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IMAGINE 2.0

KC Launches IMAGINE 2.0 Initiative to Transform the Student Experience

KC officially launched its IMAGINE 2.0 initiative with a kickoff event followed by a Student Experience Workshop.

These events mark the beginning of an ambitious, college-wide effort to completely reimagine the student journey—from initial contact with KC through graduation. The IMAGINE 2.0 initiative is focused on creating a more seamless, engaging, and student-centered experience.

By examining every aspect of the student lifecycle, KC aims to enhance satisfaction, streamline services & foster student success.

CAMPUSWORKS

CampusWorks, a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in higher education transformation, is partnering with KC to improve operations, optimize technology & create strategies that place students at the center of decision-making.

Their team will collaborate closely with KC employees throughout the IMAGINE 2.0 process—from early brainstorming to final implementation.

As part of their role, CampusWorks will assist in upgrading the college’s ERP software & lead training sessions to ensure employees can fully leverage the new tools. These improvements are designed to make campus operations more efficient & responsive to students.

kc steering committee

The individuals listed below serve on the IMAGINE 2.0 Steering Committee. If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to them.

Kara Sharman (Chair)
Brazy Sammons
Daniel Duffy
William Stowe
Philip Parnell
Donny Seals
Mike Jenkins
Kristen Stovall

IMAGINE 2.0 PROGRESS UPDATES

Click below to view periodic progress updates with IMAGINE 2.0.

Process Reimagine and Redesign:

In June and July, Kilgore team members have engaged in 48 sessions that follow the CampusWorks methodology for future state mapping:

Discovery & Observations:

Confirms priorities within the focus area. This allows us to increase focus and conversation on specific topics (pain points and opportunities) as we develop future state process maps together.

Future State Sessions:

Collaborate with key participants to develop a greater understanding of issues or pain points within current operations and to build optimal and streamlined processes focused on the ideal desired future state. This also focuses on identifying and removing process gaps, redundant steps, and ineffective practices, with the goal of improving the student and employee experience.

Area Action Planning:

Summarizes and discusses the observations, recommendations and future state process maps as well as introduce a draft roadmap for these improvements. After this session is completed, the CampusWorks teams will finalize these documents and place them in a location that each area can access.  Once all sessions are complete, we will use this documentation to facilitate the institutional prioritization discussions.


A big thank you goes out to all the teams for engaging in these critical sessions so far.  Below is a snapshot of the awesome progress and what stage each functional area is at in the Imagine 2.0 process.

One initiative that has been in the works is a “Tiger Team” with a select group of KC employees and Campus Works staff. This team has been working at a faster pace to identify optimizations and enhancements that can be implemented for Fall 2025 Dual Credit Students.

Dual Credit Tiger Team: Current Progress:

The team identified opportunities for improvement for the lifecycle of admitting, registering, billing, and invoicing dual credit students at Kilgore and are working towards implementing most of these improvements in the Fall term:

Admissions: There are two major improvements underway to the dual credit admissions processes:

  • Import of student information from the ISD- We are currently piloting an automated data import test with data from two ISD schools.
  • Residency & Intent Form- The residency/intent portion of the current DC application will be rebuilt to be compatible with J1, and we will have to create a workflow to capture that information after the data import.

The team decided that the focus for the fall term will be to pilot the automated data import procedure with a goal of expanding this to additional schools in the future.

  • Billing
    • Preliminary Charges:  The dual credit team will utilize a Jenzabar featured called “Preliminary Charges” for the Fall semester.   This feature will give the AR team the flexibility to easily correct mistakes and make changes to the charges before permanently posting to the student accounts. 
    • Clean up of “outdated” fee code table:  2,000,000 outdated fees were removed from production, and the team is trained to run this procedure at every new billing cycle.
    • Dual Credit Process Improvements: We have worked through obstacles (technology and processes) to find a cleaner way of dual credit billing. The team has successfully tested utilizing a separate sub term specifically for Dual Credit. These changes and completed registration and billing for dual credit students for the August mini term. 
  • Invoicing – The CampusWorks team introduced Jenzabar invoice functionality to the team and helped customize the form that will be generated.
Modernizing with JaaS and QuickLaunch SSO

Kilgore College recently moved to Jenzabar Cloud Services (JaaS), eliminating the need to maintain on-premise servers while reducing costs, improving agility, and boosting reliability with enterprise-grade uptime and security. By shifting to the cloud, the college can scale quickly during peak times and free IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than infrastructure maintenance.

