Keeling & Associates
A US-based higher education consultancy, Keeling & Associates, LLC (K&A), is not only managing documents and workflow better using DocMoto; it’s now fully enabled to harness 25 years of intellectual capital to deliver new and better learning projects.
The consultancy, which is Apple Mac-centric and operates with up to 20 staff working virtually and remotely, knew it was essential to have an effective and user-friendly document management system.
Before adopting DocMoto, K&A had a home-grown document management system which became increasingly difficult to run because of dealing with a Mac server and version testing new system updates. On a practical level, it was challenging for the team of consultants to access documents, maintain a coherent folder and filing system, ensure the availability of current versions, and track down historical documents when needed. K&A is often engaged in 10+ projects at any given moment, and it is crucial for staff and consultants to be able to access files and documents in an instant, especially when the employees aren’t sharing the same physical space and are frequently ‘on the road’.
The company launched DocMoto 12 months ago as a new solution to its document management needs. Eric L. Engstrom, President & Senior Executive Consultant at K&A said: “The moment we saw Docmoto, we couldn’t get it fast enough. Now, we have a secure place to store project work and client documentation and can access it wherever our consultants are working. We couldn’t work without it now and it’s never failed us”.
Mr Engstrom described the company’s principal document management challenges with Apple Mac computers and the solutions now available via DocMoto.
1. Creating and filing documents
People are in different locations when documents are created and edited, and are prone to filing things in different ways. We need client documents to be in the right place and accessible to all people working on the projects. DocMoto solves this by automatically allocating documents to a folder from day one. The system tells you in real time who has documents checked out and who is editing them. We work with complex documents, data analysis, and graphic presentations, and DocMoto enables us to know where they are, who’s working on them and which version it is. We can track the whole client project process through document use.
2. Harnessing intellectual capital to develop business
We are a learning organisation and DocMoto gives us a way to access intellectual capital about how to improve higher learning collected over 25 years. We now have a way to mine that information that we didn’t have before, which means we can quickly look at details, activities, and studies done for projects from the past. And that means we can get to do some big things because of DocMoto.
For example, we are working on a new project for an institutional client to improve academic assessment practices for their re-accreditation process. Newer staff in our consultancy can see what we’ve learned on previous client projects which, in turn, helps us to help new clients increase their assessment capacity. Through DocMoto, we can aggregate information from historical projects in order to have a more informed and effective discussion with new clients immediately. This level of efficiency is required of any small business in an ever-changing environment such as education.
As we expand our business beyond client-project work and into thought-leadership, hosting conferences, and facilitating inter-organizational change, this constant collaboration is helping us build a stronger team dedicated to our mission and values, and bringing change for learning.
3. Managing documents and data for the consultancy’s executive search service
Our executive search service, started 10 years ago, had key challenges in documentation because we needed to somehow blend the functions of different software programmes. Using DocMoto now to integrate with our Daylite system allows an applicant to apply through a web tool and upload a resume which automatically populates our system and adds the document to DocMoto, where everyone on the team can see it, interact with it, and pull information and data to better inform our recruiting efforts and make us better partners for our clients in higher education.
The benefits of DocMoto Server version 3.8 for Keeling & Associates
Mr Engstrom and his colleagues have welcomed the latest update to DocMoto, particularly the new secure upload functionality which has allowed the company to stop using separate proprietary software for client document sharing, thereby improving client security and ensuring that everything in each and every project gets filed automatically through DocMoto.
He added: “I don’t know how the DocMoto team does it. If we need help, the help is always there immediately. They are so highly organised I’ve never had to wait for a response.
“And they’ve never made promises about the software they couldn’t keep - and that’s rare among software providers!”
