University of Arkansas Community College, Hope – Texarkana, Higher Education Document Management Case Study

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University of Arkansas Community College, Hope – Texarkana
Higher Education Document Management Case Study

Campus-wide Docubase Document Management
System

BACKGROUND

The University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana (UAHT) is a public community college in Hope and Texarkana, Arkansas. It is affiliated with the University of Arkansas System and is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is

located on a 72-acre site originally obtained by the citizens of the area for Red River Vocational-Technical School, which was established in 1965.

For many years the administration of student records at the college was paper based, with manual processes, paper forms, and physical file cabinets. Although not optimal, this old and established method was deemed as “good enough”, after all generally you don’t fix what isn’t broken. However along came the Pandemic of 2020 and the school faced immediate pressure to go digital quickly in order to continue serving their students.

The initial solution was to create a filing system using folders in a public cloud storage service. They created a directory tree of nested folders using a structure based on departments, and began scanning and storing documents in them. This approach seemed to suffice at first, but it quickly became evident that it was not sustainable as directories increased in size and security concerns grew. As a result the decision was made to go digital and the college set out to implement a proper Document Management System.

The main requirements desired by UAHT were:

• A hosted Document Management System (DMS)
• to be used campus-wide.
• Easy to use by non-technical users.
• Highly secure with roles based permissions for all users.
• Scalable to handle all current and future student documents.
• A DMS with an open API to ensure integrations with other systems.
• Affordable pricing.

WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES?

• Public cloud storage directory and folder method was not meeting DMS needs.

• The data in the directories was not clean and expertise was needed to standardize and move the records to the new system.

• Users needed to be trained in using a proper DMS for daily operations.

WHAT BENEFITS WERE ACHIEVED? 

• A full feature document management system hosted in a secure private cloud.

• Getting users away from the directory folders and using the new Docubase DMS quickly.

• A document management solution in place that supports the school’s current and future needs.

SUMMARY OF THE SOLUTION

UAHT wanted a system that offered a robust set of features to manage digital documents of all types, as well as being secure and easy to use by non-technical staff. The vendor selected would also need to have the expertise necessary to handle the migration of the files in the folder tree into the DMS quickly and accurately. They knew there were many DMS options in the market, but in the end it was the reputation of Docubase as a reliable Document Management vendor widely used by other schools throughout the Midwestern US that cemented their decision.

dbs Software and Services understood the urgency of having a system up as quickly as possible, and within days of getting the go ahead from UAHT a dedicated Docubase instance was deployed and databases defined according to the initial departments that would be using the system: Registrar, Financial Aid, Advising, Archiving Records, and Admissions.

Next users were on-boarded and the dbs delivery team worked with each department providing customized user guides and training sessions to ensure every user was comfortable with the system from first log-in. The migration of the files in the directories began in parallel

with the users starting to use the system, working closely with UAHT staff to ensure the imported records were complete and error free. By implementing Docubase with dbs, UAHT achieved their objective of having a secure, campus-wide hosted Document Management that will grow and expand with them well into the future.

DEPLOYED SOLUTION FEATURE SET

• Docubase Education Suite PRO.
• Advanced capture, index, and retrieve functionality.
• Five deployed databases based on departments, ability to add future ones.
• Granular user permissions based on roles, departments, and document types.

“ We are very pleased with the work done by dbs Software and Services.
We knew Docubase was a solid DMS, but the expert professional
services provided by dbs made the difference in ensuring the
success of the project. I have no reservations about
recommending dbs Software and Services and Docubase to
other colleges looking for an affordable Higher Education DMS ”

~ Brian Berry, Vice-Chancellor for Student Services, UAHT