Higher ed? More like tech ed. According to Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan, the number of connected machines will be 10 times the number of connected people by 2020. That means more machines will be communicating with each other than
people will be. And that’s good
news—great, actually. Automation
can enhance the education
experience for students, parents,
faculty, staff, prospective students
and even alumni.
From powering down PCs to
shutting off lights, faculty and
staff spend more time than
necessary on these nonessential
tasks. Simply automating when
the lights shut off and PCs power
down can give faculty more time
to provide students with the high-quality education they expect.
Saving time is a key priority for
universities across the country.
When the Administrative Information
Technology Services Department at
the University of Illinois took a look
at its strategic plan, the number one
priority was changed to “save time.”
THE AUTOMATED UNIVERSITY:
HOW AUTOMATION CAN
ENHANCE EDUCATION
Saving money is also driving
higher ed institutions to implement
workflow automation solutions
behind the scenes of the classroom.
In a PayStream Advisors, Inc., survey,
accounts payable automation
resulted in a 33 percent reduction
in invoice processing costs among
the institutions that implemented it.
Okay, so automation can positively
impact time and costs across
campus. But that’s just scratching
the surface. Workflow automation
in particular allows documents
to be routed to the correct
person electronically based on
workload, title, role or any other
factor specified by the institution.
Then when that staff member
completes their portion of the task,
it automatically routes to the next
person. With transcripts, admission
applications, essays, scholarship
applications, tuition payments and a
plethora of other forms inundating
universities, making these forms
easily accessible can make a world
of difference. Say buh-bye to those
days of wasting time searching for
documents and getting them to the
right person.
As tuition costs climb and
universities are put under the
microscope, now is the time to
not only take a look at your tech
strategy, but your overall strategy—
how can automation play a role?
What opportunities do you have
to reallocate resources back to
the lecture hall? How can you help
faculty save time on nonessential
tasks so they have more time to
spend with students?
At Georgetown University, the
Technology Modernization Initiative
was enacted in 2012. Among a
number of technological advances
made so far on campus, they also
made it easier for faculty, students
and other staff to print from their
computers or phones to one of
15 locations across campus. At
the University of Kansas, they
realize that to solve some of their
toughest challenges—retain top staff,
ensure students graduate, increase
enrollment—they need to make the
technology end of the university
more agile.
CIOs are in a pivotal position to
make sure technology is an integral
part of the university’s short-term
and long-term strategies. This is their
opportunity to bring more business
value and to play a bigger role in
the campus experience—much
like automation.
