North-West University (NWU) has three campuses near South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg. The institution also has the third-highest student enrollment in the country.
Each year, many of the university’s 55,000-plus students need to locate housing.
Herman Steyn, director of special projects, oversees applications from student housing providers in the area. Not long ago, Steyn and his staff manually entered data from 1,500 applications into a spreadsheet every academic year.
The team at the North-West University needed to find a better way. Digiblu, an official Jotform partner, introduced them to Jotform Enterprise.
Now data is seamlessly transferred to an Excel spreadsheet, saving 15 minutes per application. That adds up to more than 46 days of administrative work that are no longer needed at the NWU.
Jotform forms are easy to create and fill out, automatic approval flows streamline communication, and multiuser settings foster collaboration. Plus, Jotform Enterprise’s Admin Console helps Steyn track projects in real time.
“Digiblu demoed Jotform for us, and it fit like a hand in a glove,” he says.
North-West University case study results at a glance
1,500 applications streamlined
NWU switched from collecting application materials via Excel and email to using a form that includes file upload functionality.
46+ days of admin time saved each year
Time saved on the student-housing application adds up to more than 9 workweeks’ worth of administrative tasks.
25% boost in data-transfer accuracy
Jotform Enterprise saves time and boosts accuracy simultaneously with automatic data transfer.
Battling busywork
Processing 1,500 applications each year was daunting enough for Steyn and his team. Making matters more complicated, each application had 75 questions — or 75 data-entry points. Since each piece of information was manually entered into an Excel spreadsheet, the possibility for error was high.
And since the process took a long time to complete, the entire workflow needed a refresh.
“The only solution we had at the time was for those who applied for accreditation to send us an email with a questionnaire that they completed on Excel, with all their supporting documents as attachments,” Steyn says. “I had a team of people who populated the data by hand.”
He explains that his team had to download supporting documents into a shared drive to ensure everyone could view them.
“The idea was for the accreditation application to be reviewed by people sitting around a desk, going through the documents. So, we started looking for something much simpler,” he says. Steyn also needed a solution that could be set up quickly to ease an ever-growing backlog of administrative tasks.
That’s when he demoed Jotform Enterprise.
The new workflow had to be completed in just three to four weeks. With help from Digiblu, Steyn accomplished his mission.
Online forms, integrations, workflows, and more
“Digiblu built this process flow for us,” Steyn says. “I did some [work on] it myself and found Jotform very easy to use, very user-friendly.”
Jotform’s Microsoft Excel integration automatically populates Steyn’s spreadsheet with incoming data collected through Jotform. Having accurate data on this spreadsheet is especially useful. And Steyn has quick access to the supporting documents submitted along with applications.
Additionally, approval flows built with Jotform Workflows streamlined communication and decision-making.
According to Steyn, “When Jotform realizes that all the supporting documents have been uploaded, it has a conditional setting that then says, ‘You may proceed to the next step.’ And the next step is an email to the applicant saying, ‘Excuse me, your application has been successful. It’s now being evaluated and we will be in touch with you to issue an accreditation letter.’ ”
In another instance, applicants are automatically denied approval when they submit “no” as an answer to an important question. Again, an email is sent to the applicant automatically.
Once his primary workflow was set, Steyn began looking for other ways to use Jotform Enterprise.
“We started using it on a variety of other things,” he says. “I developed an online booking system for our cafeteria where you can order food through Jotform. It’s very simple. It’s even on our cell phones. It’s very popular. I did it myself, and I’m not really a programmer.”
Steyn uses data from his cafeteria ordering system to optimize the kitchen’s inventory. When certain items are popular, staff members order more of them. Less popular items are removed from the shelves.
“It’s incredible, the management information that we then get out of that.”
Accuracy is the thing
Even with all the time saved, what Steyn appreciates the most about his new workflow is its accuracy. With 75 data points per application, it’s no wonder he feels that way.
“For me, time is not the big issue. It’s the accuracy,” he says. “Capturing banking details is very crucial. ID numbers, phone numbers, addresses — I would guess that the accuracy of the data increased by at least 25 percent.”
Now that data is automatically transferred into his spreadsheet, Steyn jokes that his applicants are doing the work for his team.
“I’ve now got 1,500 people out there in the market who are working for me,” he says. “And they are completing my dataset.”
As for his actual employees, Steyn uses the Jotform Enterprise Admin Console to oversee all of the collaborative Jotform forms and workflows.
“I go into the console quite a lot. I allocate new users, allocate rights to the users. They develop their own forms then share with a lot of people. And if I want to get into the data of that particular form, I use the console to go to the owner so I can get into the data tables. I find the console to be very helpful.”
Did you know?
Jotform Enterprise 2.0 unlocks more possibilities. There’s a new onboarding process for first-time admins, comprehensive analytics across all team assets, and more. Admins can also set a custom default form theme to ensure consistent forms that enhance brand awareness.
Sometimes, Steyn has a question when creating forms and workflows. When he does, the Jotform Enterprise Customer Success team provides answers.
“I get an answer back within 10 minutes, and they won’t let me rest until my problem is solved. I mean, it’s just absolutely amazing.”
An easier, better way
Steyn and his team found an easier, better way to perform essential administrative tasks with Jotform Enterprise.
No-code online forms are easy to build. And Jotform Enterprise automatically tracks data, facilitates automatic workflows, and more. Collaborative features help Steyn track projects. Support helps when needed, and even the kitchen inventory is easier to manage than ever.
Jotform works the way we wanted it to. And if somebody approaches me with the same kind of problem for collecting data and collecting supporting documents, I would not hesitate for a minute to promote Jotform Enterprise as an answer.
Herman Steyn, Director of Special Projects, North-West University
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2 Comments:
7 days ago
It’s amazing how automation transforms workflows. Imagine freeing up 9 workweeks of admin load every year but what could your team do with that time instead?
20 days ago
This is an impressive example of how automation can save both time and improve accuracy! Automating 1,500 student housing applications and cutting down 46 days of admin work is remarkable. I especially like how Jotform Enterprise makes workflows easy to track and collaborate on. It’s inspiring to see no-code solutions being applied so effectively in higher education.