All student folders for the entire college are kept on the main campus and many different service offices need access to them. With a paper file system, each folder could only be physically accessed by one person or department at a time. To view a student folder, a staff member from Admissions, Financial Aid, Registration or the Counseling office had to physically retrieve the folder from the last department who had referenced it.
The college's two most important student documents are the student folder and permanent record card. The student folder is a set of paper documents including registration forms, a certificate of residency, high school transcripts, financial aid information, letters of admission and grades. This folder is frequently accessed by the staff to assist current students. The permanent student record card is a document that lists courses, grades and awarded degrees for each student that attended the college prior to 1997.
A better way to store and access student folders was needed
The college had previously digitized all 40,000 of their permanent record cards, but the system used was outdated and no longer met their needs. They wanted a non-proprietary, flexible system to store all documents digitally and provide seamless access all staff members involved in a process. Cost, document retrieval access over the Web and the ability to migrate permanent student record card information from their out-dated system to the new one were all major factors.
With DocuWare in place, the college has four scanning stations and over 100 staff members use the solution. Now, information is digitized as it is received using the student number as a match code to automatically fill in the remaining index fields. Permanent record card images were migrated into the new solution, eliminating the college's dependency on an archaic system.
Successful digitization across campus
The DocuWare solution has been expanded throughout the campus. The Registrar's and Admission's offices now securely digitize student information as it is received, resulting in better workflow processes and allowing these offices to provide up-to-the-minute information to other departments. The Dean's office, Board of Trustees, Library and Learning Resource Centers are also using the solution.
Staff members now have immediate access to the information they need to help students. Retrieval time has been reduced from 10-15 minutes to just seconds. The ability to reply to student inquiries so much faster has not only led to a better student experience, it has also increased job satisfaction for staff and faculty.
