Workflows Over Workarounds: Santa Clara University’s Automation Journey with StarRez

From Disconnected Systems to a Unified Housing Vision

Since adopting StarRez in 2006, Santa Clara University has evolved from using it as a basic housing database to leveraging it as a unified operational platform. Previously, processes like room changes, billing, and maintenance tracking relied on disconnected tools that required duplicate effort, delayed reporting, and created inconsistent experiences for students.

By consolidating operations within StarRez, the university has streamlined workflows, reduced manual tasks, and empowered staff to delivers more transparent and connected housing experience.

“When I started in housing operations, I saw that StarRez had so much potential that wasn’t being tapped. I made it a priority to help us use it better.”‍

‍— Scott Hert, Assistant Director Auxiliary Technical Services, Santa Clara University

Reducing Bottleneck and Transforming Room Change Requests

Each academic term brings a high volume of room-change requests. In the past, managing them required extensive manual coordination and could stretch well beyond a month.

Today, the process is fully automated through the StarRez portal. Students submit requests online, staff manage approvals within the platform, and automated communications keep everyone informed. What once took weeks now wraps up in just a week and a half, delivering faster resolutions and a significantly improved student experience.

“With the automated system, it’s cut the process down to half the time.”

‍— Scott Hert, Assistant Director Auxiliary Technical Services, Santa Clara University

Slashing Term Billing Time from Two Weeks to Three Days

Term billing once required weeks of preparation and manual reconciliation. Today, StarRez’s Reservation Charge Wizard automates room and meal plan charges, enabling the housing team to complete mass billing in just four days.

The result is not only faster processing, but improved accuracy and significantly reduced administrative strain.

“Our billing person used to lock themselves in their office for two weeks. Now, it’s all done infour days thanks to automated billing within StarRez.”

‍— Scott Hert, Assistant Director Auxiliary Technical Services, Santa Clara University

Seamless Integration with SCU’s Administrative Ecosystem

A major milestone in the University’s housing evolution was integrating StarRez with key campus enterprise systems, transforming it into a dynamic, connected data hub.

• Admissions — Incoming student information flows directly into housing, creating a smooth transition from admission to housing application.

• Campus Services — Housing assignments and billing automatically activate meal plans, eliminating the need for cross-department follow-ups.

• Enterprise System — Real-time data synchronization keeps records aligned across departments.

Where data sharing once depended on static spreadsheets and delayed communication, departments now operate with real-time, reliable information. The transformation has significantly accelerated cross-department collaboration, improved accuracy, and eliminated redundant data entry.

“Everybody is very pleased with the real-time integrations now because they can go into their system and know the information is accurate, reliable and up to date.”

‍— Scott Hert, Assistant Director Auxiliary Technical Services, Santa Clara University

Next Up: Prorated Billing & Conference Services in One Seamless Platform

Santa Clara University plans to implement StarRez’s Prorate Tool to automate mid-term room changes and partial billing. Instead of calculating adjustments manually, the system will automatically track nightly rates and apply precise charges.

“If there are 75 nights in a term, and a student stays 15 nights in one room and 60 in another, it’ll calculate that for us.”

‍— Scott Hert, Assistant Director Auxiliary Technical Services, Santa Clara University

The upcoming move of short-stay and conference services into StarRez will further unify operations, eliminating the need for separate systems and spreadsheets while creating a single source of information for housing services.

Partnering for the Future

Santa Clara University’s success with StarRez continues to evolve with an extensive partnership with the StarRez team. Refining workflows, enhancing integrations, and extending the system’s capabilities into new areas like short-stay housing, staff training, and financial forecasting will take the University far into the future.

With StarRez as both a strategic partner and a flexible platform, SCU is well-positioned tokeep evolving its housing and student service experience.

If your institution is ready to unify processes, reduce operational overhead, and empower your team with scalable housing solutions, let’s talk. Contact our team to start your journey.