As the intelligent process automation industry (IPA) continues to grow into the multi-billion dollar industry it has been projected to be, schools and universities are beginning to catch on to how these IPA solutions can give them the edge for their touchpoints with students while also improving efficiency.

Student demands continue to increase, and IPA allows an institution to meet these needs by carrying out more online administrative interactions by creating a seamless, mobile-first experience.

So, what more does an IPA solution offer for a school?

Read on to learn more!

For many colleges across the world, the start of a new semester means large volumes of college applications.

IPA can help universities pick up the pace with processing college applications because online portals can be run using IPA bots. These software bots can be trained to identify certain parts of a document and file the information in the appropriate folder so that a university’s administrative board can make the final decision on who is accepted and who isn’t.

This also means that students only have to submit any part of their information once since all of the documents are digitized and can be accessed from anywhere.

An IPA solution can also monitor a student’s file to make sure that all of their information stays up to date. If something needs to be changed, pre-made emails and notifications can be sent to students who need reminders to update their school info.

Since IPA bots can do all of the filing and monitoring, this means that real people that are on a school’s administrative team can focus on other important things like one-on-one meetings with students to make sure they’re on track to graduate on time. Many institutions also deal with multiple different languages, and IPA bots can translate these languages so that human workers don’t have to. This will result in fewer filing errors and miscommunications.

With IPA taking care of so many informational tasks, it means that students will spend less time running around trying to get a hold of a specific administrator or department of their school when they have questions. Virtual chatbots can be set up on a school’s website and can be programmed to handle student questions before an advisor needs to intervene. If a question becomes too complicated, then it can direct the student to the correct department that they need.

The chatbot alone can also help with the previously mentioned student onboarding issue. Starting school, especially college, can be a very daunting thing, and if students have questions about college life, a chatbot can help them answer questions or direct them to student tour videos that are usually posted on a school’s website.

IPA can also be used for in-class requirements like attendance. In a bigger class, this can save the professor so much more time instead of just calling out names for hundreds of students.

An IPA-driven streamlining of services can improve a school’s overall efficiency by copying the experiences it sees in the business sector.

IPA supports an institution’s student-focused back-office functions like bursar bills, student information, and administrative grants that are held and viewed in multiple kinds of digital documents. They can be tagged to a student, class course, or department so that anyone affected by it can have easy access. Notifications are instant, as well as updates.

Automating these processes makes it a lot easier to deal with student requests, as well as boost overall accuracy by removing the need to enter student information multiple times. It can also help alleviate stress among faculty at peak times of the year like the start of the semester and finals week.

Additionally, removing the peak times from faculty means less practical and financial delays for students who are on a tight budget.

Furthermore, peak time reductions take communication burdens off of administrators’ backs. They can now communicate with students in a timely manner and spend more time on cases that require detailed attention.

Since IPA solutions are so useful for mundane/repetitive tasks, they can mirror the things that IPA bots learn from the business sector to take over lower-level tasks in the finance and administrative department. These tasks could be payroll, new supplier requests, purchase order systems, invoicing, and more. If any issues arise, IPA bots can handle them, and they can even fix issues that an employee may overlook.

If you’re interested in learning more about how IPA can positively affect your school, or you want to learn more about IPA, contact and Digital Workforce Solutions representative today!