Models of Efficiency honoree update

University Business presents Models of Efficiency, a national recognition program honoring institutions whose innovative solutions have solved higher education business and technology challenges.

Copy This
Houston Community College (Texas)
Information Technology

HCC's print and copy management solutions for each of its campuses were dissimilar, not integrated, and not centralized. Officials implemented a new solution and established a single vendor contract for copier services at all colleges and campuses. Now students are charged for all printing and copying, and the revenues are being used to offset supply costs and contribute to HCC's budget. Read the full story.

Loan Rangers
Illinois Institute Of Technology (Ill.)
Student Accounting Office

By automating several institutional loan processes, the Student Accounting Department at the Illinois Institute of Technology reduced the report cycle time from 4.58 hours a week to 10 minutes a week. It's estimated that there has been a 90 percent increase in the efficiency of reviewing transfer reports. Read the full story.

Recruitment Goes Mobile
Western Michigan University (Mich.)
Admissions & Enrollment Management

WMU's in-house mobile app "MobileCounselor" has replaced physical prospective student information cards. Instead, traveling admissions counselors can collect data from prospective students on their mobile device, which is then automatically and electronically uploaded into WMU's admission CRM system. The school was able to save student personnel time of data entry by more than 150 hours. Read the full story.

Snail Mail 2.0
The University of North Carolina at Greenboro (N.C.)
Campus Enterprises

When UNCG found that the volume of mail to the resident population had decreased drastically in recent years, it streamlined its mail delivery process by losing the current 1-to-1-box assignment model. Through the new "Spartan Mail Management" system, UNCG has gained better customer service, accessibility, and productivity, while saving more than $100,000 per fiscal year. Read the full story.

Orientation Station Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach (Fla.) Records and Registration When creating information packets for new student orientation became an inefficient and time-consuming process, officials at Embry-Riddle began inputting, scanning and tracking new student data throughout the orientation process. This saved about 500 hours of workload among staff and decreased the amount of paper being used. Read the full story.	Fiscal Management to the Rescue Drexel University (Penn.) Drexel Business Services To create a more efficient work environment for each of the seven Drexel Business Service (DBS) departments, the school created the DBS OneCenter — a shared services department consisting of five employees dedicated to the financial and administrative operations of DBS departments. In 2013, processing time for purchasing requests went from 750 days to under 400 and purchases resulted in more than $700,000 placed on procurement cards alone. Read the full story.
New Home Base for Tech Help Fairfield University (Conn.) Information Technology Services Fairfield relocated their technology from a remote building to the prime location of the campus library. This relocation brought to light a number of opportunities for improvement that the IT Services department can assist with, including basic software training for students and quick tip printouts for students. Along with an increase in student and faculty satisfaction, the new help desk has freed up 20 percent of the library staff's time and effort. Read the full story.	Automated Transfer Madison College (Ohio) Enrollment Center While experiencing a 25 percent increase in admissions applications over five years, Madison switched from paper transcripts to a digital solution. This digital solution has shaved several weeks off its turnaround time for transcript articulation. Since the implementation, the school has also seen a four percent increase in its admissions yield rate. Read the full story.
Digital Signatures for Speedier Approvals Pepperdine University (Calif.) Information Technology After creating the CIO Strategic Technology Alliance to investigate ways to enhance technology use across the university, Pepperdine officials launched a successful pilot program to meet its e-signature needs. Within four months of using new software, Pepperdine was able to cut down document turnaround time from several hours to an average of only 19 minutes. Read the full story.	Apply now for the Models of Efficiency 2014 winter program. Deadline for entries is September 2nd.