On an individual level, staff members now have immediate access to the information they need to quickly and efficiently help students. Retrieval time has been reduced from 10-15 minutes to just seconds. Being able to reply to student inquiries quickly has contributed to higher job satisfaction and lower workplace stress for everyone.

Judith Longo, TC3’s Registrar said, “DocuWare changed the way we work. My staff used to constantly be in and out of the file room - now that is a non-issue for us. We no longer have to find a folder and sign it out. Today we can look up information and answer questions while we are on the phone or if the student is in front of us. The ease of access is the biggest change DocuWare has brought my staff.“

Departmental Benefits
For the Registrar’s and Admission’s offices, digitizing student information as it is received has resulted in better workflow processes, and allowed the offices to provide up-to-the-minute information that, if needed, can be shared by other departments at the college. The Registrar is assured that permanent records are securely stored in a dependable system.

The Library and Learning Resource Centers are both utilizing DocuWare’s robust scanning features to create high quality images and better serve their students. The Library posts PDF or TIFF versions of important articles to the school’s website as part of the their electronic reserves, while the Learning Resource Center, with the help of another program, transforms their images into an audio file to assist visually impaired students.

The improved and automated processes have allowed the various departments to manage the 40% growth rate in student enrollment without adding additional administrative personnel.

Organizational Benefits
On an organizational level, digitizing student folders has brought huge time savings for every office and most importantly, TC3’s students. Offices can work together and share information in a way never previously possible. These new efficiencies have allowed the college to better serve their students.

The solution helps TC3 easily meet the privacy standards established in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly known as FERPA, and the State Archive and Record Retention regulations, limiting their legal liability. Even purging electronic records has been simplified with the use of a self-generating RETENTION DATE index field used to alert the staff when certain records can be purged from the system. Physical storage space has been significantly reduced now that 73 file cabinets are no longer needed.

DocuWare’s modular design, open architecture, and Web-enabled access fit with the college’s master plan to continue to provide more student information online. Web access to information has been extremely helpful for staff and students at the college’s two extension centers by eliminating the need to visit the main campus for access to student folders