"Being able to take all of the payments in one system, being able to issue certificates from one system, it's all given us a one-stop shop."
Overview
The oldest and largest technology center in Oklahoma’s Career Tech System, Tulsa Tech is a career and technology center school district dedicated to accelerating independence in students through hands-on learning in state-of-the-art facilities. Established in 1965 as part of Tulsa Public Schools, Tulsa Tech stands as a beacon of educational excellence, offering a diverse range of opportunities to equip students for successful careers.
With a network of six strategically located campuses throughout the Tulsa metropolitan area, Tulsa Tech serves both high school and adult students, ensuring that quality education is always within reach. Central to Tulsa Tech’s mission is its commitment to facilitating work-based experiences and job placement for students. The institution’s Workforce Economic Development division comprises two key teams: Adult Career Development (ACD) and Business Industry Services (BIS), which together serve individual learners pursuing personal enrichment as well as corporate partners with employee training needs.
Since January 2020, Tulsa Tech has relied on Enrole and Informer from Entrinsik to manage the complex registration, payment, and reporting needs across its diverse student populations and business partnerships.
Key Pain Points
- Limited Functionality
Elevate couldn’t accommodate essential operations like sub-sessions or certain record modifications that were critical for workforce training programs - Fragmented Systems
Multiple touchpoints required to complete registration, payment processing, and certificate issuance created inefficiency and user frustration - Complex Multi-Unit Coordination
Different business units (ACD, BIS, Finance) needed coordinated access without stepping on each other’s workflows - Manual Reporting Burden
Lack of integrated reporting meant staff couldn’t access critical data without constant IT support and custom development - Integration Headaches
Pushing data to their SIS (Colleague) required cumbersome manual processes and constant troubleshooting
Challenge
Before implementing Enrole, Tulsa Tech faced significant operational challenges with their legacy system. The outdated platform lacked the flexibility and functionality needed to support the institution’s unique workforce development model, which requires serving multiple distinct audiences through a single, cohesive platform.
The challenges extended beyond just technology limitations. Tulsa Tech needed a solution that could:
- Handle complex registration workflows for both traditional students and corporate training programs
- Consolidate operations across multiple business units (ACD, BIS, Finance, and IT)
- Provide flexibility to accommodate career tech processes that differed significantly from traditional higher education workflows
- Enable seamless data integration with their student information system (Colleague) without creating bottlenecks
- Empower end-users to manage their own data and reporting needs without constant IT intervention
As Rachel Bowling, Tulsa Tech’s Enrole administrator, explained:
We service two business units that form our workforce economic development. We have business and industry partners, and we also have adult career development. We needed to pull all those classes all into one system, register all of those attendees, whether it be for their own personal enrichment or for a partner, client, employer that we’re working with.
Solution
In 2020, Tulsa Tech selected Enrole as their centralized platform for managing course registration, payments, and student services across all workforce development programs. The decision was driven by Enrole’s scalability and flexibility, Informer reporting, and the knowledge of a truly integrated solution with Colleague.
The implementation, led by Enrole’s implementation team, began just as Rachel Bowling joined the organization.
My first week new to the organization, the Enrole team was onsite for training,” Rachel recalled. “I was in a classroom full of ACD, BIS, and IT people I had never met and was assigned to Enrole with no prior knowledge.
Key implementation strategies included:
- Centralized Platform Architecture
Enrole became the single source of truth for course creation, session management, order processing, and payment handling across all business units. Rachel described it: “I don’t have to worry about going over here and doing stuff here and going over to this spot and doing stuff there. I do it all from one place.” - Integrated Reporting with Informer
The Informer instance provided with Enrole eliminated the need for separate reporting tool evaluation. Standard reports came pre-configured, and custom reports could be created by business unit staff with appropriate permissions—particularly those responsible for state reporting data. - Robust Integration Framework
Tulsa Tech implemented multiple integration pathways between Enrole and Colleague:- Colleague Connector for immediate data push to their SIS
- Hourly SFTP of courses, sessions, and orders for records modified that day
- Whole dataset SFTP to their on-premises Informer instance (purchased separately with COVID funding) to enable cross-system data analysis
- Role-Based Access Model
IT administrators support both Enrole and Informer for the entire organization, while business units own their data and processes. Different roles have appropriate access levels; staff can place orders and take payments, coordinators can modify courses and sessions, and specialized staff can create custom reports. - Change Management Approach
Rachel’s team consolidated the initial 3-4 weekly meetings into a single weekly session for all business units, then gradually reduced frequency as adoption progressed. They established a Microsoft Teams channel for Enrole questions and announcements, maintained a OneNote notebook for meeting notes and documentation, and leveraged Entrinsik’s Knowledge Base Articles extensively during COVID-related remote work.
