Case Studies

Image-X Document Management System gives The University of Texas the ability to secure more student loans and grants in less time.

With the cost of education continuing to spiral upward, universities are looking for cost-efficient ways to streamline their flow of information.To successfully survive and grow, universities need meaningful, information that can be accessed efficiently throughout the university. The following case study is just one example of how information management technology is meeting the demanding needs of financial aid departments.

The University Of Texas, San Antonio(UTSA) was established in 1969. It is the second largest university in the University of Texas system. UTSA research expenditures place it in the top 25 nationally.

The Problem

To help students pay for tuition, the university takes an extremely active role in securing Federally backed loans and grants. Due to its size, UTSA took an unusually long period of time to process the financial aid applications submitted by students. UTSA realized that it needed to find a more efficient method of processing the thousands of forms it receives from students each semester.

The Solution

Image-X proposed an integrated Document Management System for scanning, routing and retrieval of the scanned student financial aid applications. The system is integrated with the existing DTS financial aid management application which is running on an IBM mainframe and provides comprehensive student financial information.

The student delivers the completed application to the financial aid office. The forms are scanned in batches and indexed using records in the existing DTS application with a single keystroke. Each evening the DTS application sends pertinent information from the students financial aid application to the Department of Education's mainframe system in Iowa which checks the loan history of each student and evaluates the application for completeness. The mainframe returns a status code based on its findings to UTSA. The results of the batch processing triggers the Image-X workflow software and each financial aid application is automatically advanced to the appropriate financial aid counselor based on the status code.

Documents no longer need to be hand carried from one desk to another, no applications are lost or missing, bottlenecks are eliminated and documents can be displayed with a single keystroke.

Image-X Document Imaging and Workflow system gave UTSA the ability to award financial aid to eligible students sooner than before. This enabled students to take more classes in a particular semester, generating more revenue for UTSA each fiscal year.

Adding workflow and document imaging to the existing application also reduced the overall cost of processing a financial aid application. Converting paper documents into electronic documents allowed clerical staff and counselors to be more productive.