The University of the West of England (UWE) faced a common challenge in higher education: managing student casework across multiple systems with no central repository. Before implementing Symplicity Advocate, their teams were using a patchwork of tools including Outlook, SharePoint, Planner, and Microsoft Forms — with reporting divided between Access and Power BI.
"We did a pretty good job at managing casework and getting outputs and being able to identify trends and provide assurance reporting, but it was time consuming because we had our data split across so many different spaces, so many different systems, so many different teams," explains Ian Stratton, who oversees UWE's student casework team.
The implementation journey
UWE took a thoughtful, phased approach to their Advocate implementation, starting with smaller teams before scaling to more complex departments. This strategy allowed them to learn valuable lessons along the way and refine their approach with each new rollout.
Their implementation journey followed this progression:
- Starting with the Money Service (September 2023) - A small team with straightforward requirements provided the perfect testing ground
- Student Advisors and Coaches - Teams with related activities allowed for joint configuration discussions
- Disability Service - A small team supporting a large volume of students
- Immigration Advice - Added to the roadmap based on service realignment opportunities
- Mental Health and Wellbeing - Larger volume services brought new perspectives on using Advocate's care and incident functionalities
- Accommodation, Anti-Sexual Violence, Safeguarding - Specialised services with unique requirements
- Casework Teams - The most complex implementation covering conduct, complaints, academic appeals, assessment offenses, and fitness studies
What began as a system implementation evolved into a catalyst for improving policies and practices across the university.
"It's not always good to use a system to drive policy and practice changes but actually forcing us to think about how we were doing things has been a really good thing," notes Stratton. "The flexibility of the system to support different needs within a reportable structured environment is really helpful."
The Symplicity partnership
Throughout the implementation process, UWE relied on their partnership with Symplicity to overcome challenges, particularly around handling large volumes of student data.
"This is where Symplicity's Vincent stepped in to help us in getting some bulk data into the system for us. Some of the things that we couldn't do ourselves really helped us make the best use of the system," Stratton shared.
Key results and ROI
The implementation of Advocate has delivered several significant benefits to UWE:
- Consistent Data Collection: Standardised information gathering enables powerful cross-departmental reporting
- Operational Efficiency: Elimination of disparate systems saves staff time and reduces frustration
- Enhanced Student Support: The ability to see a complete student profile across departments enables earlier interventions
- System Adoption: The intuitive nature of Advocate has led to additional departments requesting access
- Future Capabilities: Positioned to leverage advanced features with major departments now on the platform
Expanding reach
What started with a targeted implementation plan has grown significantly. Now security, coordinated support teams, and academic colleagues managing misconduct and fitness to practice are lined up to join the system.
"It demonstrates that you can bring on a data system into a university space quickly and relatively easily. It's a system which is very intuitive to use and configure," notes Stratton. "When we start rolling out the student end to students, I think it's going to make a world of difference to how our students interact with our casework processes."
The "unicorns" approach
A key factor in UWE's successful implementation was their team of "unicorns"—staff members who understand systems, data, AND business needs. This three-way understanding allowed them to quickly configure Advocate to meet specific departmental requirements while maintaining consistent data standards.
"Between us, we have done a lot of the work in playing with the system, figuring out how it works and how it works for our needs and how we configure it for the University of the West of England," explains Stratton.
Looking ahead
With five more teams slated for implementation in the coming year, UWE continues to build on their success. As the casework team fully transitions to Advocate, the university anticipates taking advantage of previously untapped functionality within the system.
Symplicity Advocate provides comprehensive case management for student affairs professionals, delivering powerful reporting and analysis while streamlining workflows and ensuring consistent policy application across campus. To learn how Advocate can transform your institution's approach to student case management, contact us today and request a demo.
