Hershey Systems and DARS Form Partnership to Support Applications Processing for Colleges and Universities

SANTA FE SPRINGS — May 15, 2006 — Hershey Systems Inc., the fastest growing provider of document and process management solutions exclusively for higher education, and Miami University’s Degree Audit Reporting System, DARS, have partnered to provide an end-to-end solution for rapidly processing student transcripts. The seamless integration between Hershey's Singularity and DARS' DARwin products now provides colleges and institutions with a complete and efficient software tool set for rapidly processing student transfer credit. Incoming students’ transfer credit can now be processed in a fraction of the time it takes using traditional methods. Students can now review their transfer credit status prior to the completion of the enrollment process. "Utilizing the Hershey/DARS integrated solution allows the institution to focus on recruiting new students, improving student satisfaction, and insuring student success – our solution removes the need for tedious data entry,” said Steve Koch, Vice President and DARS Partner Consultant. In short, this solution provides the infrastructure that allows institutions to meet their recruiting goals.

The partnership between Hershey and DARS insures that the seamless integration between Singularity and DARS, both robust mission critical solutions, will continue to be enhanced. The integration provides a huge efficiency gain to the faculty and staff while helping to insure student success. Traditionally, transfer credit processing methodologies have involved duplication of effort and heavy data entry. In fact, most institutions have a backlog of transcripts that need to be processed. Prior to the partnership, the time required to process a single transcript, including time spent in the backlog could be as high as many weeks. Utilizing the Hershey/DARS solution, processing can be facilitated in real-time. This best-of-breed integration utilizes archiving technology, workflow technology, and the DARS API to securely transfer 'reviewed and verified' data between Singularity and DARwin. The process is as follows:

  1. Within Singularity, a workflow is launched the moment a transcript is received; this process instantaneously files the transcript for retrieval, automatically reads the data on the transcript and verifies that the data is valid.
  2. Singularity Workflow then transfers the verified data to DARS, and makes the data and the result of the transfer available within Singularity Workflow for review.

Two simple steps - automated and completed within seconds. The new DARS/Hershey Interface was created on the campus of The University of North Texas (UNT). The Singularity/DARS solution is marketed to higher education institutions across the United States. “While we have been working informally with Hershey for the last eight years, we believe that our new relationship will allow us to provide our clients with a seamless interface” said Jason Elwood, Director, Miami University. “Together, the integrated solutions will help to enable a faster, simpler and cost effective integration of solutions, thereby providing quick 'wins' for the university and more importantly for the students.” The partnership between Hershey and DARS fills the gap by bridging the Student Information System, Degree Audit and Document Management infrastructure.

About DARS

DARS was developed by Miami University in the early 80’s and has been helping institutions automate their academic policies, degree requirements and transfer equivalencies for over 20 years. Higher education has changed incredibly since 1983, and in the area of degree audit reporting DARS has led the way in providing effective service to institutions and to the individual student. DARS is licensed and used by over 280 institutions large and small around the US and Canada. DARS serves as a vehicle for both Advisors and Students to track progress towards degree completion throughout their academic career.

About Hershey Systems

Hershey Systems, Inc. provides innovative software solutions to more than 200 Higher Education Institutions across the United States. Hershey is focused on the higher education market and is recognized as the leading provider of student-centered solutions. Hershey's software solutions for higher education include the Singularity Suite, DocBox XE and MedPro. The Singularity Suite is a web-based document management and process software product that enables our clients to manage all critical business processes and documents. In addition Hershey offers an Internet appliance device, the DocBox XE, an "all in one" Internet appliance device created to allow the secure disbursement of mission critical documents; MedPro is a practice management software product developed specifically to meet the unique needs of Student Health Centers. Hershey is has corporate offices in the following locations: Los Angeles, California - Sacramento, California - Des Moines, Iowa - Charlotte, North Carolina - London, United Kingdom.

For more information on Hershey Systems:

Amy Chung
(562) 483-6900 X126
amy.chung@hershey.com
www.hershey.com

For more information on DARS:

Miami University DARS
Business Relations & Marketing Associate
Julie Maxwell,
(513)529-9886
maxwelje@muohio.edu