UNISA Case Study

The University of South Africa (Unisa) specialises in tertiary distance education and research. With 130,000 students around the world, Unisa is the largest university in southern Africa and is one of the world’s 11 mega universities: defined as those with over 100,000 students. Unisa employs some 3,000 academic, administrative and support staff and offers internationally recognised courses for undergraduates and postgraduates up to doctoral level. The university has a campus in Pretoria, supported by a network of regional offices and learning centres.

Unisa has transformed customer service and streamlined the work processes

Providing services for such massive numbers of students involves a significant volume of administrative work: from student registration through to examination management. In total, approximately half a million documentsare processed each year.

With the numbers of students forecast to grow to at least 150 000 by 2004, Unisa recognised that a new more efficient administrative system would be needed. “It was becoming increasingly difficult to manage the flow of paper through the administrative process, especially during the peak registration period, when large numbers of students register with us. Within just one month, around 300,000 pages of information have to be processed. There was just too much paper to handle,” explains Bruijns.

Inefficient administrative processes were having a negative impact on customer service. “We had a 24-hour turnaround time for queries. When a student phoned us, their file had to be fetched from our filing system in another building and we had to call them back the next day. For registration queries, we had no way of tracking where in the process an application might be, and sometimes files were mislaid,” continues Bruijns.

Initially, Unisa was looking for a high volume workflow system to integrate with its existing imaging system. “Being a university, we like to make use of advanced technology to provide an efficient service - and to demonstrate the benefits of IT. We had already invested in an imaging system, but this was proving ineffective.”

So when Emerge demonstrated the power of its Global 360 advanced business process management software, Unisa selected this integrated approach to deliver a total solution.

“We chose the Global 360 solution for a number of reasons,” comments Bruijns. “Firstly, it achieved the required bench mark in a pilot that included both imaging and process management. Secondly, it delivered the lowest cost of ownership analysed over a six year period. The system is easy to use. And it quickly accommodates changes and new developments.”

Global 360 Master VAR, Emerge Group had already implemented the G360 BPM Suite for other organisations, and was contracted to provide Unisa with a turnkey solution.

Implementation began in late November 1998, and by February 1999 the main system had been completed. Nearly 60 Unisa staff are involved in indexing and scanning documents into the new Enterprise Imaging system. The system then archives the digitised documents and makes them instantly available to users, on-screen.

The Global 360 solution routes the documents through to the right administrative and academic staff across Unisa’s geographical regions. “The new process management system speeds up the process of passing documents to the right people, wherever they are, as well as eliminating errors and duplication,” comments Bruijns. Emerge Group has provided user training as well as vital skillstransfer. This ensures that Unisa’s technical staff can support users and also make system adjustments as requirements change. The Emerge Group team continues to assist with Unisa’s day-to-day needs as well as with new developments such as customised user interfaces and additional processing routes.

The system is now being used by some 600 administrative and academic staff, via the 3,200 or so PCs, both on the main campus and in Unisa’s regional sites, with an eventual user base of at least 1,000. A wide variety of processes are already up and running, including: student registration, maintaining up-to-date student details, keeping track of curriculum changes, processing student fee payments, taking requests for study materials and dispatching these, handling student queries by letter and phone, and examination and results administration. Global 360’s web-enabled facility is particularly important for Unisa. Integration with the University’s “Students On Line” web page allows students to pay their fees, update their details, and to submit registration forms over the Internet. When electronic mail is received, the system automatically sends back an acknowledgement, and the message or application is indexed and routed to the relevant administrators and departments.

The benefits of the new system are considerable. “Client service has improved dramatically,” says Bruijns. “The system has cut query turnaround times to a matter of minutes. We can keep track of applications through the system. And we can access student files immediately, on screen, wherever they are in the process. It has empowered our staff by giving them the knowledge base they needed and a far more efficient processing solution.”

In addition, on-campus storage space is reduced. “Because documents can be stored and accessed electronically, fewer paper-based documents need to be stored on the campus. Incoming mail is converted into electronic documents. And incoming faxes are no longer printed out. Instead, they enter the Global 360 system immediately and are routed to the right desktop,” comments Bruijns. “Paper documents are boxed and stored on site for just two years and are then recycled.” Documents no longer go astray, and the cost of phone calls and paper supplies has been cut.

“The new Global 360 solution has turned our document processing around, and we are now extending the system to incorporate additional processes,” concludes Bruijns. Global