About Ajman University

Ajman University (AU) is a UAE-based private university, ranked among the top 700 global universities as per QS World University Rankings 2023. With its nine colleges spanning Architecture, Art and Design, Business Administration, Dentistry, Engineering and Information Technology, Humanities and Sciences, Law, Mass Communications, Medicine and Pharmacy and Health Sciences, AU offers 22 undergraduate and 13 post-graduate degree programs, as well as 2 doctoral degrees. The University hosts a diverse student body of around 5,800 students from UAE and other parts of the world.

Business Requirement

Ajman University’s aim was to provide a 24×7 access to support for students and faculty members who faced IT-related challenges or needed guidance with registration, application and other processes that demanded a more user-friendly interface. To resolve these challenges, AU envisioned a comprehensive and highly responsive knowledge base documenting all the procedures and answers to frequently asked questions. Availability of such database would also help in reducing the volume of customer support tickets received by the IT helpdesk. This prompted the need for a platform that was easy to use, looked appealing, and that reflected any changes in the documentation immediately.

Ajman University’s earlier system of uploading documents with how-to guides presented the following challenges:

• Limitations in design prevented visual appeal optimization
• Difficulty in navigating through documents meant users could not find information instantly
• System incompatibility with additional features

Solution

After evaluating several different knowledge management platforms, Ajman University chose Document360 to host their knowledge base for easy and accessible user support. The following features delivered a well-structured knowledge base:

• An intuitive user interface that makes it easy for technical writers to write, publish articles and make changes when required, and enhances users’ ability to navigate and search information.
• An interactive menu bar that enables writers to find a certain article, lock it and edit as needed
• Custom CSS and JavaScript that enables writers to customize and design their homepage and articles to enhance their visual appeal
• Categorization of information which helps students and faculty members find information relevant to them more easily
• The ability to attach PDFs or video manuals to articles which makes information richer and more contextual
• Any changes made to the articles get reflected instantly
• Context sensitive help that can be provided to students and faculty members in the Moodle Learning Management System using Knowledge base Assistant

Inas Abousharkh, Director of Information Technology, Ajman University, said,

Document360 has helped us provide great technical support to users and gave us the flexibility to resolve any issues they may have, quickly and accurately. The IT support team is open for any suggestions and future upgrade requests

Business Impact

A recent internal survey conducted by Ajman University showed that students and faculty members found the knowledge base extremely effective and informative.

The positive impact can be also demonstrated by the decrease in number of support calls received by the IT helpdesk, where 30% fewer calls per week were recorded compared to the period prior to the knowledge base implementation.

In addition, the rich analytics provided by Document360 helped to understand key usage trends including:

• Most viewed articles
• Most used keywords
• Increase or decrease in hits on the KB site

“Document360 has helped us provide great technical support to users and gave us the flexibility to resolve any issues they may have, quickly and accurately. The IT support team is open for any suggestions and future upgrade requests,” said Inas Abousharkh, Director of Information Technology, Ajman University.