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How one university transformed it’s academic results process and saved 13,500 hours per year

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CLIENT La Trobe University

INDUSTRY Higher Education / Academic Operations

BUSINESS SIZE Large Enterprise University Network

SOLUTIONS Intelligent Student Results Management & Automation

 

The Client

La Trobe University is one of Australia’s leading public universities

and has been making a positive impact on the lives of its students, partners and communities for more than 50 years. With a dual emphasis on excellence and inclusivity, the Melbourne-based institution is firmly entrenched in the top 400 of all three major world university rankings and has recorded its best results during the past few years. It boasts campuses across Melbourne, Sydney and several regional centres and is renowned for innovations in teaching and learning, strong graduate employment outcomes and leading research.
The Challenge

Recording academic results is a challenge for any higher education institution

with La Trobe University having traditionally employed a heavily manual process at the end of each teaching period. Despite attempting to remove administrative effort via automation, the process still involved a complex system of email messages, manually edited CSV files and the need for academics to troubleshoot technical upload issues. Double handling of data also created a risk of human error, while audit trails were not clear due to a lack of consistency across more than 10 schools. 
The Solution

Conducting 50 staff workshops across 80 hours and 16 weeks

Innovior identified challenges in the current system including differing approaches between schools complex assessment structures and concerns about data controls. Working with the executive leaders, we developed a vision where all user interaction would be simplified into a user friendly app, automation would move data in the background and the process would be streamlined across the university. To bring this to life, we used the innovative abilities of Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Power Automate to build a bespoke App and workflow/approval management process. We combined that with UiPath automation to handle backend data transfer between the Learning Management and Student Management Systems. Online showcases, regular training, user surveys, self-serve knowledge articles and phone/online support channels were then rolled out to embed the change.
The Results

With a delivery time of 13 months less than 1 year and payback period of 6.5 months

the project has resulted in manual effort savings of more than 13,500 hours per year across academic, professional and administrative staff. More than 700 academics were brought on the change journey, with the project team providing seamless support regardless of user needs. Students now experience a university-wide standardised approach to results, while staff are saving time through the removal of double-handling of data and report preparation, and a reduced risk of error.

 

“I found it incredibly easy. It was just a matter of pushing buttons and everything just … happened. This will bring good benefits to the academics and make their job easy.”

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