University of East London to deliver automated clearing process, following award-winning success

The University of East London [UEL] has experienced award-winning success after using intelligent automation solution, ‘Niico’, for its annual Clearing process.

Developed by digital consultancy, Equantiis, ‘Niico’ is a leading intelligent automation platform using AI, ML RPA and OCR technologies that has been designed to transform student experience and drive operational efficiencies.

UEL made the decision to invest in the tech-driven solution after realising the annual Clearing process took an average of 435 staff hours per annum, divided across 50 temporary employees. 

Following an initial demonstration, the UEL senior leadership team not only realised the benefit of utilising Niico to dramatically improve the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of Clearing, but also its potential to positively impact other core functions of the organisation.

In utilising Niico, each student record was processed within 1 minute, resulting in a 93% reduction in time to transfer all information to UCAS – while delivering 100% data accuracy between systems.

The success of the RPA solution was not only recognised by UCAS, but also the prestigious Heist Awards, which celebrate extraordinary work across the Higher Education Sector.

Using Niico will enable the university to benefit from a significant cost saving, while helping to improve both student experience and operational efficiencies.

David Smith, Head of Marketing for University of East London, confirmed:

“We are always looking for creative and innovative solutions in the work that we do, and this initiative helped us address an issue that was compounded by the pandemic, saving us a significant amount of time and money at a key recruitment period for the institution.”

Alistair Sergeant, CEO of Equantiis, added:

“We created Niico with a clear objective to provide an impactful but simple RPA solution for repetitive, rule-based tasks, which could successfully transform customer experience and drive operational efficiencies.

UEL’s positive experience is not only demonstrative of Niico’s time and cost saving capability, but also its potential to positively impact both staff and students – or customers – alike.”

Initially developed in 2020, Niico is an RPA based platform created specifically to automate repetitive, routine manual processes and drive better customer experience.

The solution is currently used by Higher Education establishments, together with organisations across financial services, non-for-profit, and membership sectors.