University of Kent

The University of Kent (UoK) has a sizeable student property portfolio; it deals with 4000+ on-campus bedrooms, over 150 teaching and lecture rooms, and 150 off-campus landlords. The initial installation of KxStudent took place in June 2003 and was upgraded for the 2004 student intake. From the outset, Kevin Stuckey, Residences & Conference Manager of UoK, and his team experienced tangible benefits both in terms of time and cost savings. The system enables UoK to:

Kevin is generally delighted with the way Kx is working. He says, "Everything we need to know relating to an individual student or group of students is available instantly, We're very pleased with it. It does everything we want it to."

Students will complete their application detailing their preferences, which will then be uploaded directly to the KxStudent. In addition Kx has developed an off campus website where landlords advertise their properties on a secure website, enabling UoK students only to look at the properties that are available and contact landlords direct.

Kevin says, "We're more efficient, and much more productive. In fact, I would estimate that we've saved in excess of £10,000 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."

And better still, the system's database is providing Kevin and his team with the right information to carry out effective forward planning. He explains, "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 Kx to give us the information that will enable us to act accordingly."

UoK's relationship with Kinetic is well-established; the University was one of the first to implement KxConference. The fact that Kinetic has now expanded terrifically and is still providing excellent service levels has also impressed Kevin and strongly influenced his decision to buy KxStudent. He says, "The service we get from them is excellent. I can honestly say I've never had a cross word with them. If and when things do go wrong, and I have to say that's been rare, they respond immediately.

In addition, he is extremely happy with Kinetic's overall approach to developing software to meet the needs of his business, and their proactive response to feedback, which Kinetic encourages. He says, "They 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".

And his verdict on KxStudent? "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."