Comparing digital credentialing solutions to find the best fit for your organization? Identifying the must-have digital credentialing features helps stakeholders make informed decisions. This article will support you in the process of identifying the necessary features to achieve success with digital credentialing.
1) Format Agnostic Digital Credentials
A quality full service digital credentialing solution is format agnostic and enables organizations to design and deliver credentials in both digital certificate and digital badge format. Issuers should have the freedom to deliver an extensive portfolio of credentials in a variety of formats to their learners, members, and candidates. This includes the ability to offer digital certificates, digital badges, and both together, hosted on dedicated credential pages, to represent recipient achievement. As growth goals change and develop, organizations need access and flexibility to scale programs with different credential offerings.
2) Enterprise Data Security
Data security is a necessity in today’s digital world. Digital credentialing solutions need the highest level of security to ensure protection for the recipient, the organization, and the brand. Robust security policies including the use of a secure tier 3 SOC 2-certified data center, compliance to GDPR, real-time monitoring, and security auditing ensure that data is protected to enterprise level. The use of blockchain technology to record digital credentials provides peace-of-mind; tamper-proof security for the longevity and verification of credentials. Blockchain credentials ensure organizations can protect their reputation against fraud while enabling third-parties to verify the legitimacy of credentials in one-click.
3) Easy-to-Use Credential Design Tools
Easy-to-use dedicated digital certificate and digital badge design tools enable organizations to design fantastic-looking badges and certificates from scratch or support the use of pre-existing designs. Pre-supplied and easy-to-use templates make it simple to create digital badges and digital certificates in minutes. A variety of paper orientations and sizes enables organizations to issue certificates to meet the preferences of their candidates. Default and custom-made attributes support automated digital credential issuance in bulk, streamlining the delivery of credentials. A drop-in, easy-to-scan QR-code generator ensures digital certificates are ready for home or professional printing.
4) One-Click Social Sharing
Recipients should have no barriers to sharing their digital credential awards. A quality digital credentialing solution empowers recipients to celebrate their achievement in the moment with no additional account creation needed to claim credentials. Support for various social media platforms ensures recipients can share to the platforms where their networks frequent. One-click social sharing enables organizations to harness the reach of recipients to boost the visibility of their credentials, programs, and brand.
5) One-Click Verification
Once issued, third-parties such as hiring managers and recruiters should be able to verify the validity and legitimacy of digital credentials instantly. One-click verification removes the wait-time and time-spend of requesting verification of career-advancing credentials. This helps to speed up the recruitment or employment-review process. Support for improved expiration visibility to recipients and third-parties enables organizations to motivate candidates to recertify and keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date.
6) Easy Credential Edits
Digital credentialing solutions should make it easy to edit tens, hundreds, or thousands of digital credentials in one go. With easy bulk edits, credential designs can be updated, refreshed, or rebranded and credential information can be replaced or removed across live or prepared credentials. Support for uploading spreadsheet files simplifies the process of updating groups of credentials or all credentials at once. Built-in automated name-change edits help to save admin time for departments and credentialing managers. Use automated name changes to streamline updates of one or two character name changes and manage significant name change requests from the dashboard.
7) Analytics Dashboard
Issuers need an effective way to track their issuance, engagement, and market value of digital credentials. An easy-to-use and understand analytics dashboard should provide an at-a-glance overview of credentials issued, credential groups, credential owners, number of designs, and credential allowance. A quality analytics dashboard makes it simple to quantify and track the marketing ROI of credentialing programs. From the dashboard it should be easy to gather and report on data for how credentials are being engaged with, where they are being shared, and how many views shared credentials receive. Access to well-presented data makes it easier for marketing departments to adjust their strategies to target specific social platforms and encourage greater engagement to boost visibility.
