Improving the on-boarding experience: University Card stabilisation project

The University Card Office, part of Estates Services, produces around 40,000 University Cards each year to provide new students and staff with access to the University’s buildings, resources and services. Until recently, they depended entirely on a mixed manual and digital solution often called 'the card system'. For decades this has been a combination of paper forms, electronic databases, business applications, desktops, printers and USB dongles. Over time many of these components have become fragile, unreliable and unsuitable for the sheer volume of new, renewed and amended cards that the University depends on. Printers failed frequently, it was impossible to license additional workstations to increase capacity, and there was no remote working option to facilitate extended working hours during busy periods. 

In addition, the Bodleian Libraries issue over 4000 Reader Cards each year, to provide access to the libraries. The same issues with the underlying system have led to frequent disruption where readers have physically arrived, but then have to wait for hours before Bodleian Admissions are able to issue them with a Reader Card. 

IT Services, Estates Services and the Bodleian Admissions Office have worked collaboratively on a project to make considerable improvements to the card system over the last two years. A holistic view of the workflow was taken, exploring problems and inefficiencies from the very beginning of the card application process through to the final production and issue activities. 

Improving the process 

Four key improvements were made: 

  • We created online forms and automation to replace paper application forms for staff (this will also be rolled out for students). These capture and transfer personal details provided by the new member far more accurately than handwritten forms, and do so much faster as forms no longer need to be mailed around the University. Departmental card administrators can also see progress, instead of sending a form off and hoping that a card will turn up at some point in future.
  • We replaced the business application used to create and print cards with its successor; The updated software can be used from any authorised device, anywhere, anytime. As well as being more reliable and better supported, this enables additional staff to work on card production at busy times of year, something that was not previously possible.  
  • We moved to a new support contract, which has enabled the University to buy printers and supplies at competitive market rates, and provides access to significantly better vendor support. 
  • We created clear support information, processes and structures to help 100+ card issuing teams get the solutions they need quickly and reliably. 

Benefits widely felt

Benefits were noticed very quickly:

  • University Cards and Single Sign-On (SSO) are now produced much faster after an application is completed.  
  • Online automation, together with the new ability to work remotely and have additional staff work on issuing cards, enabled the Card Office to manage the immense workload during this year’s critical admissions period much more efficiently than the previous manual processes.
  • The Bodleian Admissions Office have been able to admit readers swiftly and smoothly. 

Looking to the future

The Improving Identity Programme, which this project was part of, has taken on additional work to extend the online forms for use with student cards.

In time it is expected that this programme will also enable Single Sign-On accounts to be produced independently of a University Card. This will further reduce the workload on the Card Office, and enable SSO-only requests to be processed even faster.