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University of South Australia Digitalizes the Staff and Student Experience with Appian Cloud
December 2016 by Emmanuelle Lamandé
Appian announced that the University of South Australia has made significant
progress in delivering on a comprehensive digital business
automation strategy using Appian Cloud as its platform. Using
Appian’s low-code application platform, the University has already
deployed a series of apps across its recruiting, contracting, human
resources and procurement processes that have eliminated paper
forms, accelerated operations and modernized the overall staff and
student experience. The University has a pipeline of many more
additional Appian applications planned.
"We view Appian Cloud as the delivery platform for change," said Tony Dalwood, the
University’s Deputy Director of Information Strategy. "We are exceptionally pleased
with the results we have seen to-date. The performance of the cloud solution, and
its interaction with this University’s data sources has exceed expectations, and we
are excited about expanding that value deeper across the University in the future."
The University has a strategic objective to remove all paper from its administrative
systems across its 35,000 students and 5,800 overall staff by 2018. Appian is
enabling that transformation through its tight integration of process management,
data management (via Appian Records) and native mobile device interface. All of the
University’s deployed and planned Appian applications leverage Appian’s unique SAIL
architecture and interface flexibility to provide a custom-branded, consistent and
fit-for-purpose user experience across web and mobile devices through a single
development effort.
"We want all of our IT systems and business processes to be faster, simpler and more
engaging for all of our end-users, be they professional staff, academics, or
students," continued Dalwood. "Appian’s cloud platform is allowing us to drive that
comprehensive transformation."
The University’s first Appian deployment was for a variety of processes related to
their Casual Academic employees. The application shifted recruitment, contracting
and on-going processes such as time-sheet submission and approval for these seasonal
and part-time academics from paper onto online and mobile environments. The solution
leverages Appian’s interface flexibility -specifically, the Appian Sites feature - to expose forms and processes to these external end-users as custom-branded
sites. The University engages roughly 4,000 of these casual staff every year. In the
past, this created more than 600 paper documents every month - all of which were
then re-keyed into various IT systems.
The Appian application accelerated process completion times from days or weeks to
mere minutes. It incorporates embedded video content, digital offer review and
signing capabilities, and tailored orientation materials - all within the
custom-branded Appian Sites environment. Appian’s low-code development approach then allowed aspects of the Casual Academic processes to be extended to all staff for
things such as variations to employment conditions and allowance requests.
The University will soon release a redesigned travel request and approval process on
Appian, making it more efficient for senior-level academics traveling for research
or other university-related obligations, as well as for students booking travel for
semesters abroad. The application integrates data from third-party organizations to
provide a rich environment to make booking and arranging travel a one-stop shop.
This includes integrating government data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that provides warnings and other travel alerts, as well as data from the
University’s booking portal that allows users to reserve tickets and accommodations
directly within the application.
