Press Release
Innovative Integrates DegreeVerify into Employment Screening System
Enables Users to Perform Automatic Degree Verifications in Real Time
HERNDON, VA, April 1, 2004 - The
National Student Clearinghouse, the nation's largest and most trusted source
for post-secondary student degree and enrollment verification, today
announced that National Innovative Software Solutions (Innovative), the
leading provider of personal information reporting technologies, has
integrated the Clearinghouse's DegreeVerify service into its hosted
employment screening system, IRIS. Using IRIS, employment screening firms
can instantly verify the college degrees or enrollment of applicants.
Innovative utilized the Clearinghouse's Web services option to integrate
DegreeVerify directly into its Web-based application, making it accessible
to IRIS users in real time.
Many screening companies, especially smaller and independent agencies,
rely on hosted solutions to manage their background screening data. The more
resources that are integrated into the system, the more efficiently agencies
can perform their background checks and provide reports to their clients. A
number of IRIS clients, who are also Clearinghouse members, requested that
Innovative consider adding access to DegreeVerify to its system. "We
are always looking for ways to make our system more valuable and useful to
our customers," said Sandy Beggs, product manager, "employing the
Clearinghouse's Web service makes it easy for us to deliver data that our
customers want and need."
Users must become Clearinghouse members and provide Innovative with their
user ID and password before they can access DegreeVerify through IRIS.
Innovative provides their clients with integrated access to DegreeVerify
data, greatly simplifying the educational verification process. Providing
education credentials to its clients through DegreeVerify enables Innovative
to deliver a more holistic solution and provides a competitive distinction.
The benefit to its users is the ability to automate more of their
investigative tasks, allowing them to perform background checks more
efficiently and report results to their employers faster.
Launched three years ago, DegreeVerify is the nation's largest single
source of degree data, and contains information on more than 45% of all
degrees awarded in the US. The number of collegiate institutions that have
signed up to outsource their degree verifications through DegreeVerify has
doubled in one year. The Clearinghouse expects the service, which is free to
participating institutions, to provide access to half of all degrees ever
issued by this summer.
For more information on DegreeVerify, including a list of participating
institutions, visit www.degreeverify.org.
About The National Student Clearinghouse
The National Student Clearinghouse is the largest enrollment and degree
verification service in the US. A non-profit organization established by the
higher education community in 1993, the Clearinghouse serves as a central
repository and single point of contact for the collection and timely
exchange of accurate, comprehensive enrollment, degree and certificate
records on behalf of participating institutions.
More than 2,700 colleges, representing 91% of the nation's enrollment,
participate in the Clearinghouse. Student loan providers, employers, student
credit issuers, student health insurance providers, the federal government
and others access the Clearinghouse's registry over 100 million times
annually to conduct electronic student record verifications.
For more information, visit www.studentclearinghouse.org.
About Innovative
National Innovative Software Solutions is a consumer reporting technology
provider serving mortgage lenders, credit reporting agencies, and employment
screening agencies nationwide. The company's products include the VANtage
Point data network, TransVista and IRIS reporting applications, as well as
MortgageReports.net and EmploymentReports.net Internet technologies. ISS was
founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Louisville, KY. More information
about NISS is available at www.ISSNetwork.com.
National Student Clearinghouse Contact:
Kathleen Dugan
Marketing Director
703-742-4208
dugan@studentclearinghouse.org
