Searching for a new certification management system for your organization can be a big task. With so many options and approaches out there, how can you make such a big decision (and investment) with such little confidence?
Whatever certification management system you choose should accomplish a list of 10 tasks that we here at ROC-P have found to be essential for efficient certification cycles.
Before you choose a new certification management system, ask if it can:
- Centralize your certification data and tasks
- Adapt to changing certification requirements
- Automate routine tasks and communications
- Ensure complete and accurate data entry
- Generate reports on demand
- Integrate with common third-party platforms
- Provide increased data access security
- Import data easily and seamlessly
- Slash your administration time
- Help your organization grow and scale
If the answer to any of these questions was “no,” you could be headed toward a frustrating future where your organization is stuck with expensive software that can’t keep pace (if it could do everything you need in the first place).
Why are these 10 capabilities so important to certification success? We’ll explain.
10 Things Every Certification Management System Should Do
1. Centralize your certification data and tasks
For many boards and organizations, certification management is handled through a hodge-podge of internet tools never designed to work together. That makes it hard to do the things that help your organization run more efficiently, whether that’s generating reports from your data or identifying bottlenecks in your application process.
ROC-P brings all of your data and essential certification management functions into one intuitive system, so there’s never any question about where your data or particular tasks live.
2. Adapt to changing certification requirements
Your certification management system may fit your current application workflows, but can it adapt to future ones without having to resort to custom development? For many platforms, the answer is no. For ROC-P, it’s a yes.
Our platform is the industry’s most configurable certification management solution out of the box, and can adapt to fit any new requirement that might arise in your certification cycles. Add new form fields, build new workflows and create automation rules without having to get developers involved.
We’re so confident in our platform’s versatility that we’ll develop a new solution if it doesn’t do everything you need for certification management. (Read more about our Certification Cycle Challenge.)
3. Automate routine tasks and communications
When it comes to certification administration, you know how many hours are sucked up by routine tasks and manual operations. Whether it’s processing exam applications or sending out confirmations, your staff is stuck performing the same tasks over and over again.
With ROC-P, you can automate verification systems to decrease time spent on requests by up to 75%, and reduce staff time by uploading and delivering exam results in bulk. The time saving opportunities are truly endless.
4. Ensure complete and accurate data entry
These days, it’s easy to build web forms to gather information from your applicants, but it’s a lot harder to verify that information is complete. For many boards and organizations, that means assigning a staff member to track down and correct information already submitted so it doesn’t make a mess of your database.
ROC-P solves this by allowing you to create smart forms that can accept nearly any file type and require information written in the proper format. Imagine if your 5,000-candidate organization could save just 1 minute in research for every candidate—that’s over two weeks in time savings for one staff member alone.
5. Generate reports on demand
With your data scattered around the internet, it can be hard, if not impossible, to bring your data together in a timely manner. Even if you have your data at hand, your team may not have the ability to bring it to life with engaging, accurate visuals.
If one of your organization’s directors asked you how many certifications you awarded last year, or how many applications you have in your pipeline right now, would you be able to pull that information?
ROC-P’s centralized platform makes it simple to generate visual, on-demand reports that help your leaders make sense of certification and application trends. Never wonder about your numbers again!
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6. Integrate with common third-party tools
A certification management system is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to your organization’s IT environment. You might also use an association management system (AMS) or a customer relationship management system (CRM) to run your operations; if that’s the case, it’s critical that your certification management platform integrates with those tools, otherwise you’re just creating new headaches for your team.
ROC-P has been designed to work seamlessly with popular third-party software solutions, giving you powerful certification management without an IT overhaul. Ask our team about your specific platforms to make sure they’re compatible.
7. Provide increased data access security
For organizations still cobbling together websites and online databases for certification management, one of the biggest challenges in securing your candidates’ personal data is the fact that passwords are shared between a rotating collection of staff, volunteers and leadership (and often not changed after the fact). How can you protect your data if you don’t even know who has the password to access it?
ROC-P was built with data security in mind, from its dedicated user login to its comprehensive logging and access locking capabilities. It’s compliant with industry security standards, so you can rest assured that your data is protected.
8. Import data easily and seamlessly
Bringing your data over to a new certification management system is an essential, yet scary part of the process. For organizations with thousands of records spread across multiple databases, the thought of bringing it together in a unified system is anxiety-inducing. For some, the fear is so great that they stay locked into their current setup, no matter how inefficient it might be.
ROC-P’s expert developers and engineers can import your existing records without limits or issues, and can help create an information architecture that fits your exact workflow. How’s that for flexibility?
9. Slash your administration time
One of the biggest reasons for investing in a new certification management system is to save time—but not all time savings are created equal. While some platforms save bits of time through basic workflow improvements and customizations, you need a platform built with efficiency and automation at heart to truly unlock time savings and ROI. Does that sound like your solution?
As one of the certification industry’s most configurable platforms, ROC-P can deliver both. From its intuitive interface to its many automated features, ROC-P is built to minimize training time and maximize time savings so your staff can focus on higher-level strategic work—the kind that always gets neglected day to day.
10. Help your organization grow and scale
If your certification management system can’t help your board or organization grow through smart, flexible workflows and scalable functionalities, what good is it in the long run? Don’t get locked into a platform that can’t adapt and support your team as you add certifications and diplomates.
ROC-P is packed with specialized features that don’t need to be activated until your organization is ready, while our SaaS cloud structure gives you unlimited storage and cutting-edge data protection, whether you have 5,000 certified individuals or 50,000. Grow without fear of maxing out your capabilities.
As you can see, there's a lot that goes into picking a new certification management system for your board or organization. Buyer's remorse is a very real thing in the world of certification management software, so make sure you're doing your homework and checking off the above list.
If you're ready to check out how ROC-P can meet all of those points, reach out today for a consultation and demo!