Softdocs Implementation Enables Move to Digital Campus
Beginning a paperless campus initiative through the adoption of collaborative technology, William Jewell College and Softdocs partnered to implement the Softdocs platform, an enterprise content management, e-forms, and workflow platform.
Linking operations that include the registrar’s office, financial aid, admissions and enrollment management across campus, William Jewell College, a four-year private liberal arts college in Liberty, Mo., needed a more efficient method to capture, retain and distribute student-facing forms and improve the overall student experience. Using Etrieve by Softdocs, which easily integrates into William Jewell’s existing ERP – Colleague® by Ellucian – more than 30 distinct forms in the registrar’s office are now condensed to 18 electronic forms using the robust, mobile-ready platform’s e-forms and workflow capabilities.
“During our RFP process, Lan attended Softdocs’ annual user conference. Although she heard their clients singing the praises of the technology and Softdocs’ educational expertise, I remained skeptical of the capabilities we were told it could perform especially regarding claims of its versatility and ease of use. Products often only offer one or the other – not both” said Carrie Stradella, Applications Developer and Analyst, William Jewell College. “Through one of the most challenging phases of the implementation – the Drop/Add Permission to Enroll – we quickly saw the perfect display of Etrieve’s power and flexibility. Softdocs was able to account for all of our unique needs by creating a very complex electronic form process that, on the surface, looks simple for our students, faculty and staff to use.”
Improved Experience Across Departments for Staff and Students
Further focusing on integrations, efficiencies and supporting business process improvement, William Jewell College has been able to streamline workflows with Etrieve and integrate data in forms to reduce human error and streamline the routing of content to a multitude of departments such as student life, athletics, financial aid, registrar, nursing, education, etc.
“Some departments were hesitant to adopt Etrieve due to a ‘stay-the-course’ attitude. Once they recognized the success of the new paperless process and real efficiencies saved through the technology, they were clamoring for it,” said Lan Guo, Director of Information Technology, William Jewell College. “Almost weekly, I have users of Etrieve coming to see me with new use cases and ideas for the software to further improve our processes. It’s such a pleasure to see our faculty, staff and students embracing the investment.”
The Etrieve platform offers ERP-integrated applications that store and organize content, as well as redefine common business processes, reducing the need for paper and improving productivity across the entire organization.