Go with the Flow: Using Workflow for a Paperless Admissions Office

The life cycle of the typical student record lasts for decades -- far longer than student enrollment. High schools, colleges, and universities are required to retain many student records for the lifetime of a student, which can lead to costly storage and disaster recovery problems.

Records are usually created in the admissions department, after which they are passed to the Registrar when the student has matriculated. Upon graduation, certain files may be forwarded on to the Alumni office. During enrollment, other departments such as Financial Aid, Academic Advisement, and Athletics may also work with student records.

Using a paper-based records system, each department usually has its own set of files, which typically contains copies of the same documents from other departments’ files. The costs of storage and labor under such a system can be significant, especially when you consider that schools are required to retain different records for different time spans.

Many schools have visualized a better way to work with student records. They realize that with a centralized, Web-based electronic student record, lost and duplicate files are a thing of the past. Departments have the ability to access student records simultaneously, from any Web browser. Sensitive information is protected, and records can be electronically configured to be retained or destroyed after a designated period of time. Storage space can be converted, and HIPAA, FERPA, and other compliance measures are simplified when schools transition from paper-based records to an electronic system.

The Associate Director of Admissions at a Midwestern university was able to recognize and understand these benefits. At the crux of her vision was the desire to find a solution that would advance her department well beyond mere imaging. She recognized that while schools realize considerable advantages from storing and accessing records in an electronic repository, Admissions could significantly improve operations by dynamically adapting this process. She believed that by adding electronic workflow to this foundation, her business processes would in fact evolve.

Background:

The university has 26,000 students enrolled at a time, approximately 4,000-5,000 of whom are graduate students. While some liberal arts students are enrolled, the university is mostly known for its training in engineering, agriculture, family and consumer sciences, and veterinary medicine. There is only one campus.

The Office of Admissions receives applications and supplementary materials, which may include transcripts, exam scores, and letters of recommendation, among other documentation. They receive these for prospective undergraduate students, graduate students, non-degree students, and international students, whose files require more extensive supporting documentation. In the past, papers had to be shuffled across campus about three times per year.

The challenge faced by Admissions was to increase its processing speed. In the grand scheme, a speed increase translates into increased enrollment; Admissions discovered a correlation between their ability to be the first school to return offers to prospective applicants and their success in recruiting students to enroll at their university.

Admissions began to consider imaging around 2001. In 2003, the Associate Director of the department sent out an RFP that outlined their specific need for document imaging and workflow. After evaluating several different vendors, she selected Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT). Their DocFinity® product suite addressed the need for a flexible, concurrent implementation of document imaging and storage combined with electronic workflow. DocFinity’s cost-efficiency fit within the university’s budget, and it also provided Webbased access, which the Associate Director believed to be a key component to their workflow automation process.

The challenge:

At the time of implementation, the university had a 35-year-old paper process that they had to change in order to incorporate workflow. Many of the staff had been with the department for the duration of those 35 years, and were reluctant to embrace the new technology. Users had different skill sets and different technologies on their desktops. In addition, there was a lack of documentation that showed how people fulfilled their job expectations.

Admissions experienced some initial difficulty getting people to accept change in order to realize increased efficiency. The Associate Director and the IT department confronted these challenges by conducting in-depth interviews designed to define the different components that comprised the business process. Staff buy-in was influenced with an emphasis on the importance of immersing their total effort into one system.

After OIT conducted onsite administrative training, the Associate Director chose to offer her end users fifteen different training sessions to help with the transition. She incorporated the DocFinity training materials, but modified them in order to fit her department’s specific needs. At this point, they were able to define an initial workflow around how business was conducted.

Implementation:

Admissions has had DocFinity fully implemented since May of 2005, and towards the end of that year they began to see benefits. They are now able to generate decision letters more quickly, and their file storage problem has improved significantly.

Admissions is actively using DocFinity Workflow, IntraVIEWER®, and the imaging capabilities contained within the DocFinity Core; they have also purchased and plan to gradually implement COLD-ERM, XML FormFLOW™, Print/Fax Server, and Email Manager. Given the decentralized IT environment at the university, other departments have been engaging the Associate Director of Admissions in discussions about potential uses in their areas.

Now, with DocFinity, materials are sorted and immediately scanned and indexed. They are subsequently launched into a workflow to five different branches within the department. Each branch, or area of responsibility, determines whether the materials warrant some form of additional data entry or whether the documents should be advanced to the next step of the decision-making process. If they are to be advanced, the relevant documents are put into DocFinity’s automated workflow and processed electronically.

Potential for growth:

Currently, the department has 38 admission-related workflows. The Associate Director’s immediate plan is to incorporate flowcharts into her training materials so that staff can visualize the workflow process. She intends then to accommodate some additional procedures that are part of the university’s enrollment process. She also plans to take existing internal paper forms and design them electronically using DocFinity XML FormFLOW. Those forms will then trigger workflows and update data where necessary. She also intends to implement the DocFinity COLD-ERM module, as it would facilitate processing of PDFs, letters, and reports that get published by the mainframe system.

The Associate Director looks forward to giving Web access to the 119 departments across campus that review graduate student applications. This has proven to be a challenge, because the technology environment of each department differs. Eventually, a few pilot departments will be chosen for testing of this new process.

In retrospect:

The Associate Director emphasizes that while efficiency and storage issues are substantially improved with just imaging, the maximum capability of the technology is realized only when workflow is implemented with a document management solution. As she states, “Workflow is what really makes the change.” DocFinity has provided the Office of Admissions with a flexible, cost-efficient solution that has met their need for rapid turnaround and has inspired them to examine the software‘s potential for future growth.