My saving grace early on was being shut down for COVID,” Rachel noted. “When we moved to remote work, I used that time to go through Entrinsik’s Knowledge Base Articles. I followed along in Test, as well as creating my own documentation.
Results
The implementation of Enrole has transformed Tulsa Tech’s workforce development operations, delivering both operational efficiencies and improved user experiences across the institution.
Operational Excellence
- One-Stop Shop for All Transactions
Enrole consolidated previously fragmented workflows into a single platform. “Being able to take all of the payments in one system, being able to issue certificates from one system, it’s all given us a one-stop shop,” Rachel explained. - Enhanced Data Integration
While the integration between Enrole and Colleague remains complex, the automated data flow through the Colleague Connector and hourly SFTP update processes has eliminated the manual data transfers that previously consumed staff time. - Automated Communications
After five years on the platform, Tulsa Tech recently implemented automated invoice emailing through Informer reports—eliminating printing costs and manual distribution processes. “We’ve been on Enrole for 5 years now and we’re excited to stop spending funds on printing invoices and postage to mail them out by utilizing the Correspondence portal to email them instead!” Rachel shared.
User Empowerment & Satisfaction
- Intuitive Navigation & Ease of Use
Despite the initial learning curve of transitioning from legacy systems, end-users find Enrole straightforward. “I think navigation as well as being able to create or modify records is a simple process,” Rachel noted. “I think once you figure out where certain records live going in to edit those records and making any changes are simple. Enrole also tracks everyone’s changes!” - Powerful Mass Operations
End-users particularly appreciate efficiency features like mass update and copy functionality for courses and sessions, as well as bulk import capabilities eliminating repetitive manual data entry. - Student Self-Service
The external ecommerce cart allows students to register online, access their accounts to pay balances, and download certificates independently reducing administrative burden while improving their student experience.
Partnership & Support Excellence
Rachel described the Entrinsik team as “super personable” and noted that I feel like I can approach everybody.” She continued: “I create more tickets to Entrinsik than anyone else, and I’m very grateful that they are always answered with the same level of willingness to help!”
The ongoing product development also impressed Tulsa Tech’s team. “I’d like to commend the Enrole team for their development efforts. It’s literally never ending!” Rachel said. “I think it’s great that new versions are being released periodically… those come with release notes, so we know specifically what’s new and what to test for.”
When asked why she would recommend Enrole to others, Rachel emphasized:
The level of support and consistent efforts towards making sure that what we need and how we need to function as an institution is being met whether it be through integrations, whether it be changing how the standard product is actually delivered and enhancing that product to meet modern innovation.
Looking Forward
As Tulsa Tech continues to evolve, Enrole remains central to their technology strategy. The institution is exploring whether to migrate from Colleague to a more career tech-focused student information system in the coming years, driven by cost considerations and functional alignment. Regardless of that decision, the flexibility and customization capabilities that Enrole provides position it as a critical component of Tulsa Tech’s ecosystem.
Entrinsik is really flexible,” Rachel noted. “You are able to configure and make it work for you in your own environment so that you can still move forward and do the things that you need to make sure you’re meeting every student’s need, but still function as a company and as a unit.
In Rachel’s words, if she had to describe Enrole in one word, it would be “centralized” and if she had to describe Informer, it would be “powerful.” Together, these tools have given Tulsa Tech the integrated, flexible, and user-friendly platform they need to serve their diverse student populations and business partners effectively.
"The level of support and consistent efforts towards making sure that what we need and how we need to function as an institution is being met whether it be through integrations, whether it be changing how the standard product is actually delivered and enhancing that product to meet modern innovation."
