Serving nearly 48,000 students every year, the University of South Florida System is a high-impact, global research system dedicated to student success.
Business problem
To prepare students for life in a global environment and to improve student retention rates, USF wanted to transform the student experience with a fully mobile experience. But the need to maintain a growing number of applications was hampering their ability to deliver new capabilities. USF IT was already using Agile principles to manage projects, but needed a low-code platform that could accelerate delivery of the mobile application.
Appian solution
USF used the Appian Platform to create Archivum, a mobile application that provides access to the student–academic advisor relationship data and students’ courses of study on their mobile devices. Deployed in just three weeks, the application reduced the two-week registration and advising process to two days.
Realizing the potential of the Appian Platform, USF IT has expanded Archivum across the university, modernizing academic and business processes, including course records, medical student lottery, travel, human resource onboarding and more.
USF recently added AI chat to the application for student advisors. The conversational generative AI assistant mines student records to answer advisors’ questions about student case history, suggest agendas for student meetings, create personalized action plans for students, and draft follow-up messages to students. The chatbot saves advisors 15 minutes in prep and wrap-up for each 30-minute meeting, enabling them to spend more time with each student and give them more personalized support.
Watch: AI chatbot improves academic advising at USF
Benefits achieved
Reduced 2-week registration process to 2 days
Achieved 93% student retention in year one, exceeding their goal of 90%
Gives advisors 50% more time to meet with students by eliminating manual preparation
Saves advisors 12,500 hours/year
"With Appian, we are able to blend enterprise innovations such as agile delivery and mobile enablement to make the student experience at USF as easy as possible. Using Appian as an application platform supports our mission to leverage workplace technology to better understand health and how its future can transform our quality of life."
Sidney Fernandes
System Vice President/CIO, University of South Florida
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