transcript goes out without the merge.
Running Argos at community colleges, private institutions, and public university systems
The situation
The office got more technical. The tooling assumed it would not.
Registrar's offices are staffed differently than they were a decade ago. Fewer people doing data entry, more people who administer systems, write queries, and own integrations. The work that arrived with them is degree audit, credentialing, transfer articulation, and curriculum management, and most of it has no report behind it.
01
The caseload question has no screen
Self-service shows one student. Which of my advisees are failing something, which are off their plan, which have a hold they do not know about: those are questions about four hundred students, and there is no place to ask them.
02
Graduation clearance runs on a spreadsheet somebody owns
Who is on track, who is short a requirement, who has an exception pending. The list gets rebuilt every term, and the person who knows how it works is the risk nobody has written down.
03
Credentials and transfer both end in a list nobody has
Microcredentials, certificates, badges, and stackable awards on one side. On the other, students who have already earned an associate degree nobody has given them, because the credits came back from somewhere else. Both are populations you have to go find.
04
Everything that is not a transcript is still assembled by hand
Verification letters, grade mailers, diploma inserts, schedules for an employer, grade reports back to a high school. Transcripts may have gone to a vendor. None of these did.
Governed self-service
The question an advisor has is about all of them at once
Your team defines the population and the permissions once. An advisor opens the list they have been granted, filtered to whatever they need to act on this week, without an ERP account and without anyone in your office pulling it.
Who can open what is decided at the folder and DataBlock level, in one place, and the same permissions cover the report, the dashboard, and the plain-language answer. When somebody changes role you revoke it centrally.
- Midterm grades, missing requirements, holds, and registration status across a whole caseload
- Views built for advisors, chairs, and deans, each permissioned to the people who hold that role
- On Banner, an advisee list can be written to return the advisees attached to whoever opened it, because Banner already holds that assignment
- No ERP seat or login, with unlimited users under the institutional license
- Built by your team, run by everyone else, with no SQL in between
“By implementing a completely automated workflow, we achieved faster service delivery, improved accuracy, reduced staff workload, and a better student experience.”
Asma Saif Almazrouei · Head of Registration Systems · University of Sharjah
Argos X
Degree audit tells you who is short. It does not tell you what to do about it.
A clearance list is the start of the conversation. The next questions are which requirement is missing, how many students are missing the same one, and whether a section of it is even offered next term. Each of those is a different cut of the same data, and each one currently comes back to your office.
Explore Data and Pivot Mode reshape the result without writing a query. Argos Data Agent answers the follow-up in plain language and shows the SQL, so the number is checkable before it goes to a dean.
- Clearance lists that update as requirements are satisfied instead of being rebuilt each term
- Which requirement is blocking the most students, and whether it is scheduled
- Argos Data Agent for plain-language follow-ups, with the SQL visible
- Dashboard Designer, Explore Data, and Pivot Mode are included with Argos at no additional cost
- Argos Data Agent is licensed separately, in Core and Advanced tiers
FormFusion and Argos
Every document that is not a transcript
Plenty of institutions moved transcripts to a vendor years ago, and that was a reasonable thing to do. Everything else stayed, and it splits two ways.
Where your ERP already runs a job for the document, FormFusion takes that output and turns it into the finished piece: verification letters, grade mailers, grade reports, with your branding, the fields the baseline template cannot carry, and delivery by encrypted email, portal, imaging, or printer. Where the ERP has no job for it, Argos produces the document from the record: a diploma insert, a dual enrollment agreement, a letter to a partner high school, generated and delivered on a schedule without a separate application.
- FormFusion, on the jobs your ERP already runs: enrollment and degree verification letters, grade mailers, grade reports
- Argos, for the documents your ERP has no job for: diploma inserts, dual enrollment agreements, letters to partner high schools
- Both delivered by encrypted email, into the portal or imaging, or to a printer when a partner still requires paper
- Neither requires the other, and both run alongside a transcript vendor
“Argos retrieves the student information, applies it to standardized templates, and generates the official document automatically. This frees the registration team from tasks that previously consumed hours during busy periods.”
