Microsoft Power Portal | Codec Case Studies

Project at a glance

Challenge

University administrative staff often struggle to keep pace with the administrative burden of processing applications each year, be they undergraduate admissions, clearing or postgraduate applications. Queen’s University Belfast wanted to implement a digital solution that would streamline its administrative processes, including the highly-intensive clearing process, and bring students into the university as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Solution we designed

We partnered with Queens University to create a custom student admin portal and staff portal using the Microsoft Power Platform. Our focus was on accessibility and ease of use. The Student Admin Processes (SAP) workstream allows students to raise queries and request "exceptional circumstances." The Application Management System digitises admissions applications, starting with international undergraduate applications. Our next step is to digitise the Postgraduate application process for a consistent user experience.

Technologies used:

Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft Power Pages

Impact we delivered

Within a month of launching, the university’s self-service student admin portal was able to process more than 1,000 student clearing requests in a single day. Over the course of a year, the portal has managed more than 3,000 clearing applications and 1,000 undergraduate applications and is expecting to manage up to 20,000 post-graduate applications each year.
Total volume of queries via the student portal has increased, with more than 3,000 ‘exceptional circumstances’ submissions in the first six months alone.
Ability for students and staff to raise and respond to both simple and complex queries with a Power Apps Portal as a constant entry point, and a Model Driven App for back-end processing.
With multiple award nominations, Queen’s University Belfast has strengthened its reputation as a digital transformation leader in higher education.
The initial self-service undergraduate student admin portal has since been cloned to launch seven additional portals for various student and staff use cases, with more in development.

Background

Addressing inefficiency in the university clearing process

Student admin services play a critical role in supporting university students and setting them up for academic success. But offering this wide range of services can place a significant administrative burden on university staff tasked with providing these services and delivering a supportive student experience.

At Queen’s University Belfast, the scale of these services had become overwhelming. Administrative staff were under pressure to admit students through university clearing as quickly and seamlessly as possible. These labour-intensive processes limited how quickly admissions staff could move, creating friction for both students and staff.

The university wanted to implement a digital solution that could facilitate faster processing of student admissions and other student admin services—without compromising the quality of their student engagement.

“Our student admin support staff field all kinds of important queries from students, ranging from general questions about campus life to requesting deadline extensions for final exams. As our student population grew, the inefficiencies in handling these queries became a more glaring pain point for students and staff.”

Helen Dixon

Digital Transformation Programme Manager, Queens University Belfast

Solution

Improving the digital student experience at scale

Working collaboratively with the Queens IT teams, Codec delivered a custom single portal system for use by both students and the Admissions teams. The portal’s front-end system offers self-service access to important student resources, and a back-end CRM system for staff use for tasks such as processing new students admitted through clearing. These two solutions were developed and delivered using the same technology and solution design, enabling a fast, efficient deployment of each portal.

Microsoft Power Platform provided the central architecture for these solutions, Each solution was connected to a dataverse housing information specific to the use case of the portal. The dataverse and other architecture were all shared to accelerate solution development and realise cost efficiencies, but the solutions were divided in a modular way to minimise coupling, and to minimise disruption .

We used Microsoft Power Pages to quickly and efficiently build high-quality portals where students could enter queries and fill out forms to expedite admin services and admissions processing. This user-friendly interface could then process queries and return information to students instantly and at any time of day, automating simple tasks that previously required the assistance of university staff.

Results

Enhanced student support at a lower administrative cost

The impact of these new student admin and clearing solutions was evident as soon as the portals went live. Students quickly embraced these new digital services, helping Queen’s University achieve the following outcomes:

Within a month of launching, the university’s self-service student admin portal was processing more than 1,000 student requests per day.
Total volume of student queries has increased, reflecting an overall improvement in the digital experience for Queen’s University Belfast students.
With multiple award nominations, Queen’s University Belfast has strengthened its reputation as a digital transformation leader in higher education.
The initial self-service student admin portal has since been cloned to launch seven additional portals for various student and staff use cases, with more in development

“Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to clone custom-built solutions across an organisation’s digital infrastructure. Fortunately, our experts have the technical mastery required to replicate the time-saving success of one self-service portal across several other administrative processes. Our efficiency in deploying these solutions saved the university months of development while increasing the ROI of its digital transformation.”

Stephanie Conville
NI Commercial Lead, Codec

"Working jointly with Codec, our Queens portal is pivotal in helping to create connections and provides users with a personalised experience. We're confident the portal has the flexibility to evolve rapidly for the future requirements of staff and students alike"

Ian Purdy

Interim Director, Digital & Information Services, Queens University, Belfast

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Delivering an efficient digital experience for students and staff at Queen’s University Belfast

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Delivering an efficient digital experience for students and staff at Queen’s University Belfast

Project at a glance

Challenge

Solution we designed

Impact we delivered

Addressing inefficiency in the university clearing process

Improving the digital student experience at scale

Enhanced student support at a lower administrative cost

Ian Purdy

Delivering an efficient digital experience for students and staff at Queen’s University Belfast

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