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Munster Technological University (MTU) now has six campuses, with a broad remit of a student population transferred over from both Cork and Kerry. We spoke with Carole O’ Leary, whose role is that of an innovation and enterprise officer overseeing business start-ups at the university and initiatives like the Student Inc. program.

Carole is well versed in dealing with a large number of students throughout this merger, though prior to digitization had noted that a great deal of paper had been used in her work endeavors with potential entrepreneurs. For example, the process involving competitive prizes for innovation through the local enterprise office involved an all paper-based application for somewhere in the region of 40 entrants. These forms then had to be sent onto judges, (usually 5 in number) who would of course require a paper copy each, and this meant that the paper trail threatened to become endless. That’s before adding that these reports would contain various colour graphics, charts and various other facets of detail, to say nothing of the cost for students themselves!

Luckily, Submit.com took on the role of changing this landscape to a digital one, and as Carole remarks, the workload has since been affected in a ‘life changing’ way, of basically the best kind possible. Gone are the manual forms and stacks of applicant’s entries, in its place a streamlined and accessible system which makes entrants’ lives similarly easier and far more straightforward to boot.

For starters, the students can now apply online to the competition and upload documents with far more ease. Once the application is started, the drafts are saved, and one particular strength of this is that the process can be tracked on Carole and the enterprise office’s end. Instead of back and forth posting to judges, which was itself done in between going through entries with a pen and paper, now all of the scoring and tagging can be completed together in one digital feature without the need to shred a single confidential scrap!

Over the last five years, MTU have seen a once drawn-out process become a lot easier, as students now register their details over the course of the year and this information can be put to further use in terms of multi-disciplinary teams who are also working towards the end of a process.

The academic year starts in September for all of the campuses, honing in on these competitions around the mid-February mark, so this time-frame is certainly of the essence in relation to getting prepared. The draft saving feature is both a good way to remember for the students’ own benefit, and also for the office to ensure that the applicants have answered sufficient questions on the form to measure the interest of a continuing application.

Carole has recommended Submit to fellow agencies and remarked on how much hassle has been erased from their weekly workload in the last year, citing that MTU now use the platform for ‘almost everything’. The more obvious workflow costs are also accented by the environmentally friendly nature of the newer system, a bonus for third level education to make this progressive move.

Carole estimates somewhere in the region of nearly 7000 students have availed of this over the previous years’ competitions alone, and many more competitions and initiatives will be expected to follow suit here. Despite the sheer numbers that have used the platform, signing up for the innovation challenges has never been reported as any sort of issue. With the simple press of a button, all relevant information such as contact details, emails etc are readily accessible with security always paramount for those with the necessary permissions.

The students complete and upload their information by the end of the first semester, as the applications (which are growing annually) are shortlisted from 40 to 15. Within 3 months students record a presentation and then upload this to submit. The open nature of this allows work, from both sides of the spectrum, on more than one application at a time too. The winners of this innovation challenge have a lot of opportunity within the incubator/start-up sector, and making such deadlines more user friendly (with additional direct messaging features to avoid any unnecessary stress or hassle in that respect) is the first step to avoiding last minute or late submissions!

Next on the agenda for MTU is work on the New Frontiers program, where they intend to use further features of the Submit.com platform to have their benefits fully realized. Carole remarked on her personal favorite feature being the ability to copy ‘callouts’ (forms) and edit these in a timely fashion, rather than starting from scratch each time. The reports could capture information and help draft reminders to students about following up applications or gauge continuous interest, rather than relying or going through seemingly endless stacks of paper!

As Submit.com had been a previous sponsor of innovation workshops, the Support team were able to encourage the use of more features and the platform was quickly rolled out across the other departments. There were no complaints within the MTU regarding the use of Submit’s features, and this made life easier with respect to the ‘innovation and enterprise month’ hosting the student competitions.

There were no issues with access regarding the team, judges, and applicants alike once this was given, and applicants had a smooth transition with relation to sharing pictures and folders with staff externally. The student accelerator program, Student Inc. is also facilitated through University College Cork, Institute of Technology, Tralee and other universities, so these were all managed through Submit.com as each was able to work on their own projects cohesively.

The accelerator hub is geared towards the setup of up-and-coming new businesses and getting to that next stage, starting at the beginning of 3rd level all the way up to PhD students. It’s a full-time commitment across 13 weeks of the incubator program in the summer, with access to other entrepreneurs also essential. This can be a challenge in that line of work, but one which is getting easier with streamlined platforms such as those offered by Submit.com.

Watch the full interview here

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