Asma Saif Almazrouei · Head of Registration Systems · University of Sharjah
The official record
Count what you now award, and count it the same way next year
Two problems arrived together. You now award more kinds of credentials than the record was designed around, and you still have to defend a census figure years after the people who produced it have moved on.
Credentials, certificates, and non-degree awards get counted on definitions your office writes rather than on whatever the module happens to group them by. Census definitions get saved as a governed object with their parameters, so next year's count is run the same way and the method is documented for the auditor. Argos saves the definition, not the data: the frozen figure is the file you produce on census day, scheduled every term, and the saved definition is what makes the two files comparable.
- Microcredentials, certificates, badges, and stackable awards counted on your own definitions
- Reverse transfer candidates identified rather than discovered
- Census and cohort definitions saved once and run the same way in a future year, with the census file produced on the day and scheduled every term
- Clearinghouse, NSLDS, and state files produced to spec rather than reformatted
The list nobody rebuilds next term
Graduation clearance, at-risk advisees, credential counts, built once and run every term inside the limits IT set. See it in a demo.
In their words
Records offices, on what stopped being manual
Each automated a records process that had been running on staff time, usually during the busiest weeks of the term.
Outcome
A standardized transcript process across campuses, with unofficial transcripts available to students on demand around the clock. Just over 3,500 issued in a year.
“
As our student population continued to grow, it became increasingly difficult to maintain service levels with a manual process.
Asma Saif Almazrouei, Head of Registration Systems
University of Sharjah
Student Services
More than 10,700 enrollment letters generated and delivered through an automated workflow, replacing manual retrieval, template population, and individual emailing during peak periods.
Outcome
Governed self-service reporting across academic units, with report access decoupled from ERP accounts.
“
As Registrar, my mantra is to automate any and all functions where possible.
Steve Voudouris, Registrar
Holmesglen Institute of TAFE
Student Administration
Automated daily communications replaced mailed notices, improving timeliness and student response while cutting postage and paper.
Related
The same record touches three other offices
Institutional Research
Census definitions, IPEDS, and the submissions your number feeds.
Financial Aid
Enrollment status changes, disbursement eligibility, and the NSLDS handoff.
Admissions
The applicant becomes a student in your record; the checklist letter and the term start are shared work.
Argos Data Agent
The follow-up question about a caseload, answered in plain language with the SQL shown.
How it fits
Where this sits relative to what you already run
With your ERP
Your ERP remains the system of record for registration, grades, and the academic record. Argos queries it directly through governed objects and FormFusion produces the documents it generates. Neither replaces it, and neither requires you to move data into a warehouse first.
With Ellucian Insights
Insights aggregates data across Ellucian products on a managed data layer. Argos works directly against your own environment, covering dashboards through Dashboard Designer, conversational analysis through Argos Data Agent, compliance output, and scheduled delivery, on definitions your team controls. Most institutions run both.
Versus your current process
Today the graduation clearance list is a spreadsheet, an advisor's question about their caseload is a query request, a verification letter is a manual merge, and the census definition lives in a query somebody wrote three years ago. Each of those is fine until the person holding it leaves or an auditor asks how a number was derived.
Trust and security
You take security seriously. So do we.
The Trust Center is published and the HECVAT is available on request, so a reviewer can start before anyone schedules a call.
Permissions are enforced, never overridden
A report can only be opened by someone your office has permissioned to run it, and the view built for advisors carries what advisors need. So advisors can run it themselves without a policy exception.
Authentication
LDAP group sync and SAML SSO configured once at the MAPS layer, with permission tiers set per product in the same place, by the same team.
Production performance
Query queuing and priority keep reporting load from competing with registration.
Data handling
FERPA-aligned practices, encryption in transit, and AES-encrypted password-protected document delivery. For Argos Data Agent, masking or redaction of sensitive fields.
Deployment
On-premises, hybrid, or SaaS, with the same permission model in each.
Documentation
Trust Center, and a HECVAT (the standard higher education security questionnaire) on request.
Frequently asked questions
Questions we get asked first
Can an advisor see only their own advisees?
