Texas A&M University System: Shared Services for Increased Efficiency
Texas A&M University System is one of the largest university systems in the United States. Coordinating, managing and archiving documentation is an intensive task for such an organization—yet the university system has found an efficient way by offering Laserfiche enterprise content management (ECM) as a shared service through its central IT office.
Consolidating IT Services
While individual schools and departments within Texas A&M University System initially implemented Laserfiche for various reasons (Texas A&M AgriLife sought secure storage for records after enduring a flood, fire, collapsed roof and hurricane; Texas A&M Health Science Center wanted to combat costly contract management inefficiencies and eliminate file cabinets), users experienced similar benefits: increased efficiency and accuracy, improved records management and business continuity, and reduced costs.
Texas A&M University System’s procurement office now provides shared services so that schools and departments can share documents, file structures and workflows, building on each other’s efforts. Shared services also consolidate IT functions from several system members to one location, reducing costs and time spent on maintenance.
“In addition to the Laserfiche talent, our IT department brings a broad skill base to support a shared services offering,” Lewis adds. “From application development and administration, risk and policy assessment and project management to networking and infrastructure services, our IT department is able to provide the level of support that an enterprise shared service demands.”
Shared Knowledge Through Shared Services
Beyond core ECM functionality such as enabling internal and remote access to electronic documents, and eliminating the need for printing and physical paperwork, the shared system provides:
- Consistent framework to support compliance
- Risk mitigation through disaster recovery capabilities
- Ability for different departments and system members to leverage the cumulative accomplishments of their colleagues
- Reduced hardware and software purchases at the department level
“By providing a feature-rich implementation at an affordable price point, Texas A&M is able to make available economies of scale and document sharing that individual departments could not approach by themselves,” explains Judith Lewis, Senior IT Manager at Texas A&M. “This is value delivery at its best.”
