Client Overview
The Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) is the accrediting agency for education programs that prepare students for careers as registered dietitian nutritionists and dietetic technicians. ACEND accredits more than 600 programs, including undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and post-baccalaureate dietetic internships, ensuring that students meet the educational standards to become credentialed professionals in the dietetics field.
The Challenge
ACEND sought a solution to manage its complex accreditation processes that span various program types and feature their own unique requirements.
They wanted to leave their old accreditation management software behind, as it was clunky, outdated, not intuitive, and – like most outdated systems – not customizable.
Over time, flexibility turned into a necessity. As an example, ACEND utilizes an annual survey to collect data from ACEND-accredited programs. This process was done manually, and it became increasingly important that ACEND have the ability to revise, add, and remove questions from their annual data collection survey form without going through IT support, as well as streamline the entire site visit process. It also became increasingly important to centralize data into one system.
Beyond that, having the latest and greatest form designing features was top of mind to ensure flexibility and meet ACEND’s fast-evolving needs– like the ability to show and hide questions, customize the form heading text, preview uploaded documents, and use custom rules to enforce formatting of responses.
Thus began the search for an efficient, streamlined system that could handle the accreditation of both traditional and distance education programs while enabling staff to track and manage accreditation statuses, site visits, and communication. They required a solution robust enough to handle multiple layers of data and flexible enough to meet future needs.
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The Approach
Cobalt implemented its Engagement Dynamics platform, a powerful CRM built on Dynamics 365, to help ACEND manage its accreditation process now and in the future.
Nearly every feature of Dynamics 365 and Engagement Dynamics is built with flexibility in mind. Cobalt’s out-of-the-box form designer provided a lot of the advanced needs that the team needed. We’ve iterated upon the designer to add even more impactful features over the years.
Cobalt tailored the system to meet ACEND’s specific needs, ensuring that the council could efficiently track and manage accreditation data for programs offered across different educational levels and modalities.
Throughout the project, Cobalt provided expert implementation guidance from hundreds of implementations, and ACEND showcased their commitment to the success of the project by working in tandem with the implementation team, attending new feature walkthroughs, providing input, making decisions along with their Cobalt implementation Project Manager, and completing various milestones and delivering the project in a timely manner.
Insights
Through the partnership with Cobalt, ACEND was able to significantly streamline the accreditation process and start enjoying the customizable aspects of a modern system.
By utilizing Engagement Dynamics, they centralized all their data into one system, eliminating the need for multiple tools and data silos. This allowed their team to quickly access and manage accredited program data and site visit statuses, and efficiently track accreditation activities by their educational programs.
Cobalt’s dedicated guidance and ACEND’s willingness to collaborate as true partners made the transition smooth. ACEND also benefited from Cobalt’s expertise in helping them leverage the platform’s features, which have resulted in better data tracking and more streamlined accreditation workflows.
This improvement has allowed ACEND to focus on its mission of maintaining high educational standards, confident that the system will evolve alongside their needs.
Cobalt’s Engagement Dynamics improved our efficiency by enabling us to track the entire accreditation process in one system. The flexibility of their annual report forms is a standout feature, allowing us to easily collect data from accredited institutions. We’ve also been impressed with Cobalt’s personalized support. The Support team knows our system and responds quickly to our requests.
Jamie Pak, MA, LPC, NCC, EMDR, Manager, Program Accreditation