Access is granted per folder and DataBlock, so a view built for one group is permissioned to that group and nobody else can open it. Your team controls that in one place, and the same model covers dashboards and Argos Data Agent. For advisees specifically, on Banner the list can be written to return the advisees attached to whoever opened it, because Banner already holds that assignment; it is set up in how the query is written.
Do advisors need a Banner or Colleague login?
No. Licensing is per institution with unlimited users, and report access does not require an ERP seat.
How does this satisfy FERPA?
Permissions are set at the folder and DataBlock level, in one place, and a person can only open what they have been granted. Views are built for the role that needs them instead of trusting each person to filter appropriately.
Can we freeze census and reproduce it later?
Argos saves the definition, not the data. The frozen figure is the file you produce on census day, which Argos can schedule every term. The saved definition is what makes next year's file comparable and what an auditor asks to see.
Can we produce Clearinghouse and NSLDS files without reformatting?
Yes. Fixed-width and delimited extracts go to agencies in the format they require, and can be scheduled.
Does this work with our degree audit data?
Argos queries whatever your ERP holds, including degree audit tables. Tell us which product you run and we will confirm specifics.
Can we count microcredentials and certificates separately from degrees?
Yes, on definitions your office writes rather than on however the module groups them. If your institution distinguishes a stackable certificate from a standalone one, that distinction lives in the object and reports consistently everywhere it is used.
Can an advisor see which of their advisees are at risk, instead of one record at a time?
That is the most common reason a registrar's office calls us. One list returns the whole caseload filtered to whatever matters this week: midterm grades, missing requirements, holds, registration status. Built by your team, permissioned to the advisors who need it.
Does this help with reverse transfer?
With the part that lives in your own record. At a four-year, Argos can list students who transferred in from a community college with enough combined credit to be worth sending back, along with whether consent is on file where you record it. At a community college, once returned credits are posted, the candidates become a list instead of a discovery. The degree decision still runs through your audit.
Can we report on catalog and curriculum alongside the student record?
Yes, provided the data is in a system Argos can reach. Curriculum management sometimes sits outside the ERP, and Argos connects to it as another source instead of requiring it to be moved.
What is included with Argos, and what is licensed separately?
Dashboard Designer, Explore Data, and Pivot Mode are included with Argos at no additional cost. Argos Data Agent is licensed separately, in Core and Advanced tiers.
What happens to student data when someone uses Data Agent?
Argos Data Agent operates under Zero Data Retention, honors existing permissions, and supports masking and redaction of sensitive fields. It runs against governed objects instead of the raw database.
Do we need Argos to use FormFusion?
No. They are separate products doing separate jobs, and each reads your ERP directly. Offices that run both use each for what it is built for: Argos to answer questions against your data, FormFusion to turn ERP output into the finished document.
We use a transcript vendor. Does that matter?
No. Most institutions we work with have transcripts somewhere else, and both products run alongside that. FormFusion picks up the documents your ERP already runs a job for, such as verification letters and grade mailers. Argos produces the ones it does not, such as diploma inserts and dual enrollment agreements.
Will eTranscripts still work after we move to Banner SaaS?
Yes. In Banner SaaS an API FormDirector maintains eTranscript compatibility by sending output to an API endpoint instead of a printer or email queue.
How does this coexist with Ellucian Insights?
Insights aggregates across Ellucian products on a managed data layer. Argos runs against your own environment on your team's definitions. Most institutions run both.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on how many document processes you want automated on day one. Professional Services scopes it with you. The people doing that scoping ran campus IT and institutional reporting before they worked here.
What does it cost, and can we talk to a registrar like us?
Licensing is per institution rather than per user, and price is driven by institution size and product mix rather than headcount. Argos, Argos X, FormFusion, and IntelleCheck all carry unlimited users and unlimited connections, with no per-connection or per-report charge and nothing billed for people who only read reports. The one exception is Argos Data Agent Advanced, which is licensed per seat. Data Agent Core is unlimited. Tell us your FTE and which products you are weighing and we will give you a real figure on the first call, then put you in touch with an institution of roughly your size and ERP. Ask them about support while you are there. It is in-house, and it is the thing customers raise unprompted more than anything else.
Next step
A term without the rebuild
Get a demo and see the registrar's lists run from governed objects on your own student record.
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