University of Kent

Easing the administrative burden
Against a backdrop of stiff competition for admission and a growing need to streamline administrative and other operations, UK universities see ‘customer service’ as an increasingly important element of student recruitment and retention.

Having established a working relationship with Kinetic through the implementation of KxConferencing software, the University of Kent saw the advantages of adding KxStudent to its system.

The initial installation of KxStudent took place in June 2003 and was upgraded for the 2004-2005 academic year. From the outset, the University experienced tangible benefits in time and cost savings.

New efficiencies, improved service to students and staff
KxStudent enables the University to:
• auto-allocate batches of seven to eight hundred students at a time, saving a massive amount of time;
• integrate completely with Finance Department’s system, also saving time and resources;
• export information to various file formats (Excel etc ), gain financial reports, etc

A further expansion of the system to include online web applications meant students could complete applications that are uploaded directly to the KxStudent module.
The system allows the University to electronically and instantly provide students abroad with agreements and contracts, where previously they may have had to wait up to 10 days to receive the paperwork.

Bottom-line benefits
Kevin Stuckey, the university’s Residences and Conference Manager who manages over 4000 on-campus bedrooms, more than 150 classrooms, and deals with 150 off-campus landlords is impressed.

“We’re more efficient, and much more productive. In fact, I would estimate that we’ve saved in excess of $15,000 in terms of postage, paperwork and man hours previously spent manually processing information.
“However, it’s not just money, the automated procedures are fast, accurate and real-time information is accessible to all Kx users (over 60) on campus.”

Planning with confidence
KxStudent’s database provides Kevin and his team with the right information to carry out effective future planning.
“The reporting is fantastic. For example, from studying the numerous reports available, we are able make effective business decisions for the future. Essentially, we want KxStudent to give us the information that will enable us to act accordingly.”
To complement the system, Kinetic has also developed an off-campus website where landlords can securely advertise their properties. It enables students to look at the properties available and contact landlords directly.

A productive partnership
Kevin is generally delighted with the way KxStudent is working and with Kinetic’s overall approach to developing software to meet his needs.
“It’s a very, very nice piece of software, which is saving us heaps of time and eliminates the need for us to undertake onerous administrative tasks. This allows our staff to concentrate on the really important issue: customer service, and getting it right for our students and visitors, time after time.”
“(Kinetic) don’t stand still. We tell them what’s important to us and the enhancements we think will help our business and they go away and build them into later software releases. The service we get from them is excellent.”