Case Study: Western University
“We couldn’t fathom how deeply we would use the product until it was here and we realized what a gem it was.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
About Western University
Western University, located near Toronto, Canada, is one of the top research-intensive universities in the world. Renowned for research excellence and transformational student experiences, Western’s graduates have become great leaders and innovators in their fields of study.
Problem: Paper Processing Delays
Western University’s engineering department, consisting of about 5,000 faculty and staff, was plagued by pervasive PDF and hard copy processes, a typical challenge for large universities in the mid-2010s. Although the engineering department experienced the regular symptoms of paper-based processing, a turning point occurred when processes began to limit the department’s agility.
Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology in Western’s engineering department, was challenged by his department head to automate the approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks to complete. This form was particularly problematic because it included dozens of conditional fields that applied only to specific types of employees, each resulting in a myriad of approval pathways.
One of the biggest challenges with this process was the lack of visibility. There was no way to know where the form was, who or what was holding up the process, or if all approvers were even still employed at the institution. Without automation, this process created a hiring bottleneck and caused significant delays.
Solution: Automated Forms & Workflow
Western Engineering found Kuali Build, a forms and workflow platform built exclusively for higher education. Build offered the much-needed automation solution for Western’s approval-to-hire process and could be used to automate many more processes across the institution.
Kuali Build provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder to digitize and automate forms. Build also allows users to create customized automated workflows, giving users the flexibility to tailor approval pathways to the unique needs of their institution.
Results: Institution-Wide Agility
The approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks, now takes as little as one hour to be completed and returned to the originator. Kuali Build infused a new level of agility into the hiring process. Similar scenarios occurred across the institution. As of May 2024, Western University had created 100 forms and processed 85,000 documents with Kuali Build.
Digital Approval Tool
Kuali Build was the catalyst in the engineering department’s decision to ditch wet signatures. After becoming familiar with Build, even the most change-averse faculty and staff recognized that approvals in Kuali Build were sufficient. By digitizing approvals, staff can see how long processes typically take, which enhances administrative planning.
“This software helped us agree within the faculty that we could use Kuali as an approval without a signature on a piece of paper. That was huge!” - Ron Farren, Associate Director, Information Technology, Department of Engineering, Western University
Flexible, Powerful Workflows
Kuali Build’s workflow tool delivers endless flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface and dozens of valuable features like branching workflows, role-based approvals, automatic notifications, send-backs, and more. These features allow Western’s staff members to dial complexity up or down as unique processes demand.
Transparent Processes
A consistent issue before Build was a lack of process transparency. Now, stakeholders in the approval process can see the form’s progress as it moves through a workflow. If the form gets stuck somewhere, stakeholders can see exactly where it is. Approvers can also leave notes, and make those notes visible for future approvers, facilitating enhanced communication.
Intuitive Forms
Kuali Build’s form builder helped Western streamline the entire form experience. For example, the approval-to-hire form was long, and form fillers struggled to decipher which fields to complete. Due to manual entry, form fillers left minor errors on the form.
Kuali Build’s form builder supports conditional logic, or the ability to hide/show form fields based on what the submitter completes on the form. This means form submitters see sections of the form that pertain only to them and their specific circumstances. Because submitters are filling their forms more accurately, administrators don’t need to spend so much time manually correcting and processing forms.
Additionally, Kuali Build allows API integrations, which facilitate drop-down and auto-fill fields. This automation is critical when entering numbers, like employee IDs, or department names with specific naming conventions. With these additional automation elements, Western has significantly cut down form-filling errors.
More Automation & Agility to Come
Kuali Build continues to spread across campus. When faculty or staff move to different departments, they ask, “Where’s Build?” Teams in the finance department, human resources, graduate and undergraduate services, and, recently, student engagement have begun exploring processes that can be automated with Kuali Build. Farren and his team have done extensive work to automate processes, but they’re just getting started.
“You would think after 5 years we would have built every form possible. That’s just not true. We continue to add to that tally.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
Let’s do something remarkable!
Talk to us about how Kuali can help you manage processes across campus.
