CUCCIO recognizes McMaster IT as finalist for prestigious award

CUCCIO has named McMaster IT’s Virtual Pink Folders as a finalist for the 2021 Innovation Award among many other institutions for this year’s CUCCIO Awards. 

CUCCIO, which represents IT leaders across Canada’s higher education landscape, acknowledges “innovative IT projects or initiatives that have significantly advanced teaching, learning, research or administration within an institution or in the community” through the annual Innovation Award. 

Virtual Pink Folders, also nominated for the President’s Awards for Outstanding Service, is a project that automates, streamlines and simplifies workflow of the 105 application, a form students outside Ontario must submit as part of their application for enrolment. 

Each admission cycle typically gets over 60,000 of these 105 applications, and without a document management system, they were all processed manually through pink (they really were pink!), physical folders. This process was no longer viable with work from home mandates in place. In the span of 10 short weeks, the project team quickly assessed what tools were available, decided that current technology could develop an automated solution and then implemented the Virtual Pink Folders. 

Combining PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, Microsoft’s SharePoint and API Connect from IBM, Virtual Pink Folders can process thousands of 105 applications timely, efficiently and automatically. 

McMaster IT is a campus-wide effort, and the Virtual Pink Folders team reflects that cross functional approach. Members of the project team involve the Office of the Registrar, University technology Services and the Faculty of Social Sciences.  

Thanks, CUCCIO, for recognizing what we’ve always known — McMaster IT is full of innovative and leading thinkers pushing the edge of IT ever onward!