Top 3 Ways a Document Management Solution Can Help Accelerate Your University’s Admissions Process

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When it comes to higher education and the high volume of documents they receive every day, admissions offices are at the top of that high volume list. Think about all the documents you have to submit to apply to most universities. The application, SAT/ACT scores, essay, recommendations… the list goes on. That may seem like a lot to one person, but it is nothing compared to the volume of applications admissions offices have to go through for every single future student applying. While universities are constantly looking to increase applicants,  some are in desperate need of the right solution to streamline those processes and make their admissions process faster and more efficient.  

Whether these documents are digital, paper, or a combination of both, if the right solutions and processes aren’t in place the admissions team could waste valuable hours organizing and searching through these documents. Admission wants to get offers into the hands of their incoming students as soon as possible, but how can you accomplish that with such a high volume of documents to go through? With a document management solution, you will be able to utilize its features to streamline these applications so that they can get in the hands of your Admissions Committee and respond to your future students in no time. Getting started with a document management solution can seem like a lot of work at first, but the value comes almost immediately after implementation. Both your employees and your future students will see a huge increase in efficiency. Throughout this blog we will talk through the top 3 ways a document management system can help accelerate your university’s admission process. 

1. Workflows

Workflows are one of the best ways a document management system can help accelerate your admission process. Each university will have different admissions and application processes, but loads of documents will always play a part. Whether it be the admissions office sending applications to the admissions committee or just moving applicant information throughout the university, you want to make sure the correct documents are in the hands of the right people at the right time. 

Most document management systems have the ability for workflow automation. This will allow you to build out your processes to automatically distribute work and documents across your departments based on triggers and actions. For example, your process right now might be that an application needs to go through multiple departments and reviews before you can get the acceptance letter ready. If you don’t have a document management solution in place, you either are doing this manually through email or just walking it over to the correct department. Both of these take up a lot of time and can also be prone to human error. Workflows help take away all those unnecessary steps. It can not only route your documents but also most allow for rules-based routing which allows you to define and enforce business rules such as approval and reviews. This is extremely important when it comes to an admissions office because a lot of the documents being routed will need some sort of review or approval before moving forward. 

How will you know if the document has been approved or reviewed? Easy, many document management systems can set up notifications based on certain criteria. Let’s say it usually takes 2 days to go through processing a single application. You can define how long this would take within the workflow and allow for it to set up notifications if that time is exceeded. That way you can easily see where the hold-up is. You can also set up notifications for when a document is reviewed or is ready to be reviewed, which is a lot faster and more efficient than sending an email or walking it over. 

2. Accessible Records  

As an admissions office, there are many documents and records you must keep and have easy access to. Transcripts, applications, financial aid records, student information, the list goes on. With that many documents, if your university is still not on the road to becoming paperless, this is your sign. With a document management system, you are not only able to house these documents in a secure location, you are also able to index them to simplify how you organize and find any documents you need. 

One way you can utilize this within your admissions process is through your student records. With a document management solution, you can have the organization and categorization of these documents auto-generated to speed up the process. You can also use indexing to classify information that describes a document and allows you to easily search and find said document once it has been digitized. You can also use metadata (notes and information about the file) to tag values like a student’s ID number to make it easier to access their records. That way if a student or parent comes to you asking about their records, you will be able to quickly and easily retrieve it for them.

3. Document Security 

Many documents within an admissions office will have extremely confidential information such as students names, emails, addresses, Social Security numbers, etc. That is information you do not want to just keep sitting in a filing cabinet. Many issues can arise if you are still keeping your paper based documents and you do not want to take that risk.  A document management solution can ensure that you are compliant with FERPA and HIPAA and other regulatory requirements while also having the ability to keep all documents secure. 

You can also set up security for specific documents that you may only want some people to see. For example, a confidential document such as one with a student’s Social Security number and personal information can be secured where only authorized people can access it. That way not everyone in the department will be able to access that information, keeping it as secure as possible. Your current and incoming students are trusting you with valuable and confidential information and as a university you want them to feel as secure and safe as possible. That includes the security of their personal information. 

How To Get Started

You understand why a document management solution will benefit your admissions office, but how do you start implementing one? Start looking for document management systems that align with your business process needs. Finding the right document management system is key, many different systems have different features and options you will have to consider. If you need any help figuring out how to pick the best solution for your company, contact us today and we’d be happy to discuss the right option for you and your university.

Click here to download this blog as a PDF.

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