Document Management Case Study.
Document Management for Stephenson College
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Document Manager, powering a paperless college. Stephenson College is one of the UK's newest College of Further Education campuses - with over 14,000 students and 800 teaching staff.
The college is part of the New Technology Initiative, supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, focusing on vocational training for adults and younger students.
A growing mountain of paper
The college had been expanding rapidly, with a growing student body and an increasing number of teachers. Forced by pressure on space, the college had moved into a newly built Campus in Coalville. There had also been an ambitious extension to the range of studies.
All of this was putting an enormous burden on the college’s paper-based document management system. The college’s hundreds of filing cabinets were growing at an alarming rate and occupying an ever larger area. There were now so many files in storage, estimated at 38Kg a square metre, that some of the flooring was literally buckling under the weight.
Other paper based systems including a sluggish purchase order approval process were also affecting the college’s performance.
“Finding a solution had become critical” says Stephenson College network manager Fraser Wight “we needed to drastically reduce if not actually eliminate the growing mountain of paper”.
Choosing Document Manager
The college wanted a document management platform proven by other colleges to be easy to install, reliable, and scalable. It had to support existing work processes and future developments including extension of the distance learning program.
“We investigated the available solutions and how other colleges addressed the challenge. Document Manager was well priced with a modular construction where we payed only for the functionality deployed. The solutions SQL Server technology would also integrate well with the colleges other software including the Eclipse student records system” says Stephenson College network manager Fraser Wight.
Benefits of Document Manager
- Accelerates student and teacher access to learning materials
- Streamlines college business and administrative processes
- Cuts costs and conquers the paper mountain problem
- Reduce internal post
- Everyone across the colleges has access to the system
- Accelerated approval of POs and invoices
“Today, nothing gets lost or mis-filed. Document Manager will likely pay for itself within a year or so.” says Stephenson College network manager Fraser Wight.
The Document Manager solution
Used by colleges across the UK, Document Manager is a powerful and affordable document management system that centrally manages the flow of documents throughout a college to provide users with instant access to information. It delivers central security control enforcing all document access and editing rights.
Every student across the college has access to Document Manager. They are never far from an access point within the college and they can access learning materials from home via the Web API. Document Manager also makes life dramtically easier for teachers, helping them prepare course materials, verify reports, check student attendance and more.
Document Manager is now part of the college’s learning environment encouraging use of a wider range of learning materials by providing easier, faster access to documents. There is no more searching filing cabinets. Information is available instantly from anywhere in the college, or from home.
The system has also automated many administrative processes within the college including purchase order processing (significantly helping cash flow), teacher support and mail distribution. Every piece of incoming mail is now scanned, distributed and stored within Document Manager.
Document Manager is more than just a great software solution. It is backed by a team who deeply understand the education sector and who form ongoing partnerships with colleges to deliver excellence in Document Management.
