TMCC's Financial Aid Department (FA) stores about 14,000 hardcopy files, and processes approximately 7,000 new applications a year. FA workers were running out of space to house all of the files when they were told their office might be moved, resulting in the loss of their file room altogether. Since they are required by the U.S. Department of Education to keep files for four years (sometimes longer depending on a specific regulation) they knew converting to an electronic file system would save both time and money while serving their students better.
March 15, 2005
Case Study:
Truckee Meadows Community College Uses ViewWiseas a Multi-departmental Application
Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) is the fastest growing college in northern Nevada. Thecollege serves over 12,000 students with programs leading to associate degrees and certificates inmore than 40 academic and occupational areas.
TMCC's Financial Aid Department (FA) stores about 14,000 hardcopy files, and processesapproximately 7,000 new applications a year. FA workers were running out of space to house all of thefiles when they were told their office might be moved, resulting in the loss of their file room altogether.Since they are required by the U.S. Department of Education to keep files for four years (sometimeslonger depending on a specific regulation) they knew converting to an electronic file system would saveboth time and money while serving their students better. The question was which electronic file systemto choose.
Same Problem.Times Two
While FA was researching electronic alternatives to paper, another department was already using adocument imaging system. The expectation was that FA would adopt the same system. "We found theother department's system to be, 'clunky,'" says Sharon Wurm, Assistant Director, Financial AidDepartment.
Wurm continues, "Our Director of Information Technology Operations (ITO) found ViewWise fromComputhink at a tradeshow. ITO set-up ViewWise on our server to Computhink's specs and everythingworked fine. After some trial and error, we were able to adjust the security controls to match our needs.Both departments now use ViewWise"
The New Workflow Process
With 22 licensed users, ViewWise is now an integral part of FA's record keeping procedures. TheViewWise integrated document management system is utilized as an ongoing work-in-process system,where files are built electronically; capturing scanned documents such as copies of tax forms.
To begin the Financial Aid application process, students go online to the U.S. Department of Education(DOE) and complete an eight-page application. TMCC then imports the application information fromthe DOE system once a week into the TMCC mainframe system.
Next, the student goes online to the TMCC website to fill out an Activation Form. The Activation Form isthen delivered to the FA Dept in the form of an email. FA imports the email Activation Form intoViewWise. This begins the lifecycle of an applicant's file. All E-files are stored according to academicyear, exactly like their old paper-based filing system. Files are indexed by name, Social Securitynumber, and award year for efficient retrieval.Braving the Back-file
In 2004-2005, FA has decided to go completely paperless. Every file from this current year forward willbe stored and available for electronic retrieval. TMCC has also initiated the scanning of old paper filesinto ViewWise, for archival purposes, because as Wurm puts it, "It's frustrating to have to look for apaper file".
ViewWise Benefits
FA personnel like the ease and intuitive appeal of the ViewWise secured archival retrieval system. Thelearning curve is short and the time to retrieve a file as well as the number of misplaced files has beendramatically reduced. Stephanie Costigan, FA Administrative Assistant, took the initiative to delvedeeper into ViewWise and customize it to make it match FA's needs even better.
Says Costigan, "When we moved from paper files to electronic files, people were concerned that theywould actually lose paperwork. However, since installing ViewWise, nothing has ever happened thatcouldn't be resolved quickly."
Costigan says she relies heavily on some of the standard features of ViewWise. "We do some double-sided scanning, some batch scanning and some individual scanning," she explains, "Features likedespeckle, deskew (both automatic and manual) and anything that makes a scanned file legible iscritical to us." The feature Costigan uses most is the Sticky Note tool for when things need furtherexplanation. She likes this tool, because the note floats above the image, allowing complete viewing ofthe underlying document.
ViewWise also enables FA to cut/copy pages from a file in one year and paste them into next year'sfile. That way, a student file exists in every year and selective paperwork can be advanced to thecurrent year's file.
Return on Investment... [download for more]