To further enhance the campus experience, Kilgore also implemented QuickLaunch Single Sign-On (SSO), giving students, faculty, and staff one secure login for all systems. This simplifies access, improves security, reduces password reset requests, and increases productivity by allowing seamless, one-click access to essential applications.

Process, Reimagine & Redesign (PRR) Updates

The college is making significant progress with its core technology system, Jenzabar, by focusing on Process Reimagine & Redesign (PRR).

To date, 118 Future State Maps have been completed and 66 PRR Sessions have been completed.  Out of these PRR sessions, there have been more than 150 recommendations from KC faculty and staff. This effort seeks to streamline operations and align workflows with a “Happy Campus” model that emphasizes efficiency, clarity, and student-centered solutions. PRR sessions have already been completed, and key deliverables are guiding the path forward. The next phase, Discovery, will refine the institutional roadmap and establish priorities for implementation.

CampusWorks working to automate Billing System

With the help of CampusWorks, KC is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of its billing operations—transitioning to a fully automated billing system intended to deliver clearer invoices and eliminate costly errors. CampusWorks brings deep expertise in higher education process optimization, combining process reimagination with technology and project management to modernize financial workflows. As Kilgore moves toward billing automation, CampusWorks’ structured, student-first approach will help ensure billing statements are easier to understand, more accurate, and far less error-prone—ultimately improving both operational efficiency and the student experience.

Dual Credit Program Enhancements

One of the most visible areas of progress has been the Dual Credit program. Historically, dual credit posed challenges in billing, tracking, and reporting. Through Imagine 2.0, Kilgore has introduced meaningful improvements, including:

  • A dedicated Dual Credit Billing Term to simplify charges and allow for preliminary billing
  • Tagging students and courses as dual credit for more accurate reporting
  • Automated data imports directly from Independent School Districts (ISDs)
  • Invoices produced directly from Jenzabar for students, FAST, and ISDs

These changes reduce administrative complexity, improve accuracy, and save time. Staff have received training on billing automation and system setup, making the process smoother for both the college and its ISD partners.

Looking Ahead

The next steps for Imagine 2.0 include completing the PRR future state sessions, reviewing and digesting deliverables, and prioritizing initiatives within the institutional roadmap. Once priorities are set, Kilgore will begin implementing new process maps and recommendations, ensuring the transformation continues to move from planning to tangible results.

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

Kilgore College is moving its Jenzabar system to the cloud with Jenzabar One JaaS (Jenzabar as a Service), shifting the technical upkeep to Jenzabar so the college no longer needs to maintain on-campus servers or handle system maintenance.

This change enhances reliability, reduces downtime, and allows employees to focus less on IT issues and more on supporting students. Ultimately, students are the biggest beneficiaries, as staff will have more time and energy to devote to academic services, support, and improving the overall student experience.

WHAT IS THE PRR TEAM AND WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?

PROCESSES, ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The PRR (Processes, Roles, Responsibilities) Delivery Team plays a vital role in Kilgore College’s Imagine 2.0 initiative by helping the college streamline and clarify how work gets done.

This team focuses on documenting business processes, defining clear roles, and ensuring responsibilities are well understood across departments. Their efforts support efficiency, consistency, and accountability—ultimately helping the college better serve its students and community.

PRR FOCUS AREAS

  • Curriculum Management, Academic
  • Scheduling, & Degree Audit
  • Marketing & Student Admissions
  • Academic Advising, Student Planning & Student Success
  • Academic Records & Registration
  • Community & Workforce Education
  • Financial Aid
  • Student Accounts & A/R
  • Finance, Purchasing, A/P, & Fixed Assets
  • Human Resources & Compensation
  • Payroll

PRR METHODOLOGY

How You Can Contribute to the PRR Process

If you’re a member of a PRR team:
  • Attend all scheduled sessions

  • Actively participate in discussions with CampusWorks

  • Keep your camera on and stay engaged during remote meetings

  • Share relevant documents and materials

If you’re not on a PRR team:
  • Connect with team members and share your input

  • Stay informed about changes that impact your work and students

No matter your role:

Always look for ways to positively impact students and staff through collaboration and engagement.