Challenge
nCino needed a secure, reliable way to deliver certification exams for employees, customers, and integration partners across global markets without depending on testing centers or adding more work for internal teams.
Solution
nCino chose Honorlock to give users around the world a more reliable, easy-to-use exam experience with better access across locations and network conditions.
Results
nCino now delivers certification exams through a more effective remote process that improves access for test takers and reduces exam administration work for internal teams. Honorlock’s flagging and review context help the team focus on sessions that need attention, with only 5% of sessions requiring admin review.
Jennifer Adams, Director of Global Learning and Enablement
Hannah Martin, Senior Learning and Enablement Operations and Analytics Specialist
nCino is a global financial technology company whose platform for agentic banking is used by more than 2,700 customers worldwide. Its platform helps banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage banks manage lending, onboarding, account opening, credit analysis, portfolio risk, reporting, and customer data in one place. nCino also uses banking-specific AI, analytics, and role-based digital agents to reduce manual work, support faster decisions, and help institutions manage risk and compliance more efficiently.
To support the people who use and manage the platform, nCino offers a global customer education and certification program. The program serves employees across nine global offices, customers from community banks to large enterprise institutions, and integration partners.
The program confirms they can confidently manage the nCino platform across their organization and support their teams as trusted internal resources. For those audiences, the exam experience has to be simple, reliable, and credible.
Taking global certification exams fully online
Before moving to Honorlock, nCino used a proctoring vendor with testing-center and online options. That setup carried the certification program through the pre-COVID years, but times, needs, and technologies changed.
As nCino’s certification program expanded across employees, customers, integration partners, and languages, the team needed one proctoring approach that could serve all of those audiences without requiring testing-center access or creating more work for internal teams.
“I wanted to make sure that I could support all of these audiences, and that’s a big ask from one platform,” explained Jennifer Adams, Director of Global Learning and Enablement at nCino.
One of Adams’ biggest concerns was whether customers and partners in areas with less reliable home internet would still be able to complete exams without relying on testing centers again.
“That was my one big concern about going totally to online proctoring without testing centers, but we haven’t had any issues with Honorlock.”
That concern didn’t become a problem because Honorlock’s test proctoring platform is built to help test takers complete exams even when their internet connection is unstable. Instead of removing users from the exam when connection problems occur, Honorlock adjusts reporting and session review for lower-bandwidth sessions, including still image capture, so test takers can continue from home, a rural location, Wi-Fi, or a hotspot.
As nCino moved its certification program into Intellum, its learning management system, the Honorlock integration made that transition practical. “We didn’t have any issues with the implementation or with launching it,” Adams said.
From an administrative standpoint, the setup was straightforward. “It’s as simple as putting in the API key to the back end of Intellum that integrates it,” Hannah Martin, nCino’s Senior Learning and Enablement Operations and Analytics Specialist, explained. “And then from there, it’s the settings within Honorlock.”
For nCino, that meant Honorlock could become part of the certification testing process without a complicated technical lift. The direct platform integration is quick to set up, often in about an hour, and single sign-on lets test takers access exams without extra passwords or separate logins. Once integrated, admins can easily manage proctoring criteria and flag settings in Honorlock.
Improving the entire exam experience
Honorlock has helped nCino make the testing experience faster and more comfortable for test takers. Martin recalled long setup guides for test takers and proctors prior to implementing Honorlock.
“It was overwhelming to complete 15 steps before you could even take the test. That’s so stressful.”
That setup could leave candidates frustrated before the first question appeared, which made the exam experience harder than it needed to be.
With Honorlock, the process became much simpler.
Martin explained that test takers no longer had to trudge through a long exam setup or dedicate time to travel to a testing center.
“With Honorlock, you click the link, and you start it. That’s all you do.”
That ease of use also changed how nCino employees approach internal exam days. Even when employees have the option to take exams on-site, many now choose to test from home.
“We have the majority of our employees here in Wilmington, North Carolina, and they just take the exams at home with Honorlock because it’s so easy. It wasn’t like that before,” Adams said.
Before Honorlock, managers often asked for in-office exam days so their teams could avoid the online proctoring process. “Managers used to ask if their teams could come on site and take exams together in a room so they could avoid the online proctoring process,” Adams explained.
The shift reduced the amount of time nCino’s internal team had to spend coordinating exam rooms, watching exams, and troubleshooting setup issues.
Reducing review time without sacrificing exam security
Honorlock also gave nCino a more efficient way to review exam sessions. Instead of asking internal teams to watch full recordings without direction, Honorlock provides HD-quality exam recordings with timestamped reports, flagged events, proctor notes, side-by-side video and screen playback, synced audio and video, event logs, and visual markers that help reviewers jump to the most relevant moments.
“It saves us time because everything is already flagged. It tells you what type of flag it is and gives you context about the flags. The context it gives us is the best part,” Martin said.
That context helps reviewers distinguish between something harmless, such as someone talking to themselves or a pet walking into the testing area, and behavior that needs a closer look.
Review volume has also remained manageable for nCino's team.
Martin reviewed a report and explained that, “Out of 500 exam sessions, only 17% needed review and only 5% needed review by an admin.”
of exam sessions did NOT need review by nCino's team
That allows nCino’s reviewers to prioritize and focus on the small number of sessions instead of reviewing unimportant flags or manually sorting through full video recordings.
Finding a proctoring solution that aligned with nCino’s innovation and credibility
Banking looks different than it did even a few years ago, and nCino’s success has come from an innovative, forward-thinking approach that anticipates what institutions will need and where the industry is headed next.
That same mindset carries over to its certification program. nCino knew its program had to match the standard it sets through its platform and forward-thinking approach, so any exam software and the testing experience needed to feel modern, reliable, and easy to use.
Their team wanted a proctoring service that matched its technology standards and long-term direction. When Adams and the team evaluated proctoring services, Honorlock’s proctoring software and forward-thinking approach stood out.
“I still go back to what our initial reaction was when we saw the innovativeness of Honorlock’s features and functionality. We saw that nCino was forward-thinking, and as an innovative company ourselves, it felt like a natural fit,” Adams explained.
Martin explained that Honorlock added another layer of credibility to nCino’s certification program because of its diverse customer base, especially its presence in protecting high-stakes exams for colleges and universities.
“Honorlock works with universities all across the world, and that adds to the credibility of our certifications because it puts us in the same category as those universities and colleges.”
Building a partnership that supports nCino’s growth
While Honorlock’s remote proctoring features stood out to nCino’s team, the people behind the platform made the experience more valuable.
Martin described the difference a dedicated customer success manager has made for nCino. “We meet with Michael every month, and he gives us the latest and greatest. He gives us recommendations, and he wants us to come with questions.”
“Having someone who knows how we operate allows us to pick up the conversation where we left off, which is very helpful and saves time.”
For nCino, Honorlock offered more than a certification proctoring tool. It gave nCino a simpler way to deliver certification testing globally, a more practical review process, and a partner that understands how its program works as it continues to grow and evolve.
nCino certifies people who carry real responsibility inside financial institutions worldwide.
As the program expands, nCino will deliver secure certification exams with the same reliability, accessibility, and credibility its customers expect from the platform itself.
Honorlock helps make that possible by giving nCino a certification testing process that works for test takers, reduces work for internal teams, and protects the value of every certification.
