The Challenge

Like most colleges and universities, this university's registrar depends on paper forms and computer printouts to create, capture, archive and distribute student records. The records go back 100 years, accumulating an estimated 3 million pages. During the past decade the university has seen a yearly increase in student enrollment, and a corresponding growth in paper files, storage and workload.

The registrar faced several challenges – fulfilling requests for records in a timely manner and satisfying state mandates for disaster recovery. According to the registrar, "During peak enrollment season we receive about 100 requests per day for student records. The files were stored in many buildings, including the library, registrar's office and various storage areas. Retrieving, copying, re-filing and mailing within a reasonably short time became a significant cost burden."

The registrar wanted to increase the efficiency of the department and shorten the turnaround time without hiring more staff. A good portion of staff time was consumed searching, retrieving, copying and re-filing files. Cost, productivity and responsiveness were not the only challenges.

Another concern was providing disaster recovery in accordance with state mandates. Since the paper files are the only copy, there were no backup copies in case the originals are destroyed due to disasters such as fire, water damage or even inadvertent destruction.

The Solution

Océ imaging and records management experts assessed the university's needs and goals. Based on the study, Océ designed the solution architecture and specified the hardware and software requirements. Process and workflow were then designed to execute the image capture operation. Working with the client, a phased conversion approach was developed. First, the student "grade books" were imaged.

These files contain student class grades that are most active. An electronic repository will increase productivity immediately and provide a backup. The second phase tackles "current files," defined as the past ten years' files. All the documents in these files are imaged and indexed per the university's records retention schedule.

The third phase converts files older than ten years. These files are also purged of documents that exceed the retention schedule. The physical paper files are thinned by destroying documents no longer needed, reducing the physical storage space.

Océ designed and installed the imaging technology and process and staffed the scanning operation. Anticipating a variety of paper conditions, best-in-class image clean up software was deployed to minimize labor and maximize image quality. Nevertheless, image quality assurance is still dependent on human skill to correct problems the scanner and software cannot handle such as fading, pencil and Post-it notes, bleed through documents, etc.

On the process side, Océ implemented high-quality controls to ensure 100% of the documents are captured and 100% of the images meet the test of reproduction and readability. The imaging facility is secured by controlling physical access and all electronic access is cut off to ensure student information is not compromised. Finally, the electronic image archive is also backed up to microfilm ensuring compliance with state requirements.

The Result

As the student records were brought on-line and the registrar's office began to use the electronic system to fulfill requests for records, improvements in several business metrics were immediately noticed.

1. Pressure to hire additional staff dissipated and there was no need for overtime.
2. The chronic backlog in requests for records was eliminated. Now the requests are turned around immediately. And, in an era of instant gratification, that is good news for the customers and the university.
3. Physical files are not disturbed and records do not get misfiled.
4. Valuable space was freed and is being refurbished for other uses.

In addition, the university officials can feel a little better knowing that should anything happen to the paper files, business will not be interrupted because they now have an electronic and microfilm archive.