Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Document Management
Image and Integrate
11/1/2007
Unified Storage & Access
Universities, especially large ones, traffic information not only via paper, but also across fax, e-mail, and voicemail. A vexing problem: How to transfer information from all of those channels into an electronic format that can then be stored or communicated. Take the case of the State University of New York's Application Processing Center in Albany, where Bryan Schaefer once was image system manager. According to Schaefer, the university was handling upwards of 450,000 enrollment applications each year, and applications were routinely supplemented with faxes, e-mails, and voicemails; the document numbers were exploding, he recalls.
MANAGING DOCUMENTS ON DEMAND
AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, where construction of a new medical center is underway, employees, contractors, and students all can share information and documents via computer, without worrying about firewalls and security conflicts with other preexisting systems. All the information shared among contractors and vendors goes through application service provider (ASP) SpringCM, where it's updated and distributed electronically. Because the app is hosted via the web, users can access the program from anywhere without investing in any special hardware or purchasing software. They can search for documents, extract text from them, and route full-text extractions to users' own preset workflow processes. They can even place virtual sticky notes on the documents as they are passed along. When the project (construction or otherwise) is completed, users can easily be removed from the system.
Users can be set up on the system in about 10 minutes to an hour. An individual signs up, names his folder and adds the university logo, adds some user privileges, and assigns e-mail addresses and fax numbers. There's a $500 setup fee to access the program, and a charge of about $130/month per five users. Potential SpringCM clients can even play with the program free for 30 days.
Though Ohio State is using SpringCM for collaboration around the construction of the new medical center, the program is designed to: provide students with easy access to course materials and collaboration tools; ensure that all students have access to the same updated material; help manage student and trainee project activity from a single, integrated dashboard; employ alerts and reminders to keep project participants apprised of critical project milestones and due dates; easily and centrally organize communications and collateral material; and allow users to share documents in real time, in WebEx meetings.
Schaefer is now the regional sales engineer at
Recommended Reading
- Get Users on Board
- Greening IT
- It's a Zinch
- Meeting up Virtually
- Online Tutorials to the Rescue
Now's the time to use online tutorials to streamline professional development and help desk management.
- Retention Rx