Case Study: Western University
“We couldn’t fathom how deeply we would use the product until it was here and we realized what a gem it was.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
About Western University
Western University, located near Toronto, Canada, is one of the top research-intensive universities in the world. Renowned for research excellence and transformational student experiences, Western’s graduates have become great leaders and innovators in their fields of study.
Problem: Paper Processing Delays
Western University’s engineering department, consisting of about 5,000 faculty and staff, was plagued by pervasive PDF and hard copy processes, a typical challenge for large universities in the mid-2010s. Although the engineering department experienced the regular symptoms of paper-based processing, a turning point occurred when processes began to limit the department’s agility.
Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology in Western’s engineering department, was challenged by his department head to automate the approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks to complete. This form was particularly problematic because it included dozens of conditional fields that applied only to specific types of employees, each resulting in a myriad of approval pathways.
One of the biggest challenges with this process was the lack of visibility. There was no way to know where the form was, who or what was holding up the process, or if all approvers were even still employed at the institution. Without automation, this process created a hiring bottleneck and caused significant delays.
Solution: Automated Forms & Workflow
Western Engineering found Kuali Build, a forms and workflow platform built exclusively for higher education. Build offered the much-needed automation solution for Western’s approval-to-hire process and could be used to automate many more processes across the institution.
Kuali Build provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder to digitize and automate forms. Build also allows users to create customized automated workflows, giving users the flexibility to tailor approval pathways to the unique needs of their institution.
Results: Institution-Wide Agility
The approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks, now takes as little as one hour to be completed and returned to the originator. Kuali Build infused a new level of agility into the hiring process. Similar scenarios occurred across the institution. As of May 2024, Western University had created 100 forms and processed 85,000 documents with Kuali Build.
Digital Approval Tool
Kuali Build was the catalyst in the engineering department’s decision to ditch wet signatures. After becoming familiar with Build, even the most change-averse faculty and staff recognized that approvals in Kuali Build were sufficient. By digitizing approvals, staff can see how long processes typically take, which enhances administrative planning.
“This software helped us agree within the faculty that we could use Kuali as an approval without a signature on a piece of paper. That was huge!” - Ron Farren, Associate Director, Information Technology, Department of Engineering, Western University
Flexible, Powerful Workflows
Kuali Build’s workflow tool delivers endless flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface and dozens of valuable features like branching workflows, role-based approvals, automatic notifications, send-backs, and more. These features allow Western’s staff members to dial complexity up or down as unique processes demand.
Transparent Processes
A consistent issue before Build was a lack of process transparency. Now, stakeholders in the approval process can see the form’s progress as it moves through a workflow. If the form gets stuck somewhere, stakeholders can see exactly where it is. Approvers can also leave notes, and make those notes visible for future approvers, facilitating enhanced communication.
Intuitive Forms
Kuali Build’s form builder helped Western streamline the entire form experience. For example, the approval-to-hire form was long, and form fillers struggled to decipher which fields to complete. Due to manual entry, form fillers left minor errors on the form.
Kuali Build’s form builder supports conditional logic, or the ability to hide/show form fields based on what the submitter completes on the form. This means form submitters see sections of the form that pertain only to them and their specific circumstances. Because submitters are filling their forms more accurately, administrators don’t need to spend so much time manually correcting and processing forms.
Additionally, Kuali Build allows API integrations, which facilitate drop-down and auto-fill fields. This automation is critical when entering numbers, like employee IDs, or department names with specific naming conventions. With these additional automation elements, Western has significantly cut down form-filling errors.
More Automation & Agility to Come
Kuali Build continues to spread across campus. When faculty or staff move to different departments, they ask, “Where’s Build?” Teams in the finance department, human resources, graduate and undergraduate services, and, recently, student engagement have begun exploring processes that can be automated with Kuali Build. Farren and his team have done extensive work to automate processes, but they’re just getting started.
“You would think after 5 years we would have built every form possible. That’s just not true. We continue to add to that tally.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
Let’s do something remarkable!
Talk to us about how Kuali can help you manage processes across campus.
