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Document Management
Image and Integrate
11/1/2007
" In that instance, for example, the ImageNow program will locate those applications containing community service entries, rank them by relevance, and even highlight the section where a candidate may be discussing volunteer work. As the document is accessed by various individuals, one adviser might add a "looks promising" note on the application, and then e-mail the annotated document to another adviser. If all goes well and the candidate is granted admission, the numerous requisite forms he will then proceed to fill out are scanned into his student file, which can then be accessed by the appropriate individuals—financial aid and student records staffers, and so on.
APPLICATIONS TO BELMONT University have doubled over the past five years—but thanks to the efficiencies of its document management system, the school hasn't needed to increase its staff.
Harrison has two scanners in her office to expedite the scanning process. That's just about all she needs: Now when students come in requesting information, she says, she doesn't have to respond, "We'll have it for you tomorrow," which was the old drill. These days, she can call up the information for the student on the spot. "I can literally do all the work here in my office," she explains. "Everything is right there on my desktop, in one central location." And, she can't help but add, "Things aren't as lost as they used to be." To date, the college has scanned in 15 years of records; the job is about 75 percent complete, says Harrison. "Now we service students better," she declares.
Farther west, at the somewhat larger Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, Dan Wagner, product manager for imaging for the Office of IT, has been implementing the same ImageNow product and training people in its use for the past several years. Over 30 departments are linked—Admissions, the Registrar, Student Services, Environmental Health and Safety, Dentistry, Nursing, and Athletics among them. Still, Wagner maintains, "There's a lot of room for growth, a lot of potential." He demonstrates the program several times a month to other departments, and is looking forward to a fully connected campus.
He, too, claims the system "provides benefits across the university—not just for our staff, but for faculty and students as well." The university processes thousands of undergraduate admissions each year. Now, Wagner points out, the system can quickly distribute applications to the various colleges, where advisers can see them and forward them along.
But speeding access to documents doesn't just mean time and paper savings.
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