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University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazes a New Trail with ACS Athletics

July 30th, 2010 | Comments Off | Posted in Uncategorized

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has selected ACS Athletics as a department-wide technology solution.  A member of Conference USA, UAB provides nearly 400 student-athletes with participation opportunities in 16 sports, and the athletics department employs a full-time staff of nearly 125.  With ACS InControlTM, the Blazers will more efficiently and effectively manage the student-athlete life cycle, beginning with the recruiting process and continuing through graduation and beyond.  Further, UAB will finally eliminate antiquated and paper-driven processes that took up far too much time and institutional resources.

“ACS is the total package,” said Chad Jackson, Associate Athletics Director for Compliance. “We reviewed several other service providers, but none matched the overall product that ACS has generated. Beyond that, the ACS sales team was patient with our questions and diligent in providing the resolution we needed to solidify our decision to join the ACS team.”

The InControlTM system will provide UAB coaches with industry-leading recruiting tools such as email campaign management, initial-eligibility tracking, recruiting activity logging functions, depth chart features and much, much more.  In addition, all UAB student-athlete information will be centrally located and integrated with departments across campus involved in managing student-athlete information.  This will assist in streamlining operations, providing a heightened level of institutional control and monitoring.

Like many institutions that have not yet taken a holistic approach in implementing a technology solution, the UAB leadership realized many of its paper and manually-driven processes could not maintain the pace at which an athletics department in today’s environment is expected to operate.  Increasing costs and overhead due to inefficiency, and a commitment to improve the management and oversight of student-athlete and compliance information, led UAB to partner with ACS to take a more integrated, paperless approach.

“We have been proud of the ‘home made compliance system’ created over the years here at UAB,” Jackson said. “However, we recognized the need to remain on the cutting edge and provide our department the latest technology to enhance efficiency keeping up with the demands of today’s intercollegiate athletics world. President Carol Garrison and Athletics Director Brian Mackin were vital in supporting this move to ACS.”

ACS InControlTM will have a profound effect on UAB operations across the department.  With greater efficiency, coaches and administrators will have more time to spend improving the student-athlete experience.  With a 30-45 day expected implementation, the UAB staff will quickly see the benefits and experience immediate results with this type of technology solution.

UAB joins fellow Conference USA members Southern Methodist University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at El-Paso and the University of Memphis, as ACS Athletics customers using one or more components of the ACS InControlTM software suite.

If you would like more information on ACS Athletics, please call (512) 343-8811 or send an email to sales@acsathletics.com.

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Improves Athletics and Compliance Operations with ACS Athletics

July 12th, 2010 | Comments Off | Posted in Uncategorized

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has selected ACS InControlTM as a department-wide technology solution for managing the student-athlete life-cycle.  With ACS, all Tar Heel sport programs will use powerful recruiting tools, such as email campaign management, reporting features, activity logging and much more, in order to maintain a competitive edge.  The compliance staff will automate much of the monitoring related to recruiting, student-athlete information and playing and practice seasons, including countable athletically-related activities (CARA), allowing more time to provide valuable services to coaches and student-athletes.  ACS InControlTM will provide UNC with one platform, accessible by institutional staff members in departments all across the Chapel Hill campus, to manage student-athlete information.

“We are excited about the potential that ACS has for our coaching staffs,” said Amy Herman, Assistant Athletics Director for Compliance. “Not only does it offer our coaches a stellar recruiting tool, but it also gives them the ability to manage both their current team roster and their alumni and booster information.”

Managing the entire student-athlete life cycle was a critical aspect when it came to evaluating a potential technology solution, and the UNC coaches and staff felt that ACS Athletics provided the most comprehensive solution.

“It (ACS InControlTM) truly spans the entire life cycle of student-athletes, from their first days as prospects, throughout their careers as student-athletes, and into the post-graduation phase, as continued supporters of the program,” Herman said. “We are eager to have the capabilities of the ACS system implemented across all 28 of our sport programs.”

By reducing much of the paper-driven, cumbersome and time-consuming processes that previously existed within the department, staff members will have more time to focus on the tasks each was originally hired to do; tasks such as coaching, educating, mentoring, and generally providing the most positive student-athlete experience attainable.  With InControlTM, coaches are no longer required to submit paper recruiting logs to the compliance office and the system’s analytical capabilities greatly reduce the amount of time the Compliance staff spends monitoring recruiting activities.  Further, with online student-athlete forms and CARA logs, student-athlete information can be accessed quickly through the system, as opposed to sitting in a folder in a file cabinet.

“While these features alone make the program worthwhile, we are thrilled about the possibilities that ACS presents for our department’s support services and University as a whole,” Herman said. “The benefits of ‘going paperless’ with student-athlete forms and automating many aspects of rules monitoring is immeasurable in terms of the time that the Compliance staff will now have to focus  efforts in other areas.  Additionally, the ACS program provides our department with a common platform, accessible by all staff members, in which to store student-athlete data relevant to many departmental work functions.  With ACS in place, the possibilities and opportunities really are limitless!”

The ACS Athletics team is equally upbeat about the partnership with UNC Chapel Hill.  “The ACS Athletics staff is very excited that the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill has selected the ACS InControlTM software to improve efficiency and effectiveness for the entire athletics department,” said Kevin Bresser, ACS Vice-President of Sales.  “We’re very proud to have institutions such as UNC Chapel Hill, with a long and rich history of both athletic and academic excellence, selecting ACS Athletics as a technology solution for all sports, as well as other critical areas that drive the student-athlete life cycle.”

If you would like more information, please contact sales@acsathletics.com or call (512) 343-8811.