Case Study
4-H Alberta Scholarships
4-H Alberta scholarship applicants have only one way to apply: on paper.
Applicants want an easier way to apply for 4-H Alberta scholarships, as well as the means to know that their application has arrived, been received and is in the system.
4-H Alberta staff want to streamline the entire process from beginning to end – have a system that will reduce the sheer labour involved in receiving and categorizing applications, as well as shorten the time required to assess them and announce the winners.
The Challenges
- Applicants have to fill out the 20-page form by hand and mail it back to 4-H Alberta.
- The staff has to manually transfer information from application forms to internal analysis documents
- This process is slow, time-consuming, expensive (in terms of time and postage), and stressful for both applicants and adjudicators.
- The process was outdated and didn't align with the digital world.
The Goal
The goal was to build scholarship application system that was tailor-made for 4-H Alberta, and not simply try to adapt an existing system of some sort and try to make it work. The new system had to be easy to use and, more importantly, make sense to everyone using it – whether they were applying for a scholarship, or awarding them.
- Modernize the database and introduce a new system, this enabled electronic application submissions and regional sorting.
- Add account feature so students don’t have to fill in their information every time.
- Allow the students to save their progress, to complete it at their own pace.
- Reduce the amount of time 4-H Alberta staff works on the applications, it’s no longer a year long task.
- Allow the students to see application status after submission.
- The system is prepared for application season and continues to receive support during active use by students and assessors.
- Before the process starts, AgCall collaborates with 4-H Alberta to assess and update the tool.
- The system is highly flexible, allowing AgCall to develop improvements and new functions as identified by 4-H Alberta.
- AgCall offers continuous support and upgrades based on 4-H Alberta's needs.
On the 4-H Alberta side, what once took months now takes a few hours.
Applications enter the system and are automatically anonymized, the points-based data is quantified and all 4-H staff have to do is download a spreadsheet where they can view all the relevant information quickly and easily and winning applicants are notified quicker.
Not only that, administrators can see the status of applications throughout the season and, as deadlines approach, remind students to finish up and submit.
This project is a showcase and point of pride for our team of developers based in Calgary and Vancouver. This dedicated group of individuals has shown what excellence in IT services really looks like when client need is put at the forefront of any project.
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