ABOUT THE CUSTOMER
Western Kentucky University (WKU) is a growing university with more than 21,000 students on an idyllic, hilltop campus. Its engaged campus community strives to deliver long-lasting solutions for everyday problems as part of its transformation into a leading American university.
CHALLENGE
Ricoh is one of several premier vendors that WKU uses for its fleet of document output devices. In addition, Ricoh Managed Services has staffed the WKU print center for faculty and staff since May of 2002 and the Student in Free Enterprise (SIFE) print center since 2006. In February of 2011 Ricoh expanded their onsite services to mail fulfillment and processing. When the university issued a request for proposal (RFP) to improve records retrieval for its Registrar’s Office, Ricoh representatives saw an opportunity to bring even more value-added services to campus.
The office stored about 150,000 paper transcripts that were issued from 1906 to 1990 in a large vault lined with file cabinets. Every time a transcript from that era was requested, an employee walked to the vault, located the transcript and printed a copy, re-filed the original and then returned with the copy to the front of the office where it was prepared for mailing.
Transcript changes posed another challenge. The older records were placed on microfilm. Unfortunately, the outdated technology prevented amendments from making it to the microfilm file.
SOLUTION
University officials were impressed with Ricoh’s experience and string of on-campus success stories. “Ricoh had integrated scanning solutions to streamline workflow in other education environments with content management systems,” said WKU’s University Registrar. “We were confident that they could do the same for WKU.”
The Registrar’s Office isolated about 23,000 student transcripts—comprising nearly 65,000 images—for the first phase of the project. These students had attended the university both prior to and after 1990, and therefore had both a paper and electronic transcript. The goal was to index the paper transcript into the university’s document management system. Ricoh transported the paper transcripts to the Ricoh Document Scanning Services center in nearby Louisville where each one was scanned by experienced technicians.
Because the transcripts contained social security numbers and other confidential information, Ricoh Document Scanning Services established a clear chain of custody. A barcode system was utilized to capture the student
ID to be used for indexing. Each student transcript had an ID number prior to scanning so the hardcopy records could be identified quickly. In addition, every box filled with transcripts was clearly marked and every step of the process was documented to help ensure every file was secure and accessible the entire time.
WKU IT staff worked with the Ricoh project manager to develop a plan to integrate the scanned documents with the university’s electronic content management system that has housed all student transcripts since 1990.
RESULTS
Ricoh Document Scanning Services scanned the documents and provided a test file for WKU to evaluate prior to scanning all of the transcripts. Then, it provided the WKU IT team with the 23,000 scanned student transcripts to be imported into the existing content management system. Now, WKU is one step closer to having every student transcript in an easy-to-use system.
The second phase of the project involved student transcripts prior to 1990 — approximately 128,000 student transcripts comprising more than 305,000 images. The images were scanned as PDF/A with OCR.
“Scanning in the older transcripts has made it easier for office staff,” said WKU’s University Registrar. “Now, when a transcript is requested, the employee can find it online and print it immediately. Instead of walking all the way to the vault for a search, they’re done after reaching over to pick it up from the printer.”
The new process, however, was not without its unique complications. “The scans were too good,” said WKU’s University Registrar. “We could actually see the glue from when we affixed labels to the transcripts. Ricoh was able to adjust the scan settings and reduce noise to produce a clean and readable copy.”
WKU’s University Registrar and her office are sharing their good fortune with others. As a result, Ricoh Document Scanning Services is planning to integrate digital processes to streamline workflow for other departments on campus.
Click here to download this Ricoh Case Study
