Case Studies

Whitworth University Case Study

Recognized as one of the top regional colleges and universities in the West, Whitworth University enrolls 2,600 students in more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Under the strong leadership of President William P. Robinson, Whitworth enjoys record levels of student enrollment and retention, the strongest financial position in the university's history, and increased external visibility.

 
Prior to implementing a scanning solution, the Registrar’s office was retrieving student records via microfilm and found that it was extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Their next step toward a paperless environment was the launch of a scanning initiative with the deployment of a localized digital repository with on-site storage and multiple user licensing.
 
This initial deployment in the Registrar’s office included scanning the backlog of graduation, inactive and miscellaneous files. Next, the Academic Affairs office started scanning old academic contracts and the Education Placement office began scanning their graduate placement files.
 
Recently Whitworth was in a position where their existing, out-dated digital repository needed to be upgraded. The system required significant upgrades, including new workstations and upgrading existing licenses. At that point, Terry Norton, Associate Director of Information Systems, determined that it would be a good time to explore newer technologies on the market.
 
After being approached by several vendors, including their existing vendor, the Whitworth team made the decision to focus on RADIX for a number of reasons, including ease of administration, ease of use and more cost-effective unlimited licensing. The hosted model that RADIX employs now allows the institution to deploy unlimited and secure access to a variety of users, both on campus and off campus for significantly less investment than the traditional on-site repository.
 
With a long-term goal of becoming an entirely paperless institution, Whitworth has deployed RADIX in their Admissions, Finance and Registrar offices, as well as an upcoming deployment for Human Resources. As a student graduates from the institution, his/her file is scanned by the Registrar’s office and uploaded into the RADIX system for retrieval by any of the departments at Whitworth.
 
One of the departments where RADIX has made the most visible difference is Admissions. Admissions counselors are now able to review applicant files and make acceptance decisions remotely, while on the road recruiting and performing interviews. The application process is very document intensive, requiring copies of the application form, transcripts, letters of recommendation and test scores for each individual applicant. In the past, this information was not readily available to staff off-site, which extended the length of time between an application and acceptance.
 
Now, applications from perspective students are retrieved digitally from a custom online service as well as Royall and Company, and are then uploaded directly to RADIX. In the competitive collegiate landscape, RADIX has provided a notable advantage in allowing Whitworth to drastically reduce the amount of time in delivering notification of acceptance to prospective students.
 
In addition to a competitive advantage, the administrative efficiencies that have been realized are invaluable. “Today we simply scan documents into RADIX that are then made available through a hot-key integration in our Datatel student information system,” says Celeste Lewis, Associate Director of Admissions, Technical. “Our student workers process between 300 and 400 documents a day through Datatel and RADIX that previously were filed into and retrieved from cabinets two floors away. With the level of efficiency we have achieved now, it’s hard to believe we managed all of the paper before.”
 
To date, Admissions has eliminated two large file cabinets and saved at least 30 minutes per day for each of their six employees, equaling a weekly time savings of 15 total hours. 
 

Just as notable is the significant time savings realized by the Finance department in their AR and AP processes. After eliminating six file cabinets with four more expected to be eliminated by the end of the year, savings in space alone has proven extremely beneficial to the department. In addition to space utilization, efficiency within their processes has improved ten-fold. “Where it used to take us 1-2 hours to prep a check run, it now takes us only 30 minutes,” says Kris Zimbelman, Sr. Accountant, Budget and Operations. “The ease of retrieval and efficiency this system provides is a life-saver.”

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