Penn State's Document Imaging Initiative

By Vicki Amendola, Integrated Solutions magazine

What comes to mind when you hear the words Penn State? Perhaps you think of Joe Paterno and his Big 10 football team? Or maybe the noble Nittany Lion? Beyond these popular public icons lies one of the nation's top-ranked public universities, boasting more than 85,000 students in 2007. In addition to the University Park campus, Penn State has 19 commonwealth campuses across Pennsylvania and 9 special mission units dedicated to specific areas of education such as medicine and law.

As with many institutions of this size, educational or otherwise, the cumulative effect of paper transactions can be overwhelming. In Penn State's case, this is not an exaggeration. Consider, for example, that in the admissions office alone, more than 48,000 first-year undergratduate applications are received for processing each semester. Processing requirements aside, if left unabated the file storage requirements would soon have the institution outgrowing its available physical space. In a few departments, document imaging initiatives had already been launched. But these deployments were sporadic and limited to the university's largest departments. To be truly successful, Penn State needed an imaging solution that would be available universitywide.