Meet the Client
Vanguard University is a private, non-profit institution founded in 1920. Today, it serves over 2,300 students and supports 33,000 alumni worldwide. With more than 100 full-time faculty on a single campus, the university offers 30 undergraduate programs and seven graduate degree options.
The university leadership recognized a problem. Their Laserfiche system worked, but it lived on-premises. Forms and workflows existed, but the infrastructure couldn’t keep pace with modern expectations. Students demanded better technology. Staff needed more efficient processes. Something had to change.
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
POPULATION:
est. 2,300 students
SOLUTIONS:
Daily Detour: When Paper Slows Everything Down
Manual processes plagued multiple departments. Hard-copy approvals moved slowly between desks. Budget constraints meant limited staff to handle growing workloads. Tracking? Nearly impossible. Visibility into where approvals sat? Almost none.
Security posed another concern. Information moved between students and staff without proper protection. Paper forms got lost. Approvals stalled. Students grew frustrated waiting for answers about housing, progress reports, and financial matters.
The university also faced a culture resistant to change. Staff had always done things a certain way. Why rock the boat?
But students see things differently. They pay significant tuition. They expect technology that matches that investment. When forms take weeks to process, when they can’t check status, when they need to physically hand in paperwork during specific office hours, frustration builds.
IT professionals Krystal Gowens and Michael Schreck knew the university needed a partner with real cloud migration experience. Not just technical knowledge. They needed someone who understood higher education workflows and could support them through the transition.
The Solution: Moving to the Cloud Without Disrupting Campus Life
The university partnered with MCCi to migrate their Laserfiche system to the cloud. The new setup includes 40 full users and 5,000 Education Participant Users. These participants get read-only repository access plus the ability to engage with forms processes like review and approval.
The Laserfiche Cloud Business Tier now provides:
- Direct Share capabilities
- Import Agent with Email Archive
- Starter Audit Trail
- Workflow and Forms Process Automation
- Connector and Surveys functionality
- One Workflow Bot
- Ten instances of Quick Fields Complete with Agent
- Integrations with MS Office, SharePoint, Teams, MS Dynamics 365, and Redtail
- 50,000 RESTful web API calls per month
- 300 audio/video transcription hours annually
But technology alone doesn’t drive adoption. The IT team took a smarter approach. Before building anything new, they hosted discovery sessions with each department. They showed similar projects from other areas. Staff could see exactly what to expect.
The team also leveraged auto-populated forms pulling data directly from the Student Information System. No manual data entry. No typos. No wasted time. They added checkpoints throughout the processes so everyone could see the status at any moment.
Most importantly, IT built and managed the technical side. End users only needed to learn basic functionality. Once comfortable, they could naturally expand their use.
See it in Action
Get more good days done with Laserfiche’s complete toolset for securing documents, automating repetitive tasks, and meeting compliance requirements.
Instructors now evaluate student progress through a secure online form. The system queries data from the Student Information System automatically. Fields filter based on selections. Hidden variables drive automation. Zero manual entry required. Since everyone holds a license, forms remain private and secure.
Student workers complete damage assessments on mobile devices right in the dorm rooms. Staff review and approve digitally. The system pulls student data automatically. When roommates share a space, damage calculations happen instantly. Excel reports export for analysis and billing without anyone touching a spreadsheet manually.
This hybrid signature process combines Laserfiche and DocuSign seamlessly. Watermark variables identify where DocuSign signatures belong. Form variables interact directly with the DocuSign workflow. No manual steps required. Script rules and on-site DLL files handle the complexity. Signed forms automatically return from DocuSign and replace the original in the repository. The system generates a document link and passes it back so future reviewers can access the signed version instantly.
Other Projects the University is planning include:
Event Inquiry Request
Audio/Visual Request
Housing/Meal Accommodations
Emotional Support Animal Request
Office Relocation Request
Delta Kappa Nominations/Application Process
Request for Hire (Staff/Temp/Student Worker)
Performance Evaluations (Self Eval / Staff Eval)
Payroll/Position Change Request
IT On-boarding / Supplemental Access
Classroom Issue Request
Living Well Resource Request
Music Dept Audition Request
Adjunct Hire/Contract Process
Housing Cancellation Request
Student Care & Conduct Release
Change of Address / Grade / Name
Leave of Absence Request
Withdrawal Request
