University of South Australia
The University of South Australia has more than 33,000 students and 7,000 faculty staff. It calls itself “The University of Enterprise” and is dedicated to transforming the teaching and learning experience. This starts with the people they hire – more than 70% of their teaching staff has a PhD qualification – and the experience those employees have working for the University.
Transforming the Teaching and Learning Experience at the University of South Australia
Business Problem
When the University finds a great new candidate, they want to onboard that person quickly and efficiently. They want to simplify administrative processes like timesheet submissions. In short, they want their staff and academics to spend their time guiding students to graduation – not navigating arcane administrative systems. This aligns with the University Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Action Plan to move all administrative systems online by 2018 – eliminating all paper forms and manual process. A tall order, given that UniSA uses more than 400 paper forms to conduct its business.
Appian Solution
Appian Cloud’s low-code approach allows business units and IT to work together in rapidly building prototype solutions and scaling them across the University. Appian’s unique architecture makes every application work identically on desktop, web and mobile devices, and its interface flexibility allows for complete tailored branding both internally and externally. Now, when a new candidate applies to and onboards with UniSA, their first interactions are through Appian. They don’t know it, however, because Appian Sites creates a fully-branded and intuitive experience that shows the individual they have joined a modern and high-quality organization. Appian integrates with UniSA’s online recruitment system and automates all onboarding processes. All documentation and review/approval processes happen online and the candidate can accept their contract of employment on their mobile device. HR onboarding time has been reduced from 3 weeks to 24 hours.
Timesheet processes are also now managed online. They can be submitted from anywhere, with automated task alerts to remind staff to complete them on a timely basis, and managers receiving immediate prompts for review and approval. The University’s timesheet processes are now 20 times faster than before. These are just two examples of the University’s Appian program success to-date, and the University’s Appian roadmap covers all 400 of its paper form processes.
