University of Melbourne
CASE STUDY
DocuShare ensures University heritage is available
many years from now
A new game plan for
University Sports Centre
Xerox software solution helps stem paper tide
E
stablished in 1853, the
University of Melbourne
is recognised nationally as
a leader in higher education with
highly regarded schools of medicine,
business, architecture and law
among other disciplines. Not long
ago the institution, Australia’s
second oldest, was voted the
country’s University of the Year.
A major contributor to the campus
experience, Melbourne University Sport
is the business unit which, provides
sport and recreational opportunities
for the 35,000 students and more than
5,000 staff at the University. It is here
where people, needing a break from
their books or lectures, work out with
dance classes, aerobics, weights,
martial arts and racquet sports among
the many options. There are 47 different
clubs and many intramural college or
university leagues. Wellknown athletes
such as Olympians Nova PerisKneebone
and Kathy Watt are a familiar sight.
Behind its well organised and gleaming
reception area, Melbourne University
Sport’s administrative area bulges with
20 fourdrawer filing cabinets stuffed
with documents pertaining to its
business. These include agendas and
minutes of club meetings, accounting
information, student insurance records,
eligibility documents, event information
and thousands of sportsrelated photo
graphs. In addition to Departmental
administration, the various clubs also
have filing cabinets crammed with docu
ments relating to their own activities.
“The documents have been piling up
over the years. Paper goes on and on,”
said Julie Caundle, Director’s Assistant
of the Melbourne University Sport.
“We have documents that go back to
the 1850s, when the university was
first founded.”
In recent years, the lack of storage
space has become problematic for both
the Department and its clubs. Many
papers are mouldering in boxes
because there is no room for them in
the filing cabinets, and still papers
keep coming. “People find things in
their departments and bring them over
saying, hey, you’d probably like this for
your files,” Caundle grinned.
She was worried that some valuable
sports heritage and useful information
might be lost forever if something
wasn’t done. “Basically, we needed
to get these papers and photos out of
the drawers and archived in a modern
way, be it on microfiche or scanned
and put into an electronic repository
of some kind.”
In addition, the process of looking for
documents had become cumbersome
and tedious for the Department’s 17
staff. “It was nonproductive. I would
spend hours looking for an item when
all I wanted to do was flick my fingers
on a keyboard and find it,” said
Caundle, a multitask administrator
with an IT background who is often
called upon to seek out files by various
sporting stakeholders and, more
recently, by the University’s Department
of History, which is compiling a book
about sport at the University. “I knew
there had to be a better way.”
Charged with easing the burden on
Melbourne University Sport staff,
Caundle decided to find a way for
Departmental records to be stored
electronically and easily accessed in a
simpletouse repository. She looked at
one system and didn’t like it. Nor was
she impressed with the firm who
wanted to charge her a consultancy fee
before creating a strategic plan for the
Department. Not long after, she heard
from a contact at Monash University
that Fuji Xerox had a document
management software solution that
could help address her needs.
“No more walking to filing cabinets and trying to guess
where something is. We can just click a few buttons on
the keyboard to find the item. It will be a welcome change
for all staff at the sports centre.”
“The DC250, FlowPort
and DocuShare are
powerful tools that will
help us contain the
clutter and keep valuable
records intact.”
13 14 12
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Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd
101 Waterloo Rd, North Ryde NSW 2113
Phone (02) 9856 5000 Fax (02) 9856 5003
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Printed in Australia, May 2002 • Case Study
University of Melbourne
CASE STUDY
Fuji Xerox Account Manager Michael
Tea came to Caundle’s office and
showed her three products he thought
would serve as the solution.
He demonstrated the Xerox Document
Centre 250, a networked, monochrome/
multifunction digital scanner, printer,
copier and fax machine. With the
capability of scanning at 25 pages per
minute, the DC250 would quickly help
Caundle begin the process of stemming
the Melbourne University Sport’s paper
tide. Later, once staff were trained to
run the machine, they would also be
able to fax and print directly from their
PCs, which would also increase overall
office efficiency.
Next, Tea demonstrated FlowPort,
a document capture, distribution and
transformation server software, which
would work along with the DC250 to
merge the paper documents into digital
electronic format. The software would
then upload the newly digitised
documents directly to the Department’s
DocuShare website. This would be the
repository where all documents could
be held and accessed as necessary.
“DocuShare allows all manner of files
to be shared across platforms and sites,
using a secure, controlled environment.
Users can post, change, search for
and retrieve information at the touch
of a button without the intervention
of a webmaster or site administrator.
It was ideal for Julie and her team,”
explained Tea.
“Best of all the Fuji Xerox solution was
easy to implement and would require
only a short learning curve on the part
of staff,” said Tea.
In late 2001, phase one of the project
began. Caundle had the Department’s
servers upgraded, designed (and then
redesigned) an online file structure and
began scanning some of the documents
on the DC250. Once they were scanned
and converted to an easily viewable
digital format, the documents were
uploaded to the Melbourne University
Sport web server and stored on
DocuShare. Once uploaded, the files
were automatically linked together in
a unique passwordprotected collection
of folders.
So far, Caundle has created 50 folders
of documents and subdirectories and
is pleased with the results to date.
“I’m impressed with how easy it is
to manage and track documents
electronically,” she said.
Over the next few months, Caundle
will ensure all of the Department’s
documents are scanned and put on
to DocuShare. A new employee will
be brought in shortly to manage the
scanning process, as Caundle’s energy
is required in so many other directions.
While most of the documents will
be scanned, some deemed of heritage
value will be archived for posterity –
as Caundle believes there will always be
a need for certain hard copy documents.
Others will go on microfiche to “cover
all bases” and ensure nothing valuable
is lost. “There is always the fear that
someone will come looking for some
thing and we will think, oh no, we just
threw that out,” said Caundle.
The best part though, is watching the
clutter slowly disappearing from the
filing cabinets and boxes. “The DC250,
FlowPort and DocuShare are powerful
tools that will help us contain the
clutter and keep valuable records
intact. We can also be more efficient
in how we go looking for files in the
future. No more walking to filing
cabinets and trying to guess where
something is. We can just click a few
buttons on the keyboard to find the
item. It will be a welcome change
for all staff at the Melbourne
University Sport,” said Caundle.
Once all the Department’s documents
are catalogued on DocuShare, phase
two of the project can begin. This
project element involves getting all
sports club documents scanned and
organised into DocuShare – no small
task in itself when 47 different
organisations are involved!
And once everything is in the new
system? “A visit to the recycling bin
is in order,” grinned Caundle.
Further Information
Tania Billington
Fuji Xerox Australia
02 9856 5000
Kim Carter/Philippa Lowe
Just Go Write
02 9528 8784
“Basically, we needed to get these papers and photos
out of the drawers and archived in a modern way.”
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