Creating Clarity From Chaos: How SAIC Transformed Faculty Management with SmartPath

Streamlining over 25 disconnected systems into one cohesive platform—delivering time savings, accuracy, and strategic insight across the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

A Complex System in Desperate Need of Simplification

Before partnering with Mountain Pass, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) faced a daunting challenge: managing faculty lifecycle data scattered across more than two dozen spreadsheets and disparate systems. With over 950 faculty members and 600+ staff, the administrative burden of consolidating, tracking, and updating essential information had become unsustainable.

“It was difficult, to say the least. We tried to consolidate the information as much as possible, but it ultimately just wasn’t an efficient way to work.” ~ SAIC SmartPath User 

Manual processes slowed down everything—from hiring and payroll to tenure tracking and retirement workflows. As one team member candidly shared, building letters of appointment was a “copy and paste exercise” that required 12-hour days and seven-day work weeks during peak months.

The Solution: SmartPath Faculty Profile and Workflow

Enter SmartPath—Mountain Pass’s integrated platform that brings structure, logic, and automation to higher education’s most complex administrative needs. For SAIC, SmartPath replaced 25+ fragmented sources with a centralized, logic-driven system that finally put all faculty lifecycle data under one digital roof.

Metric	Before SmartPath	After SmartPath
Faculty Data Sources	25+ spreadsheets and systems	Single integrated database
Appointment Letter Process	Manual, copy-paste across multiple files	Automated, logic-driven, batched
Report Generation	Inconsistent, time-consuming	Real-time, customizable
Summer Workload	12-hour days, 7 days/week	Normal work hours, weekends free

“With the implementation of SmartPath, the process still lasts through July and August, but during mostly normal work hours—and I get to enjoy summer weekends!” ~ SAIC SmartPath User 

From Silos to Synergy: Centralizing the Faculty Lifecycle

With SmartPath Faculty Profile and Workflow, SAIC gained a 360° view of each faculty member, complete with:

• Demographic and contact data
  
• Historical, current, and future course schedules
  
• Salary and salary history
  
• Sabbatical and internal grant tracking
  
• Visa and accreditation status
  
• Additional assignments and appointments
  

Every component of the faculty experience was captured, updated, and made visible within a single platform.

“Now we had a way to not only efficiently manage our data, but also to use the data to implement workflows and keep our data continuously updated.”~ SAIC SmartPath User 

Reducing Manual Labor and Eliminating Errors

Previously, HR used a general system to build faculty letters—without logic to streamline or verify them. Each letter required hand-entering course loads, salaries, and schedules, introducing risk for error and inconsistent formatting. SmartPath changed that.

Now, automated logic handles:

• Pay installment calculation
  
• Contract name and type assignment
  
• Email notifications and approvals
  
• Bi-directional data flow between Profile and Workflow
  
• Payroll reporting and tracking
  

The result? Fewer errors, reduced administrative overhead, and better visibility for everyone involved—from Academic Affairs to Payroll.

Real-Time Reporting for Confident Decision-Making

In the past, generating reports meant building one-off spreadsheets for every request, with no assurance of data consistency. With SmartPath’s robust reporting tools, SAIC now generates reports quickly and confidently using live, integrated data.

Faculty journeys are visualized, and trends across departments can be easily identified—whether it’s tracking sabbaticals, identifying award eligibility, or forecasting future hires.

“Detailed reporting shows faculty member journeys… Big-picture reporting shows how a single event plays out across multiple faculty members.” ~ SAIC SmartPath User 

SmartPath by Mountain Pass: Designed to Fit SAIC, Not the Other Way Around

Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of this transformation wasn’t just technological—it was collaborative. The Mountain Pass team deeply engaged with SAIC stakeholders to understand their idiosyncratic processes, rather than pushing a one-size-fits-all system.

“What was really impressive was how the Mountain Pass team took the time to understand our systems … They adapted SmartPath to work for us.” ~ SAIC SmartPath User 

This tailored approach ensured a smooth rollout and high adoption rate—two critical factors in the success of any enterprise software implementation.

Results That Resonate Across the Institution

Beyond solving Academic Affairs’ pain points, SmartPath delivered broader institutional impact:

• Streamlined Pay and Payroll Coordination: Faculty pay data now flows seamlessly into Payroll, improving accuracy and efficiency.
  
• Equity in Recognition and Opportunities: Faculty eligibility for awards and promotions is now transparently verified, ensuring fairness and strategic alignment.
  
• Advanced Planning Capabilities: Departments can now run forward-looking reports, like forecasting sabbatical eligibility, to better plan schedules and resource allocation.
  

Expanded Benefits Realized by SAIC:

• Reduced workload and burnout for administrative staff
  
• Increased confidence in data accuracy across teams
  
• Improved faculty experience with transparent communications and timely updates
  
• Strategic insight for senior leadership through custom reporting

A Platform Built for Growth by a Partner Who Listens

SAIC isn’t done. With their foundational SmartPath system in place, the school is already planning the next wave of workflow implementations. The confidence in the platform and in Mountain Pass’s partnership has turned SAIC into an innovation leader in academic operations.

“Because we’ve had such great success with the current Workflows, we already have plans to roll out even more in the future.” ~ SAIC SmartPath User 

Key Takeaways for Higher Ed Leaders

The SAIC case study offers a clear roadmap for institutions facing similar challenges in faculty lifecycle management:

• Integration Over Fragmentation: Bringing data together in one place amplifies accuracy, efficiency, and insight.
  
• Logic-Based Automation Works: Automating appointment letters, salary processing, and workflow routing saves massive amounts of time.
  
• Customization Matters: Adapting to each institution’s specific needs drives better outcomes than forcing conformity.
  
• Cross-Department Benefits: Improvements in Academic Affairs can ripple positively through HR, Payroll, and senior administration.
  
• Partner With the Right People: A technology solution is only as good as the people who help you implement it.
  

Ready to Transform Your Faculty Management System?

SmartPath by Mountain Pass isn’t just software—it’s a strategic enabler for institutional efficiency, transparency, and growth. If your faculty data is living in spreadsheets, siloed systems, or overly manual workflows, now is the time to centralize and optimize.

Let us help you build your path to success—just like we did with SAIC. Reach out today.