Basic HTML Version
magazine
www.binfo.co.uk
42
Digital office
Middlesex University is a large
organisation: it has campuses in four
locations, London, Dubai, Mauritius
and Malta, 40,000 students (15,000
overseas) and 1,700 staff. It used to be
even larger, but in 2000 took the decision
to implement a £200 million estates
strategy and consolidate 12 existing
London campuses on one site at Hendon,
resulting in a 50% reduction in usable
space – its last campus in Archway is due
to close this summer.
Because student numbers had
not dropped off significantly and the
University wanted students to have as
much space as before, the only solution
was to cut back on the amount of
space occupied by staff. To achieve this,
Middlesex University developed a flexible
working policy supported by a ‘NewWay
of Working Digitisation Strategy’ that was
designed to be greener, more efficient and
cost-effective.
Although there are still a number of
assigned offices on campus, wherever
possible the University has implemented
hot desking and flexible working for staff.
Currently 61% of employees are expected
to work in this way helping the University
to save space and give staff a better
work:life balance.
Middlesex University realised that
for flexible working to succeed, it was
essential that staff could go into any
office or building on the Hendon campus
– or indeed a home office – and work
in exactly the same way, with access
to all the files they need to do their
job. To achieve this it rolled out unified
communications to all staff and, together
with technology partner CDS, developed
the Middlesex Electronic Document
Storage system (MEDS).
Online storage
Created from the ground up, MEDS
provides an online repository for archives
and live documents, saving storage space
and enabling staff to access files from any
internet-enabled device anywhere in the
world. Today, MEDS contains more than1
million records and is accessed by 1,100
people daily.
New documents are constantly
added to the system both by University
employees, who are encouraged to
make use of the scanning function on
departmental MFPs, and by CDS itself.
As well as bulk scanning archives (more
than 800,000 documents digitised so
far), every month CDS scans 15,000 live
documents at a central site accredited
to BS10008 i.e. in a way that meets the
standard for evidential weight and legal
admissibility of electronic records. Hard
copies no longer need to be kept for legal
reasons and can be destroyed.
Digital mailroom
CDS is also responsible for scanning and
electronically distributing incoming mail,
bar exception items such as financial
records or a tax disc. Probably the
most contentious aspect of the new
infrastructure due to people’s sensitivity
about postal communications, the Digital
Mail system helps reduce the amount of
paper coming into, circulating around and
being stored in the university: in its first
11 months of operation 33,000 pieces of
mail were delivered electronically.
Digital Mail also eliminates the need
for pigeon holes, post rooms, sorting staff
and on-site delivery vans; and because
mail is opened, scanned and emailed to
recipients, they receive mail instantly no
matter where they are. The University
Digital transformation
For an example of how flexible
working practices are changing
printing and scanning habits,
you need look no further than
Middlesex University. Over
the last decade, the North
London higher education
establishment has undertaken
a massive overhaul of its
buildings estate underpinned
and facilitated by the
digital transformation of its
document processes.
is now considering adding encryption,
so that even sensitive documents like
financial records can be scanned.
Rules-based printing
Additional savings are provided by
the new staff printing infrastructure.
Consolidating operations on just one
campus has enabled the University to
reduce the number of print devices by
93%, from 1,187 printers, copiers and
MFPs to just 81 Canon MFPs running
Canon uniflow output management
software. Its combination of RFID user
authentication and rules-based, follow
me printing has helped reduce paper
consumption by 38%.
Because print jobs are held on the
server until they are pulled down to an
MFP for printing, only those documents
that are actually needed are output. To
date, 1.3 million pages have been deleted
from the server through automatic or
manual deletion. Further savings have
come from enforcing best practice, for
example by automatically re-routing print
jobs of 100 pages or more to the print
room where they are output and delivered
back to the user on the same day.
Student printers
From next term, the University is
extending uniflow to students so that
they, too, can enjoy the benefits of secure,
follow me printing, such as the ability
to print to any network device and the
convenience of a standard approach
to printing from/scanning to a mobile,
smartphone or intranet gateway.
Because printing is an essential
service that the University provides to
students, its main focus is not cost-
cutting but to make printing as easy as
possible. To this end, it is doubling the
number of student print devices from 20
to 40 and replacing the current system
(fixed terminals linked to a specific
printer) with the ability to print from
any device (PC, notebook, Chromebook,
smartphone, tablet) to any MFP.
The size of Middlesex University’s
Digitisation Strategy makes it stand-
out, but the tools it has used to achieve
such impressive results are available to
any business. Through a combination
of scanning, electronic document
management and managed printing, it
gives workers access to the tools they
need to do their job wherever they are –
flexibly, cost-effectively and efficiently.
...the
University has
implemented
hot desking
and flexible
working for
staff.