Inkjet & Digital Printing

Xerox Makes Student Registration at Pennsylvania School District as Easy as ABCs

Thursday 06. March 2008 - When the Wilkes-Barre School District in Pennsylvania decided to do something about its antiquated and arduous student enrollment process, it turned to Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) and a key Xerox partner, SRC Solutions Inc.

The companies created a digital enrollment system that combines Xerox advanced multifunction systems (MFPs), a customized scanning solution from SRC, and Xerox’s DocuShare document management software. The system, which automates and digitizes much of the old manual process, will enable the 7,000-student district to reduce the registration process from two weeks per child to just 30 minutes. In addition to saving the district invaluable time, errors will be reduced and management and archiving dramatically improved.
The solution relies on Xerox’s Extensible Interface Platform (EIP) technology, which is built into many of the company’s MFPs. Based on Web standards, EIP allows independent software vendors and developers to create applications for MFPs, such as scan-to-email, that make it easier to move hard-copy documents into digital files. In addition, EIP lets developers customize the MFPs’ touch screens for use by specific individuals or workgroups.

SRC Solutions’ EZ School Registration application leverages EIP to provide school administrators an intuitive way to scan, index and validate student records. For the Wilkes-Barre solution, SRC also integrated EZ School Registration with Xerox’s DocuShare CPX enterprise content management software. To round out the solution, SRC integrated Streem Communications L.L.C.’s Fax and Alert Notification applications.

With the new solution, which will be rolled out over the next six months, student forms will be scanned in directly at Xerox MFPs located in all Wilkes-Barre schools, and routed – automatically from the devices – to their proper locations in the school district’s Xerox DocuShare system. Afterward, administrators will be able to access those records directly from the touch screen of a Xerox EIP-enabled device. When a student is selected, an image of the child will be displayed directly on the MFP screen, along with the student’s record and a list of required and outstanding registration documents. To input documents, school personnel will simply select the document they’re ready to file, such as a birth certificate, and scan it directly into the student’s record.

“The EZ School Registration solution will change the way we do business as a school district and put our resources where we need them – shaping the minds of students,” said Charolette Kordek, director of information management, Wilkes-Barre School District. “Xerox’s EIP platform delivers on the promise of technology by taking advantage of the network and hardware we are investing in to create a simplified workflow that allows us to work easier, faster and better.”

Previously, all records for the 7,000-student district were copied, placed in hard copy folders and physically transferred from department to department and school to school for filing. This took energy and time away from school administrators and parents, as well as occupying precious district storage space.

Xerox unveiled the first software solutions and a new developers program for EIP one year ago at the AIIM/On Demand 2007. Since then the company has received nearly 1,000 applications to download the development kit. In addition, there are now more than 19 EIP-enabled software solutions available worldwide, and EIP is now available on 21 Xerox office MFPs.

“The enthusiastic response of developers, system integrators and end users tells us that EIP is meeting a critical need for solutions that take the complexity out of day-to-day office processes,” said Roger Ellefson, manager of Solutions Marketing, Xerox Office Group. “EIP is just one way that Xerox is making work easier for customers and helping to reduce the time and money spent handling documents.”

System integrators and developers like SRC Solutions are using EIP to do far more than sell a printer or piece of software. They can leverage the functionality of the multifunction device to quickly meet their customers’ needs with business process solutions.

“EIP makes every connection count for our company – technology, workflow, business and partner opportunities now have even more potential,” said Patrick Maher, president and founder, SRC Solutions. “Xerox’s EIP has allowed me to differentiate myself from the competition and open up new streams of revenue.”