Konica Minolta scanning capture solution streamlines student profile process for The Smith Family to keep students and sponsors connected.

• Historic processes not equipped for future growth goals
• Student profile process was complicated, expensive, manual, and had compliance risks

The Smith Family’s ambition, outlined in its five-year strategy, is to increase the number of young Australians reached by its effective and evidence-based programs over the five years to 2022 by 30 per cent. However, historic processes, such as its student profile process, were not equipped to handle the growing volume of students.

As part of its flagship Learning for Life program, The Smith Family supports eligible students and provides them with a scholarship for a specified period. The student profile is a mandatory, two-page, handwritten document that students must complete each year. It provides a critical link between students and The Smith Family sponsors. Students return these documents to The Smith Family offices in Blacktown and Brisbane.

The student profile process has also grown over the years along with student numbers, involving various teams, business units, and external entities. However, the whole process was complicated, expensive, manual, and posed potential significant compliance risks.

The student profile process involved volunteers reviewing hard-copy documents and either manually scanning individual pages or outsourcing the task to an external entity. This was a time-consuming, costly process that would often result in lost or misplaced papers.

Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns affected the process as volunteers were unable to work in offices to review physical papers. Some offices were also closed for longer periods of time due to being in pandemic hot spots, so a solution was needed quickly to be able to review and process these documents in a timely fashion.

The Smith Family approached Konica Minolta to review and analyse its processes. Konica Minolta and The Smith Family have a long-standing corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnership, which involves Konica Minolta subsidising printing costs, volunteering, and participating in activities such as virtual card writing. As part of this partnership, Konica Minolta ran workshops to analyse the business requirements and suggested a solution that could improve processes, help The Smith Family meet compliance requirements, and meet current and future demands.

David Heath, Corporate Partnership Manager, The Smith Family, said, “The Smith Family has a strong, all-round partnership with Konica Minolta. Konica Minolta offers valued expertise on equipment, software, and consulting experience. Immediately, the team at Konica Minolta jumped on board and were passionate to help, providing a fresh perspective on the situation and coming up with a creative solution.”

After conducting a series of fact-finding sessions with The Smith Family, Konica Minolta mapped out processes, systems, and requirements and identified areas for innovation and automation.

As part of phase one of the digital roadmap, Konica Minolta implemented a scanning capture solution that could scan up to 350 pages per minute in the Blacktown and Brisbane offices, which receives the cards and letters from students. It provides high-quality digital documents that are easily renamed and stored in Microsoft SharePoint and uses metadata to generate reports, create automated workflows, organise information through its lifecycle, and classify the information.

Amanda Bevan, Program & Scholarship Administration Team Leader, The Smith Family, said, “Innovation is part of The Smith Family’s goal for growth. The scanning capture solution from Konica Minolta leverages automation to help our teams manage the influx of paperwork. It easily and more conveniently digitises student profiles and saves them in Microsoft SharePoint to be simply accessed.”