Case Study: Western University
Case Study: Western University
“We couldn’t fathom how deeply we would use the product until it was here and we realized what a gem it was.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
About Western University
Western University, located near Toronto, Canada, is one of the top research-intensive universities in the world. Renowned for research excellence and transformational student experiences, Western’s graduates have become great leaders and innovators in their fields of study.
Problem: Paper Processing Delays
Western University’s engineering department, consisting of about 5,000 faculty and staff, was plagued by pervasive PDF and hard copy processes, a typical challenge for large universities in the mid-2010s. Although the engineering department experienced the regular symptoms of paper-based processing, a turning point occurred when processes began to limit the department’s agility.
Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology in Western’s engineering department, was challenged by his department head to automate the approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks to complete. This form was particularly problematic because it included dozens of conditional fields that applied only to specific types of employees, each resulting in a myriad of approval pathways.
One of the biggest challenges with this process was the lack of visibility. There was no way to know where the form was, who or what was holding up the process, or if all approvers were even still employed at the institution. Without automation, this process created a hiring bottleneck and caused significant delays.
Solution: Automated Forms & Workflow
Western Engineering found Kuali Build, a forms and workflow platform built exclusively for higher education. Build offered the much-needed automation solution for Western’s approval-to-hire process and could be used to automate many more processes across the institution.
Kuali Build provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder to digitize and automate forms. Build also allows users to create customized automated workflows, giving users the flexibility to tailor approval pathways to the unique needs of their institution.
Results: Institution-Wide Agility
The approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks, now takes as little as one hour to be completed and returned to the originator. Kuali Build infused a new level of agility into the hiring process. Similar scenarios occurred across the institution. As of May 2024, Western University had created 100 forms and processed 85,000 documents with Kuali Build.
Digital Approval Tool
Kuali Build was the catalyst in the engineering department’s decision to ditch wet signatures. After becoming familiar with Build, even the most change-averse faculty and staff recognized that approvals in Kuali Build were sufficient. By digitizing approvals, staff can see how long processes typically take, which enhances administrative planning.
“This software helped us agree within the faculty that we could use Kuali as an approval without a signature on a piece of paper. That was huge!” - Ron Farren, Associate Director, Information Technology, Department of Engineering, Western University
Flexible, Powerful Workflows
Kuali Build’s workflow tool delivers endless flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface and dozens of valuable features like branching workflows, role-based approvals, automatic notifications, send-backs, and more. These features allow Western’s staff members to dial complexity up or down as unique processes demand.
Transparent Processes
A consistent issue before Build was a lack of process transparency. Now, stakeholders in the approval process can see the form’s progress as it moves through a workflow. If the form gets stuck somewhere, stakeholders can see exactly where it is. Approvers can also leave notes, and make those notes visible for future approvers, facilitating enhanced communication.
Intuitive Forms
Kuali Build’s form builder helped Western streamline the entire form experience. For example, the approval-to-hire form was long, and form fillers struggled to decipher which fields to complete. Due to manual entry, form fillers left minor errors on the form.
Kuali Build’s form builder supports conditional logic, or the ability to hide/show form fields based on what the submitter completes on the form. This means form submitters see sections of the form that pertain only to them and their specific circumstances. Because submitters are filling their forms more accurately, administrators don’t need to spend so much time manually correcting and processing forms.
Additionally, Kuali Build allows API integrations, which facilitate drop-down and auto-fill fields. This automation is critical when entering numbers, like employee IDs, or department names with specific naming conventions. With these additional automation elements, Western has significantly cut down form-filling errors.
More Automation & Agility to Come
Kuali Build continues to spread across campus. When faculty or staff move to different departments, they ask, “Where’s Build?” Teams in the finance department, human resources, graduate and undergraduate services, and, recently, student engagement have begun exploring processes that can be automated with Kuali Build. Farren and his team have done extensive work to automate processes, but they’re just getting started.
“You would think after 5 years we would have built every form possible. That’s just not true. We continue to add to that tally.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
Let’s do something remarkable!
Talk to us about how Kuali can help you manage processes across campus.
