UNAPEC reduces enrollment processing time by 75% with OCI
By migrating to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the university’s enrollment process now supports more students in less time and at lower cost.
“We'll continue to drive digital transformation at the university together with Oracle, which is known for its cutting-edge technology and after-sales customer service. We’ve always felt the full support of the entire Oracle team throughout the whole process.”
Business challenges
The Acción Pro Educación y Cultura (APEC) is a nonprofit institution created to serve educational and cultural goals of the Dominican Republic. The organization has a big impact on the social and educational life of the country, sponsoring the creation of institutions designed to meet the specific needs of various industries. Thus, it aimed its main efforts at the development of higher education, training qualified professionals through APEC University (UNAPEC) for more than 50 years.
In 2019, UNAPEC embarked on an effort to upgrade its information technology systems, which were more than 12 years old and failed to meet modern requirements and data processing needs. Crucially, this new system couldn’t adequately support the university’s enrollment process because its database and infrastructure needs had recently increased substantially. Server failures were frequent and forced the university to split up the enrollment process for 8,000 students into 200 shifts, 30 minutes each, so the system could handle the processing. This took two days to complete, which led the university to look for a cloud-based option that would better meet its needs.
Why UNAPEC chose Oracle
After completing a cost-value analysis of other providers and running tests during peak traffic, the university selected Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) because it provided more functionality at a lower cost while also outperforming the competition. In addition, UNAPEC already had an on-premises license for Oracle Database, which represented savings in database management.
Results
After deploying OCI, UNAPEC reduced the previously lengthy and slow enrollment process from two full days to just half a day, while hosting 2,200 students simultaneously. For university personnel, the gain in efficiency allowed them to devote more time to other activities.
There were notable differences on the budget side. Before, the university owned an on-premises database, so it had to pay up front per processor used. But now in the cloud the university has more flexibility, plus the assistance and support of Oracle’s team at no additional cost.

About the customer
UNAPEC was established in 1964 when businesspeople, merchants, professionals, and clergy decided to create a nonprofit entity to promote higher education in the Dominican Republic.