University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio redefines academic operations with Nutrient workflows
Table of contents
“Nutrient didn’t just help us automate processes; it helped us see how everything connects. That shift changed the way we think about our work.”
Use case
University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio needed a better way to manage complex academic processes across 20 graduate programs, each with its own milestones and approval chains.
Challenges
- Lack of visibility into where documents and approvals were in multistep student processes.
- Managing complex workflows across 20 graduate programs was cumbersome with the homegrown IMPACT system.
- The homegrown system handled day-to-day processes effectively but offered limited flexibility and no mobile access, making updates and remote approvals difficult.
Solutions
- Able to visualize and redesign processes by introducing structured, conditional workflows that reflect real-world academic operations.
- Successfully transitioned from legacy code to a flexible, low-code system that empowers staff to update workflows without developer reliance.
- Confidently unified milestone management, routing, and approval logic for 20 programs through customizable, reusable process templates.
Results
- University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio moved 20+ workflows from IMPACT into Nutrient, giving the team a flexible, mobile-ready platform and the opportunity to refine and improve its processes.
- University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio is able to track document status and signer approvals at every stage, saving countless hours formerly spent chasing signatures.
- University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio today experiences faster maintenance, cleaner data, and a streamlined academic operations platform it calls GradTrac.
Meet Sean, the project manager and consultant who saw a bigger picture
When Sean Burchell first started looking for a new automation platform, he thought UT Health Science Center San Antonio simply needed a better way to digitize forms. But once the project manager and consultant encountered Nutrient’s approach to workflows, everything shifted. Instead of asking how to automate tasks, he and his team began asking why those tasks existed and how they connected.
“People don’t even realize there are tools that let you make workflows smarter with conditions, branching, and logic. Nutrient opened that door for us.”
From missed emails to mission risk: The need for a better system
The graduate school at UT Health Science Center San Antonio(opens in a new tab) serves nearly 500 graduate students and employs more than 700 faculty members. Each student goes through a 3–5 year educational journey with many milestones, approvals, and academic decisions required along the way. These approval requirements can originate from students, research mentors, external faculty, and even the dean’s office.
Historically, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the affiliated academic programs relied on a homegrown automated system. It captured much of the same information Nutrient now holds, and it worked well, but it was neither flexible nor sustainable. Many approvals were still difficult to track, and mobile use wasn’t possible.
“It wasn’t just about going from A to B,” Burchell said. “It was about understanding what needed to happen in between and why.”
Once Burchell saw Nutrient’s approach to simplifying complex processes, he immediately realized what was missing: the ability to see how tasks interconnect, evolve, and support broader institutional goals.
“Understanding workflows was the tipping point. Nutrient wasn’t just a tool. It gave us a whole new way to think about how our work fits together. I thought we just needed to digitize forms, but what Nutrient really gave us was a way to rethink how we work.”
Building GradTrac: A smarter way to manage graduate operations
UT Health San Antonio set out to streamline graduate academic operations by building GradTrac, a centralized platform powered entirely by Nutrient. Burchell partnered with Kyle Hitchcock, an application programmer associate, and Tiffany Thompson, the academic program manager. Thompson mapped out the university’s existing procedures and helped identify key areas for improvement, while Hitchcock quickly recognized the value of Nutrient’s platform and began building out workflows that could scale and adapt.
With help from Nutrient, the team replaced manual routing with logic-based processes and built conditional rules that flex automatically depending on a student’s program, advisor, or milestone. Instead of maintaining dozens of separate processes, the team developed intelligent templates that adjust dynamically to each case.
All data remained securely housed within UT Health San Antonio’s infrastructure, meeting Texas’s strict security requirements while maintaining internal control. Even complex workflows involving up to 15 approvals were streamlined through logic paths and stakeholder routing that once required custom code. Features like dashboards, automated routing, and mobile form signing added new levels of efficiency, transparency, and accessibility across the entire operation.
“The biggest benefit? Our teams could finally see the logic behind the processes. We cleaned up bad data and built something we can grow with.”
From overwhelmed to empowered: Results that speak for themselves
Before Nutrient, milestone approvals were in a system that was rigid, custom-built, and difficult to maintain. It worked, but it wasn’t designed to grow with them. Staff members like Thompson were overwhelmed managing form submissions and followups — especially around graduation. Today, processes that once consumed 90 percent of her time are streamlined in Nutrient, a platform end users love for being user-friendly, flexible, and mobile-ready.
Faculty can be assigned in real time, approvals are routed instantly, and bottlenecks are easy to identify and resolve. Additionally, maintenance is simpler, processes are cleaner, and the team no longer depends on a single person who knows “the code.” Burchell and his team have unlocked new confidence, flexibility, and operational resilience.
“It’s been a monumental difference. We can manage hundreds of students and faculty without worrying about approvals or deadlines falling through the cracks.”
The ability to approve documents from mobile devices, view dashboards, and configure complex workflows without IT intervention has empowered staff across the graduate school to work smarter and faster.
Savings
UT Health San Antonio saves hundreds of hours across 20 programs by automating approvals and milestone tracking.
Scalability
UT Health San Antonio now supports more than 1,000 users with a scalable, low-code system tailored to its academic structure.
Efficiency
UT Health San Antonio drastically reduced graduation processing time, freeing up most of the staff time that used to be spent managing forms manually.
Rethinking processes, reimagining what’s possible
With Nutrient’s support, UT Health San Antonio built on the foundation of its homegrown system, moving into connected, conditional workflows that offer greater flexibility and sustainability. During the migration, the team was able to step back, review its processes, and improve them before rebuilding in Nutrient.
As Burchell shared, “Understanding workflows was the tipping point.” Hitchcock echoed that sentiment, saying, “We can now quickly turn around business processes” — a shift that’s allowed the team to deliver big results across departments.
With clean data, reusable workflows, and smart automation in place, the team isn’t just managing its work better; it’s thinking about it differently. And it’s ready for whatever’s next.