Case Study: Western University
Case Study: Western University
“We couldn’t fathom how deeply we would use the product until it was here and we realized what a gem it was.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
About Western University
Western University, located near Toronto, Canada, is one of the top research-intensive universities in the world. Renowned for research excellence and transformational student experiences, Western’s graduates have become great leaders and innovators in their fields of study.
Problem: Paper Processing Delays
Western University’s engineering department, consisting of about 5,000 faculty and staff, was plagued by pervasive PDF and hard copy processes, a typical challenge for large universities in the mid-2010s. Although the engineering department experienced the regular symptoms of paper-based processing, a turning point occurred when processes began to limit the department’s agility.
Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology in Western’s engineering department, was challenged by his department head to automate the approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks to complete. This form was particularly problematic because it included dozens of conditional fields that applied only to specific types of employees, each resulting in a myriad of approval pathways.
One of the biggest challenges with this process was the lack of visibility. There was no way to know where the form was, who or what was holding up the process, or if all approvers were even still employed at the institution. Without automation, this process created a hiring bottleneck and caused significant delays.
Solution: Automated Forms & Workflow
Western Engineering found Kuali Build, a forms and workflow platform built exclusively for higher education. Build offered the much-needed automation solution for Western’s approval-to-hire process and could be used to automate many more processes across the institution.
Kuali Build provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder to digitize and automate forms. Build also allows users to create customized automated workflows, giving users the flexibility to tailor approval pathways to the unique needs of their institution.
Results: Institution-Wide Agility
The approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks, now takes as little as one hour to be completed and returned to the originator. Kuali Build infused a new level of agility into the hiring process. Similar scenarios occurred across the institution. As of May 2024, Western University had created 100 forms and processed 85,000 documents with Kuali Build.
Digital Approval Tool
Kuali Build was the catalyst in the engineering department’s decision to ditch wet signatures. After becoming familiar with Build, even the most change-averse faculty and staff recognized that approvals in Kuali Build were sufficient. By digitizing approvals, staff can see how long processes typically take, which enhances administrative planning.
“This software helped us agree within the faculty that we could use Kuali as an approval without a signature on a piece of paper. That was huge!” - Ron Farren, Associate Director, Information Technology, Department of Engineering, Western University
Flexible, Powerful Workflows
Kuali Build’s workflow tool delivers endless flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface and dozens of valuable features like branching workflows, role-based approvals, automatic notifications, send-backs, and more. These features allow Western’s staff members to dial complexity up or down as unique processes demand.
Transparent Processes
A consistent issue before Build was a lack of process transparency. Now, stakeholders in the approval process can see the form’s progress as it moves through a workflow. If the form gets stuck somewhere, stakeholders can see exactly where it is. Approvers can also leave notes, and make those notes visible for future approvers, facilitating enhanced communication.
Intuitive Forms
Kuali Build’s form builder helped Western streamline the entire form experience. For example, the approval-to-hire form was long, and form fillers struggled to decipher which fields to complete. Due to manual entry, form fillers left minor errors on the form.
Kuali Build’s form builder supports conditional logic, or the ability to hide/show form fields based on what the submitter completes on the form. This means form submitters see sections of the form that pertain only to them and their specific circumstances. Because submitters are filling their forms more accurately, administrators don’t need to spend so much time manually correcting and processing forms.
Additionally, Kuali Build allows API integrations, which facilitate drop-down and auto-fill fields. This automation is critical when entering numbers, like employee IDs, or department names with specific naming conventions. With these additional automation elements, Western has significantly cut down form-filling errors.
More Automation & Agility to Come
Kuali Build continues to spread across campus. When faculty or staff move to different departments, they ask, “Where’s Build?” Teams in the finance department, human resources, graduate and undergraduate services, and, recently, student engagement have begun exploring processes that can be automated with Kuali Build. Farren and his team have done extensive work to automate processes, but they’re just getting started.
“You would think after 5 years we would have built every form possible. That’s just not true. We continue to add to that tally.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
Let’s do something remarkable!
Talk to us about how Kuali can help you manage processes across campus.
