Taking the labour out of document management

Student information arrives in many ways, forms hard and soft copy, typed, handwritten, different formats and programs...

What is homogeneous is the amount of time it takes to process, store, secure and later access the information.

It’s an area that’s ripe for automation and organisations that have gone down that route have seen huge, onerous tasks condensed and streamlined.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) was manually managing the records of more than 60,000 past and present students.

In an attempt to get on top of it, UWC engaged Kofax to help with its administrative systems, citing inaccuracies in its files and an inability to attain a single, holistic view of student records. The company employed a combination of its own technology and off the shelf software to create a new, more efficient environment for document management.

“We worked closely with the university to design a system that suited its unique situation. In this case, we implemented a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Server and Kofax document imaging and capture solution that could surface student file information in almost any system through the use of web services. The use of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 meant university staff were able to access the correct information quickly and accurately due to the user-friendly nature of the platform,” says Andy Mellor Kofax regional VP for ANZ.

Image and capture technology allowed the university to improve accuracy and workflow capabilities, saving time and money and ultimately driving greater efficiency.

Kofax’s suite of products map well to the school environment, one, Robotic Process Automation, can be rolled out as a digital teaching assistant to automate manual, time-consuming, expensive workflows.

This solution can automate the registration process for new students, the absence process, student tracking and associated administration. The digital teaching assistant can also schedule lessons and teachers more efficiently, onboard and register new employees and provide invoice processing and administrative mail workflows.

“Our intelligent automation harnesses six core capabilities to drive businesses’ end-to-end workflow transformation that can scale upwards with the business. This automation bridges the gap between IT and the business, promoting more connectivity within the organisation.

“The suite of technologies implemented at UWC completely transformed how the organisation approached its administrative capabilities. Every physical document was digitised and staff were able to get a consolidated view of more than 31 different types of documents relating to any one student. The outcome was improved service levels and it also meant this function no longer needed to be outsourced to a third party, reducing overall administration costs.”

“We have a number of products and systems specifically designed to service the education sector. A good example is our Kofax Power PDF™ Advanced solution. The solution is built using a Microsoft Office-style interface so staff can be trained to use the platform almost immediately. It uses functionality such as search, redaction and integration with commonly used platforms like Box and Microsoft OneDrive. Using Power PDF Advanced can help schools streamline document workflows, better connect to the cloud, enhance security and increase productivity,” he says