As the number of institutions needing accreditation grew past 120, a U.S.-based accreditation body reached the limits of its spreadsheets, paper files, and institutional memory.
Cloudwell helped them modernize, bringing a digital solution to streamline a complex accreditation lifecycle — all without disrupting the process they already trusted.
When Scale Turned a Manual Process into a Liability
A U.S.-based accreditation organization oversees the full accreditation lifecycle for more than 120 higher-education institutions. Each institution moves through a structured, multi-year process that includes applications, site visits, progress reports, board approvals, and formal correspondence.
For years, this process was managed through Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and printed schedules pinned to office walls. It worked — largely because two senior leaders knew the process inside out and could keep everything moving through experience and memory.
As the number of institutions grew beyond 120, that approach became harder to sustain. Tracking timelines across dozens of concurrent accreditation cycles required increasing manual effort, and small delays were becoming easier to miss.
Why Changing the Process Felt Riskier Than Keeping It
Despite the growing pressure, there were good reasons the organization had not modernized sooner.
The team was small but highly experienced. The existing process was familiar and trusted. Introducing a new system during active accreditation cycles felt risky — especially if it disrupted workflows that were already under strain.
There was also concern that a structured system might oversimplify accreditation paths that varied by degree type and accreditation status. The underlying question was simple but significant:
Was changing the process more dangerous than continuing with what they knew?
Choosing Modernization Without Disrupting What Already Worked
The decision wasn’t to reinvent accreditation — it was to make the existing process more visible, shareable, and less dependent on individual memory.
The organization chose to work with Cloudwell to move their spreadsheet-based process into a centralized system, keeping their accreditation logic intact while reducing operational risk.
The approach was intentionally cautious:
– Preserve the current accreditation model
– Introduce structure where it reduced effort or error
– Improve visibility without forcing wholesale change
Turning a Spreadsheet Process into a Digital System People Could Trust
Cloudwell worked closely with leadership to understand how accreditation actually happened day to day — not how it should work in theory.
The solution was built using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, creating a single system where institutions, contacts, accreditation cycles, and documents could live together.
Key elements included:
– A central accreditation record for each institution
– Business process flows reflecting real accreditation stages
– Variations in process based on degree type and accreditation status
– Dashboards showing progress and upcoming deadlines at a glance
Formal letters and documents were automated directly from accreditation data, with guardrails in place so documents could not be generated unless required steps were complete.
Because the team were new to Dynamics, Cloudwell also created a living user guide — a practical reference explaining how to use the system, navigate records, and understand automated actions.
Early Gains in Visibility, Consistency, and Confidence
While still early in adoption, the positive impact is visible.
The accreditation progress is now easy to see without reconstructing timelines from multiple spreadsheets. Letters that once required repetitive manual work can now be generated with a few clicks. The process no longer depends on one person remembering every deadline, document, or exception.
For a small team managing a growing workload, the biggest change wasn’t speed — it was confidence in knowing that nothing critical would be missed.
When Your Most Important Process Depends on Memory, It’s Time to Act
If your organization runs a repeatable, high-stakes process — accreditation, certification, compliance, renewals — spreadsheets can work for a while.
But as volume and complexity grow, they fail quietly. Deadlines drift. Knowledge concentrates. Risk increases without anyone noticing until credibility is on the line.
This case shows that modernization doesn’t have to mean disruption. With the right structure, you can reduce risk, support growth, and protect the integrity of the process you already trust.
If a critical process in your organization still relies on spreadsheets, paper, or one or two people “just knowing” what comes next, we should talk.
Cloudwell helps accreditation, compliance, and membership-driven organizations bring clarity and control to complex processes — using the Microsoft platform you may already own.
Let’s start with a conversation. No pressure, just a route to a clearer path forward.