Colleges and Universities occupy a unique role in society as they function as proper business enterprises and bastions of public service. Much is made of the educational efforts on campuses across the world, as teachers and professors alike impart knowledge on impressionable minds and foster environments of ingenuity and innovation. A lesser-discussed aspect of the higher-ed paradigm is the business of higher education and how it directly correlates to the amount of activity happening on campuses.

Higher education campuses are bustling with activity, whether student-related or in conjunction with a school’s hometown population. It is up to a school’s administration and staff to facilitate all activities through structured services offered to campus populations. That being said, so many of the services provided on campuses have more to do with using the facilities themselves than any student function. Services such as visitor accommodations, conference room reservations, and workplace requests are seemingly simple yet vital parts of a school’s business structure. Those not equipped with a modern solution to facilitate these complex functions are bound to run into many issues.

The Problems

Let’s start with a seemingly straightforward operation: Visitor management. Visitor visibility and tracking is a vital part of ensuring the safety of faculty, staff, and students. Visitor management impacts operations of every size, whether a residence hall needs to monitor visitor traffic or large on-site operations like event staff that needs a way to track conference attendees or event-goers. Schools using simple tools such as written visitor logs and paper conference receipts are essentially operating in the dark. They have no substantial way to maintain accurate visibility of the visitors on campus.

Another big problem that campuses face is enacting and monitoring conference room reservations. Managing room requests for just one building by itself is complicated, much less every building on campus. Unless you have a full-time position dedicated exclusively to room reservations, facility and staff on-site will have to navigate disputes between reserving parties, overbooking specific spaces, and underutilization of others.

The last area for potential problems is workplace requests. Requests for facility inspections, conference room turnover or an AV setup for the next event must happen quickly between bookings. If these speedy endeavors are left to on-site facilities staff without a management tool, those requests can get lost in a sea of work, or worse, not recognized at all.

The Solution

While they may seem arduous or even overwhelming, the campus problems that we’ve described are not insurmountable. To counteract the issues that could stem from a web of campus services offered, a college or university must reach for a solution that can streamline all of their tasks and simplify their campus processes. Enter SCLogic’s Campus Services Workgroup. Our Campus Services Workgroup helps your higher-ed operation design, execute, and measure daily campus services workflows. This workgroup houses a robust set of core workflows that can accommodate any problem:

•  The Visitor Tracking Workflow allows staff to submit visitor requests and allows visitors to check-in and create a visitor badge via a kiosk.
• Our Conference Room Services Workflow allows staff to create reservations and maintain oversight of the reservation process, which drastically decreases the possibility of reservation mishaps and room discrepancies.
• The Workplace Requests Workflow allows staff to craft requests for any workplace tasks and keep watch over all parts of the request process at any facility or building on campus.

The core workflows should be foundational support of your campus service operation. SCLogic also knows that one solution does not fit all. To ensure that every Higher-Ed institution’s needs are met, we offer additional workflows suited towards tasks like asset audits, PPE supply monitoring, and record/file management so you have the right solution to ensure your team’s success.

The Benefits

The benefits of using an all-encompassing solution are numerous and undeniable. The ease of creating and initiating tasks will empower staff to quickly create badges for campus visitors (or flag unwanted guests), enact room sweeps, or even automate a workplace maintenance schedule. Campus teams can also have more oversight over their spaces and operations than ever before, as they can use their solution to monitor a guest’s visitation history, the time it takes to complete a task, and so much more. Finally, your staff can harness the power of their platform data to craft comprehensive reports for team audits and analysis. Reviewing your reports can allow your staff to identify the tasks they are succeeding in and areas for improvement. The work of your college and university is so vast and complex. Let SCLogic help you streamline and simplify your services operation and keep your campus running.

Does your college or university need help with establishing a Campus Services Workgroup? Let us know! Email us at [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.