Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) is the largest higher education

organization in the Middle East, with 17 campuses serving more than

20,000 students across the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In 2007, administrators at HCT realized that the organization needed to

better manage the tens of thousands of student- and staff-focused

documents it processes each year, and identified enterprise content

management (ECM) software as the solution. To ensure they selected

the best system for their unique needs, HCT’s IT/IS team compared

several leading ECM systems head to head. In the end, one stood out:

ImageNow document management, document imaging and workflow

form Perceptive Software.

“Compared to the other ECM systems we evaluated, ImageNow was

easy to use and didn’t require a lot of training,” said Khalid Tariq, Head

of Enterprise Systems at HCT. “Its scalability and the ability to

seamlessly integrate with any of our systems also convinced us to go

with ImageNow.”

To ensure maximum results from HCT’s ECM project, they are using a

phased implementation approach; getting one department deployed at a

time.

“We were surprised by how easy and quick it is to implement

ImageNow,” Tariq said. “With the right people in place we can get a

department up and running in three to four weeks.”

Saving Time and Paper in the Business Office

The first area in which ImageNow was implemented was human

resources (HR).

Over 18 months, HCT scanned all personnel documents for more than

2,500 staff members – including CVs, contracts, medical forms, banking

forms, job descriptions and interview notes – into ImageNow, which

automatically links them to the appropriate human resource

management system record. This content is then easily accessible from

the HRM system when it’s needed.

Employee resignation is one HR process that ImageNow has positively

impacted. Traditionally, when an employee resigns from the HCT

system, he or she went to almost 10 different departments to get sign

offs and clearance. Now, once an employee resigns and the supervisor

accepts the resignation, ImageNow Workflow takes over, sending the

appropriate documents to each department concurrently, without the

employee physically taking the paperwork to each office.

Higher Colleges of Technology

Human ResourcesRegistry (Student Registration & Records)FinanceFacilities Management

www.perceptivesoftware.com

“ With ImageNow, we’re making the right decisions based on the availability of the documents at the right time. If a student comes in with an academic issue, counselors and other staff members have full knowledge of that person’s history within seconds directly from the SunGard SIS and can give the best answer.”

Khalid Tariq

Head of Enterprise Systems

CASE STUDY Higher Education

CASE STUDY HIGHER EDUCATION

seconds directly from the SunGard SIS and

can give the best answer.”

ImageNow is also proving its worth with

transfers. HCT’s 20,000 students often transfer

between the system’s 17 colleges. Typically, a

registry staff member pulled a student’s entire

file and mailed it to the college he or she was

transferring to. This could take days, and some

of the required information could be missing.

ImageNow will transform this process.

“By using ImageNow, we will just transfer or

replicate documents from one electronic

‘drawer’ to another,” Tariq said. “Instead of

physically transferring a student’s files, we can

just do it online.”

HCT has 13 systems that manage student and

staff information, yet there are still gaps and

content that does not get managed

electronically. The IT/IS team is remedying this

by plugging these gaps with ImageNow.

“We’re using ImageNow to manage any paper

documents which are not covered by our

existing systems,” Tariq said. “For example, it

enables us to store student’s Emirates student

ID number, medical forms, memos to parents,

and many other document types in the secure

electronic repository instead of as hard

copies.”

Expanding Enterprise Content Management Campus-Wide

In addition to student- and staff-focused

departments, HCT is also rolling out ImageNow

to materials-related departments. Facilities

management is one of the areas that will soon

benefit from ECM. By using ImageNow, HCT

will have equipment details, room information,

purchase orders, requisitions, warranty and

repair documents for each building just a click

away for authorized staff members. This will

make it easier to administer and maintain

academic, sporting and administrative facilities

across HCT’s campuses, and will speed issue

resolution.

HCT now has 200 users across five

departments and multiple campuses, and plans

to further extend the reach of ImageNow to

incorporate areas such as the institution’s car

booking system in the near future.

Higher Colleges of Technology

Quick Stats:

~ Location: Abu Dhabi and 16 other sites

across the United Arab Emirates

~ Number of students: 20,000

~ Integration: SunGard, HR and finance

systems

~ ImageNow Users: 200

~ Departments: Human Resources,

Registry (Student Registration &

Records), Finance, Facilities Management

~ Products in use: ImageNow, ImageNow

Interact for Office, Interact for

SharePoint, WebNow

The Challenges: � Need an ECM solution that can manage

content for locations across the UAE

� Manage new student applications and

documents for 20,000 existing students

� Integrate ECM system with existing student

and staff-focused systems

� Improve control over and access to the

records of more than 2,500 staff members

The Results

� ImageNow easily scaled across all 17

campuses and the HCT central office

� Student folders scanned into ImageNow

and immediately available via SunGard

student information system

� ImageNow integrates with HCT’s

applications without programming

� Electronic workflow makes processing

personnel documents fast, easy and secure

www.percept ivesoftware.com

“With a paper-based system, a resignation went

to individual departments sequentially, delaying

the process,” Tariq said. “Now, they can work on

it simultaneously, which certainly is a time saver.”

HCT has also extended the benefits of ECM to

the finance department. There, the IT/IS team is

focusing on streamlining procurement processes.

One such process is the management of auditing

responses, which are currently submitted as hard

copies and stored in folders. With ImageNow,

these will be instantly available when needed.

Invoices from vendors will also be scanned and

stored in ImageNow. On a vendor information

screen, members of the finance team will be

able to select the vendor and quickly return all

the relevant documents – such as invoices,

purchasing contracts and purchase orders – in

ImageNow.

Currently, the finance department receives

phone bills for each employee’s line, and sends

these to individual users to check off business-

related calls and personal calls. They then send

the bills to their supervisors for sign off, and the

appropriate amount is deducted from the bill.

With ImageNow, HCT plans to receive bills

electronically and route them into electronic

workflow. Once an employee has reviewed their

calls, they will simply route the document

forward to their supervisor for review and then

onto payroll for the appropriate deduction – no

paper chase required.

Improving Student-Focused Decision Making

After the initial success of ImageNow in HR and

finance, HCT expanded ECM into the registry

department, which handles student registration

and records. As new students are registered,

HCT colleges are scanning their documentation

into ImageNow, making it immediately

accessible to counselors, administrative staff

members and, in certain cases, the students

themselves. Seamless integration with the

student information system (SIS) means that

staff members don’t have to switch screens to

retrieve pertinent information. HCT is also

scanning all documents for existing students

into ImageNow.

“With ImageNow, we’re making the right

decisions based on the availability of the

documents at the right time,” Tariq said. “If a

student comes in with an academic issue,

counselors and other staff members have full

knowledge of that person’s history within

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