8) Automated Integrations
Organizations issuing digital credentials to replace traditional credentials or moving from an existing digital credentialing solution often need to connect with existing technologies. Integrations into learning management systems (LMS), learning experience platforms (LXP), association management systems (AMS), or testing and exam platforms streamline the recipient experience. With support for automated integrations, recipients don’t need to wait for their credential but receive them instantly via email after meeting the target criteria. Target criteria can include exam or module completions, member registration or sign-ups, or reaching the end of an educational program. Quality digital credentialing solutions provide integrations for a full suite of platforms served by dedicated integrations, connective apps such as Zapier, and a robust, easy-to-use API.
9) Pathways (Learning pathways)
With the demand increasing for learning opportunities, credential issuers need ways to create easy-to-follow learning journeys. The ability to create learning pathways, groupings of optional and required credentials that are taken sequentially towards a larger achievement, helps to drive engagement and completion. Learners better understand which steps they must take and are motivated using automated milestone credentials along the way. Pathways enables issuers to gain instant visibility and insights into learner proficiency, course enrollments, and completion rates to support smarter decision making.
10) Branding & White-Labeling
Digital credentials are issued by the organization, not the digital credentialing solution or digital badging platform, and issuers should have the option to brand the entire recipient journey. Branding and white labeling provides issuers customization control over the recipient experience to boost brand visibility and recognition. From the credential delivery email to the appearance and URL of the dedicated credential page. Using branding and white labeling, issuers reinforce the value and legitimacy of their digital credentials and communicate security and assurance that their credentials come directly from them.
Nice to Have Features
Now we’ve identified the must-have features of a successful digital credentialing solution, here are some suggestions for nice to have features that support issuers.
Comprehensive Knowledge Center
Issuers should be able to self-educate on how to utilize digital credentials for their organizations and provide detailed information to their recipients. A comprehensive, well-thought out knowledge center provides answers to all the common questions, queries, and user insights needed to achieve success with digital credentials. Video guidance, written walkthroughs, and robust search functionality enables issuers to get the information and guidance they need, when they need it. A comprehensive knowledge center empowers issuers to become experts in their digital credentials to better serve their teams and their recipients.
Vendor Partner
Vendor partners are dedicated success specialists who are there to ensure the organization can achieve positive outcomes with digital credentials. They maintain strong relationships with issuers and become an extended member of the organization’s credentialing team. A vendor partner helps organizations new to digital credentialing get onboarded quickly and launch efficiently. Throughout the lifetime of the contract, the vendor partner provides up-to-date reviews of progress and ongoing suggestions for improving strategies to ensure continued success.
Free Demo or Trial
With a growing market of digital credentialing solutions, making the choice using only an overview of features doesn’t always provide the full picture. The ability to get hands-on with a digital credentialing solution makes it easier to make informed decisions on the right fit for the organization. A free demo or trial enables issuers to use the platform to better understand the features and usability before making a commitment.
Spotlight Directory
The Spotlight Directory is an Accredible feature that enables issuers to build a branded directory to provide visibility to their credential holders. Use the Spotlight Directory to create a professional hub and showcase talent for employer pipelines and partnerships from one convenient location. Improve the career success of graduates and credential recipients and gain insights into their career paths to support the value of issued credentials.
Job Market Insights
Job Market Insights is an Accredible feature that uses real-time job data from around the world to showcase the value and potential of your credentials. Prospective candidates can explore the types of roles, salaries, and employment opportunities that your credentials lead to. Job Market Insights is directly tied to the skills and learning outcomes offered by your programs and helps to connect recipients with live job openings that require those skills.
In Summary
Making the decision for the best digital credentialing solution for your organization can be time-consuming. Using the information provided in this blog, cross reference available solutions for the features necessary to your teams, credentialing programs, and recipients. Accredible offers all of the above features to help your organization achieve success with digital credentials. To see the Accredible platform in action and explore any of the features further, book a demo with our team. If you’d like to try the platform yourself, sign-up for a free trial with the option to issue up to 20 credentials.
Further Reading
Explore the complete feature list of Accredible’s digital credentialing solution with the Digital Credential Feature Checklist. The print-friendly checklist enables decision-makers and stakeholders to simplify the comparison of digital credentialing platforms to find the best fit for their needs.
Download the free checklist now.
