Humans have hunted from the earliest times. Maybe that’s why we often accept the burdensome quest for information. We’re accustomed to the chase—even fooled into thinking we’re doing something valuable. Yet time lost in pointless pursuit means something is sacrificed. In the case of college enrollment, a drawn-out chase can mean losing top candidates to other institutions and ending up with a mediocre catch.

During peak season, enrollment office employees frenetically pursue information and answers, compiling scattered documentation in the hope of making quick, prudent decisions. Admissions, student aid, registrar, scholarship committees and other areas each have separate forms requiring distinctive information.

Yet as each department collects what it needs, useful information that could be shared is often requested again…and again. Information that could move decisions forward sits idle, garnering little or no attention.

Regrettably, as processes are deferred, institutions risk losing top candidates to other institutions.

Make informed decisions, quickly

Whether we’re considering undergraduate or graduate admissions, student financial aid, scholarship applications, or faculty search, the overriding goal is to garner and retain top people. Even though roles and responsibilities differ among departments, most draw vital information from transcripts, applications, test scores, essays, and references. Often, specific data found on forms is valuable in multiple places. Unfortunately, departmental software systems that store this precious information create data silos, resulting in information that is unknowingly collected multiple times for varying purposes.

Gathering information several times—even if it’s done efficiently—wastes resources, results in redundancy, generates errors, and causes delays.

Why not re-use your information to satisfy current needs and anticipate what lies ahead? Enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) software, integrated meaningfully with your business systems, redefine efficiency. By centralizing and securing access to content, then pushing and pulling information wherever it’s needed according to your pre-set business rules, ECM and BPM free your staff to work efficiently and focus on the services for which they were hired.

Anyone who has worked in an office has experienced waiting for information, only to discover someone else has had the requisite material for hours, days, or even weeks. It’s exasperating. Roughly one third of organizations have twenty or more content repositories that could be usefully linked,1 yet many remain isolated and disconnected. With the technology, communication, and integration tools available today, there’s no excuse for documented information not being available on demand to authorized persons.

Understand the interrelationship of your information

Student information is inextricably interrelated in campus decision making. It should be no surprise that taking advantage of the information you already have leads to better service and tremendous savings. Tapping into ECM as a central information repository helps you make sense of the information you have on file. A name, contact information, and PINs, for example, can match documentation and link records in the Student Information System (SIS) with applications, transcripts, test scores, essays, financial aid forms, scholarship applications, placement documents, and more. Using BPM to orchestrate the flow of new or amended material as it’s received, re-use new or updated information to automatically generate appropriate responses, or initiate requests for review or signatures, keeps critical processes moving.

To get started, take a value inventory of your institution’s information. Identify processes that rely on data you collect so you can maximize its usefulness and ensure that timely, informed decisions result from it.

Create an institutional information blueprint

Just as campus architects must carefully consider surrounding spaces when they design a new building, managing information intelligently requires a holistic overview of the processes and decisions that draw on it.

Get to know:

• All types of information your institution collects.

• All systems in which information is currently stored (Student Information Systems, student aid, human resources software, etc.)

• Where, when, and by whom specific data within the documents and information you collect is needed (grade point average, SAT score, date of birth, etc.).

• Each decision and process that relies on each piece of information.

To get started:

• Conduct a thorough document inventory.

• Chart the routine business processes for each department, including required documents.

• Identify which data drives which decisions and outcomes.

• Diagram the touch points between processes within each department to see where data can be re-used meaningfully.

• Compare files and processes between departments to identify (and streamline) redundancy and determine where information can be recycled.

Careful analysis lays the groundwork for appropriate planning. Meaningful use can only be achieved when you dedicate adequate resources for both.

Example of meaningful use

Let’s say an undergraduate student at your college applies to study at your graduate school. When the application is received, the name, contact information and PIN are matched and ultimately linked to the appropriate record in the SIS. Following prescribed rules for what constitutes a complete application, BPM notices graduate standardized test scores are missing, and immediately generates a letter to the student. Receipt of the test scores reactivates BPM to package the applicant’s materials and forward them to the appropriate person for evaluated. In the meantime, an approved grade change request form is received. BPM notifies the registrar the transcript must be updated and emails the evaluator that new material needs to be reviewed.

Re-using information meaningfully cuts processing times from weeks to days and days to hours. Employees typically can process 15-60% more work, sometimes more. Others suddenly discover they can provide customized services that were previously elusive. Either way, you win.

Give employees what they need

ECM and BPM work hand in glove to give people what they need to perform tasks efficiently and make informed, timely decisions. If you’ve implemented ECM and/or BPM in multiple departments, you’ve already taken steps forward, but you’re not realizing your institution’s potential.

Take a step back and look at the big picture. Understand your information needs so you can create a smart blueprint that leads to better and faster processing institution-wide. When you discover the value of your information and learn how to use it efficiently everywhere it has meaning, top applicants—whether faculty, students, or future co-workers—will notice the improvement in service. With a cache of institutional advantages, both you and they will emerge as winners.

1 51 Fast Facts about #ECM, #ERM, and #E20 from the 2009 AIIM Industry Watch research reports.