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U. of Michigan Automates Tracking Data Improving Its Operations
5/1/2004
- Efficiency/ease-of-use in gathering data. For instance, a grant may require data on how long it takes students to finish the PhD program. Multiple employees can access this information simultaneously, in minutes, and it's accessible any time, including weekends and evenings. Plus, the school is converting all past files from microfiche, which is difficult to use and view.
- Time savings. It takes minutes rather than days or weeks to access data. Over the past year, SSW conducted a comprehensive of the Ph.D. program. SSW obtained and used data resulting in a much more in-depth assessment that would have been much more difficult without Alchemy.
- Space savings. SSW has not purchased an additional filing cabinet over the year, and it typically had in the past, and the organization has been able to recycle freed-up cabinets for other uses that would have required new purchases, such as the filing cabinets used by Ph.D. students in storing their files and papers in the doctoral student computer room.
- Enhanced security. For obvious reasons, the university d'esn't want hard
copies of files floating around through various offices. Alchemy's required
access via password makes the records more secure. Plus, Alchemy acts as a
built-in backup system.
Other departments at the university are following SSW's example and coming up with innovative ways to use Alchemy. For example, one department is exploring using Alchemy in new faculty hires. Rather than tracking and circulating confidential files among committee members, members would simply access files sitting in their own offices. Costs of reproducing files by photocopying would be eliminated, and because faculty members can view files simultaneously. The efficiency gains may encourage more faculty members to serve on such committees.
David Tucker (socialwork@ssc.msu.edu) is director of the Joint Program in
Social Work and Social Science and Professor of Social
Work and adjunct Professor of Sociology.
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