Case Study: Western University
Case Study: Western University
“We couldn’t fathom how deeply we would use the product until it was here and we realized what a gem it was.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
About Western University
Western University, located near Toronto, Canada, is one of the top research-intensive universities in the world. Renowned for research excellence and transformational student experiences, Western’s graduates have become great leaders and innovators in their fields of study.
Problem: Paper Processing Delays
Western University’s engineering department, consisting of about 5,000 faculty and staff, was plagued by pervasive PDF and hard copy processes, a typical challenge for large universities in the mid-2010s. Although the engineering department experienced the regular symptoms of paper-based processing, a turning point occurred when processes began to limit the department’s agility.
Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology in Western’s engineering department, was challenged by his department head to automate the approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks to complete. This form was particularly problematic because it included dozens of conditional fields that applied only to specific types of employees, each resulting in a myriad of approval pathways.
One of the biggest challenges with this process was the lack of visibility. There was no way to know where the form was, who or what was holding up the process, or if all approvers were even still employed at the institution. Without automation, this process created a hiring bottleneck and caused significant delays.
Solution: Automated Forms & Workflow
Western Engineering found Kuali Build, a forms and workflow platform built exclusively for higher education. Build offered the much-needed automation solution for Western’s approval-to-hire process and could be used to automate many more processes across the institution.
Kuali Build provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder to digitize and automate forms. Build also allows users to create customized automated workflows, giving users the flexibility to tailor approval pathways to the unique needs of their institution.
Results: Institution-Wide Agility
The approval-to-hire process, which took 3-4 weeks, now takes as little as one hour to be completed and returned to the originator. Kuali Build infused a new level of agility into the hiring process. Similar scenarios occurred across the institution. As of May 2024, Western University had created 100 forms and processed 85,000 documents with Kuali Build.
Digital Approval Tool
Kuali Build was the catalyst in the engineering department’s decision to ditch wet signatures. After becoming familiar with Build, even the most change-averse faculty and staff recognized that approvals in Kuali Build were sufficient. By digitizing approvals, staff can see how long processes typically take, which enhances administrative planning.
“This software helped us agree within the faculty that we could use Kuali as an approval without a signature on a piece of paper. That was huge!” - Ron Farren, Associate Director, Information Technology, Department of Engineering, Western University
Flexible, Powerful Workflows
Kuali Build’s workflow tool delivers endless flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface and dozens of valuable features like branching workflows, role-based approvals, automatic notifications, send-backs, and more. These features allow Western’s staff members to dial complexity up or down as unique processes demand.
Transparent Processes
A consistent issue before Build was a lack of process transparency. Now, stakeholders in the approval process can see the form’s progress as it moves through a workflow. If the form gets stuck somewhere, stakeholders can see exactly where it is. Approvers can also leave notes, and make those notes visible for future approvers, facilitating enhanced communication.
Intuitive Forms
Kuali Build’s form builder helped Western streamline the entire form experience. For example, the approval-to-hire form was long, and form fillers struggled to decipher which fields to complete. Due to manual entry, form fillers left minor errors on the form.
Kuali Build’s form builder supports conditional logic, or the ability to hide/show form fields based on what the submitter completes on the form. This means form submitters see sections of the form that pertain only to them and their specific circumstances. Because submitters are filling their forms more accurately, administrators don’t need to spend so much time manually correcting and processing forms.
Additionally, Kuali Build allows API integrations, which facilitate drop-down and auto-fill fields. This automation is critical when entering numbers, like employee IDs, or department names with specific naming conventions. With these additional automation elements, Western has significantly cut down form-filling errors.
More Automation & Agility to Come
Kuali Build continues to spread across campus. When faculty or staff move to different departments, they ask, “Where’s Build?” Teams in the finance department, human resources, graduate and undergraduate services, and, recently, student engagement have begun exploring processes that can be automated with Kuali Build. Farren and his team have done extensive work to automate processes, but they’re just getting started.
“You would think after 5 years we would have built every form possible. That’s just not true. We continue to add to that tally.” - Ron Farren, Associate Director of Information Technology, Engineering Department, Western University
Let’s do something remarkable!
Talk to us about how Kuali can help you manage processes across campus.