Customer Case Study: Higher Education Institution Builds Digital Campus with the Informat Platform

Higher education institutions face a uniquely challenging environment for digital transformation: diverse stakeholder communities (students, faculty, staff, alumni, applicants), complex legacy systems (SIS, LMS, HR, finance), constrained budgets, and rising expectations from digitally-native students who expect the same seamless digital experience in education that they receive in every other aspect of their lives. This case study examines how a mid-size private university — referred to here as "Metropolitan University" (MU) — used the Informat low-code platform to transform student experience, faculty workflows, and administrative operations, achieving dramatic improvements while operating within the resource constraints typical of higher education.

MU serves approximately 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students with 1,400 faculty and staff. The university's IT department of 28 people supported a patchwork of legacy systems: a 20-year-old student information system, a separate LMS, disconnected systems for admissions, financial aid, housing, and career services, and countless departmental Access databases and spreadsheets that had evolved into shadow systems. Student experience was fragmented — students navigated 8 different portals for different functions, each with different credentials and interfaces. Faculty spent an estimated 30% of their administrative time on manual processes that systems did not support — grade change forms on paper, advising notes in personal files, curriculum proposals routed by email. Administrative efficiency was constrained by manual workflows for processes (hiring, purchasing, travel, expense) that crossed multiple systems. And the IT team, consumed by legacy system maintenance and support, had no capacity for the digital innovation that students, faculty, and staff increasingly expected.

The Solution: Phased Digital Campus Transformation on Informat

MU selected the Informat platform to build a digital campus layer on top of its legacy systems — not replacing the SIS or LMS but surrounding them with modern, integrated digital experiences. The phased approach delivered measurable improvements at each stage.

Phase 1 — Student Experience Portal (12 weeks): A unified student portal replaced the fragmented experience of 8 separate systems. Built on Informat and integrated with the SIS, LMS, and other systems via APIs, the portal provided: single sign-on to all student functions, personalized dashboard with classes, assignments, grades, holds, and deadlines, integrated task management (financial aid documents due, registration windows open, housing application deadlines), mobile-first design, and AI-powered chatbot for common questions (where is this building? when is the drop deadline? how do I apply for graduation?). Student satisfaction with digital services improved significantly. Portal adoption reached 85% within the first semester. Help desk call volume decreased 35% as students found answers through self-service.

Phase 2 — Faculty Workflow Automation (8 weeks): The second phase digitized faculty workflows that had been stubbornly manual. New Informat applications automated: grade change workflow (electronic submission, automated routing, registrar processing, student notification), curriculum proposal workflow (from department through curriculum committee to provost approval with tracking and transparency), academic advising (integrated student record, degree audit, advising notes, and appointment scheduling), and expense and travel management. Faculty administrative time decreased an estimated 25%, and satisfaction with administrative processes improved markedly.

Phase 3 — Administrative Process Automation (10 weeks): The third phase addressed administrative efficiency. Human resources onboarding automation, facilities work order management, IT service request workflow, and purchasing and procurement automation were all digitized on Informat. Cross-functional processes that previously took weeks (faculty hiring — HR, departmental, dean, provost, facilities, IT) were streamlined to days through automated workflow orchestration.

Conclusion

Metropolitan University's transformation demonstrates that meaningful digital transformation is achievable for higher education institutions within the constraints of legacy systems, limited IT resources, and tight budgets. By taking a phased approach focused on student experience first, integrating with legacy systems rather than replacing them, and building applications that the lean IT team could support and evolve, MU achieved dramatic improvements in student satisfaction, faculty efficiency, and administrative effectiveness. The transformation has positioned MU to compete effectively for students and faculty in an increasingly digital higher education landscape.