Best Practices for Implementing an ECM System in a College or University Setting

By Erica Kotula, PR Coordinator, Optical Image Technology

Many information system workers within higher education are well aware of the need to implement a document management and workflow system into their everyday lives. There are countless reasons to transition to electronic processes – to improve student services, enhance productivity, simplify processes, eliminate filing cabinets, and – most importantly – implement disaster recovery measures. But many institutions have thousands of file folders from decades of matriculation. How to efficiently evolve to an electronic system is a question that many find overwhelming.

Whether you are a member of the decision-making team or supporting staff, you can help to get the process rolling for your institution. The following best practices for choosing a document management solution should help to clarify and simplify the process.

1) A strategic thought process before beginning your transition — and involving a maximum number of decision-makers from the start — is the first step to simplifying the project.

Bear in mind that a document management system will most likely be implemented in other departments within the university. Therefore, it is in your best interest to invite decision-makers from departments across the university to ensure that the prospective system will work for everyone. It is also important to include the CIO and CFO to ensure that a budget can be approved. The prospective system should have the ability to be easily and efficiently integrated with any existing software.

Create a timeline so that everyone involved is apprised of what will be happening when. Schedule meetings well in advance so that it will not be difficult to get the project team together. A timeline will also help the team work toward the goal of implementation and usage.

2) Think about the document life cycle before starting your research.

Consider the source of your incoming documents — email, fax, scanning, etc. Also consider how quickly they’re being delivered and whether they will need to be archived. The processes within the organization for which the ECM system will be used help to define the type of system that will be most beneficial. Look holistically across the university and assess who will be using it, and in what ways.

Ask each department to write out their processes and to think of ways in which a document management or workflow system could improve productivity. What are the departmental expectations regarding functionality that would be expected from such a system now and in the future? The project leader should communicate with different departments and create a required functionality list to use when researching vendors.

3) The next step is to research vendors and eliminate those that cannot address your functionality requirements.

You’ll find providers by talking to colleagues, searching the internet, looking into ECM publications, and attending education trade shows.

4) After narrowing down the search to vendors that can accommodate your needs, ask further questions to see how prospective vendors can integrate with your existing legacy systems.

Also determine how each proposed system incorporates your document life cycle into your records management strategy. Does a prospective system have the scalability to expand and accommodate for future growth? How will a proposed system equip you to address compliance requirements? Invite vendors that seem to work best with your current and future goals to meet with your team in person and present a demo.

Ask the vendors that fit your needs to set up a meeting with a college or university that is addressing similar issues. This enables you to get a better feel from someone who is already using the technology. Also, it may trigger additional issues or goals for you to consider with respect to your own implementation.

5) Finally, choose and implement the system. Determine what the university staff can handle on its own and where they will need assistance from the vendor.

Participate in the training offered by the vendor and choose a maintenance package. The training ensures that there will be a better understanding of the product, and gives best practices for usage. Maintaining the system through the vendor enables you to receive subsequent updates and upgrades, and offers a trained staff to help with any problems.

Summary

A complete solution is one that enables learning institutions to centralize electronic documents. It should offer the ability to capture, index, store, retrieve, and route information efficiently, within both a secure office environment and remotely. If the process is approached in an organized fashion with the proper team in place, with a respected timeline and thoughtful evaluation of departments’ needs and vendor functionality, your ECM solution should positively affect your ROI. The university should see some — if not all — of the following:

Improved student services;
Improved access to documents;
An increase in control over document flow;
Increases in productivity;
A reduced need for physical storage; and
A decrease in overall storage costs.

Consider what an electronic document and workflow solution can do for your institution. Talk to other institutions to see how a transition away from paper has optimized student services. Once you are able to minimize paper processes, there are no limits to the improvements in efficiency that you can achieve.

For more information about Optical Image Technology and our DocFinity® suite of integrated document management and workflow solutions, please visit our website at www.docfinity.com, contact our staff at info@docfinity.com, or call our offices at 814-238-0038.

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Best Practices for Implementing an ECM System in a College or University Setting

Summary