Experience Idol Award for Best in Extensibility
ESM emerged as the winner in the Best in Extensibility category at the 2026 Experience Idol Awards at Elive 2026, showcasing excellence with Ellucian Experience.
Experience Idol Awards recognize partners who demonstrate outstanding innovation and measurable impact. Selected from more than 45 partner submissions, ESM cards solve real-world problems, delivering breakthrough innovation that combines human-supportive AI, easy-to-use procurement capabilities, and real-time budget insight.
This achievement marks a significant milestone for our partnership with ESM, demonstrating Purchasing cards that deliver personalized and contextual relevance for users”
Zach Tussing, Director of Technology Partnerships, Ellucian
Reimagining Institutional Buying
Frustration with institutional buying is a familiar challenge across colleges and universities. Compliance pressures, budget uncertainty, and complex approval processes often divert valuable time and attention away from the core education mission.
At the same time, faculty and staff increasingly expect the same fast, flexible, and transparent purchasing experiences they encounter as consumers. Yet institutional buying is inherently complex, often involving 13 or more stakeholders per decision, and spanning multiple departments.
Innovation Built on Collaboration
Developed in close collaboration with eight institutions across the country and with Ellucian, the new Purchase Cards use the Experience SDK and Ethos APIs to seamlessly extend the capabilities of Ellucian Purchase. Ready-to-use capabilities like Quick Buy, Budget Insights, Recent Transactions and My Approvals, cut through the clutter and automate outcomes.
Delivering the right insight or piece of information precisely when and where it’s needed means institutions can reduce the burden on users and better capture attention in an overloaded environment.
Delivering Measurable Impact
“We are using the new Ellucian Purchase features to consolidate more than five discrete channels previously used to support requisition processes,” said Jade Karsin, Director of Procurement & Logistics, Red River College Polytechnic “with over 400 staff involved in requisitions and 200 budget approvers, providing the right level of information yet reducing burden is a key focus for our team.”
Leadership Perspective:
“We’re excited to receive this award and continue the momentum. In fact, we already agreed to pilot the availability of the new cards in an Ellucian Marketplace manifest, working with Ellucian to deliver on a fast time-to-value promise for customers,” shared Joshua Faith, CEO, ESM Solutions. “Early results are encouraging. Central Community College and Norwich University achieved deployment of the new Purchase Cards in less than ten minutes.”
Ellucian Purchase Experience Cards take the frustration out of buying, reduce administrative burden, and provide faculty and staff with budget transparency at the moment it’s needed, inline with the items they are purchasing, so they can confidently buy the goods and services needed to advance education.
