References

Student housing


Situation
The housing administration had the challenges that

  • It was impossible to ensure full capacity; often 10%+ of the rooms stood empty in some semesters
  • Students and the business school spent time and waited for each other while applying, allocating, exchanging contracts, following up on payments etc.
It was perceived that this area was impossible to automate
  • Due to its complex rules of allocation as well as
  • Due to the high demands for tight interaction with almost 1,000 exchange students per semester

KnowGo did
KnowGo approached the area in 4 iterative phases, such that initially only the mainstream cases (80% of the students) were covered by process support, and eventually

  • All were covered, and
  • All were automated in that the contracts were generated directly upon the application, using a content driven rule engine for room allocation
The solution was designed as usual based on an underlying data model and then generation of a two layer solution directly from the data model
  • Process Layer for the individual students (forms and intelligent workflow)
  • Data Layer for the case workers – with auto-generated web interface

The solution features
  • Automated allocation of room based on a content designed rule that instantly takes care of
    • Same gender in rooms that share bathroom
    • Evening out of nationalities for better mix of students
    • Evening out of males / female
    • Grouping/separation of graduates versus undergraduates
    • Accommodation of student’s preferences (dorm priority, size of room, whether room is shared etc.)
    • Accommodation of health requirements
  • Instant generation of rental contract
  • Opportunity to consider for 30 minutes – and apply again with different preferences
  • Automated accounting and follow-up on payments
  • Quick release of rooms that are not being paid for availability to automatic allocation

Result
This solution has ensured that all rooms are rented and thereby presented a business case of EUR 500,000 in added revenue at the same cost to CBS. At the same time the administrative workload is reduced, while students get their rental contract instantly in a process that keeps them informed of the progress

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