The University of Adelaide meets stringent compliance requirements with ease

Established in 1874, the University of Adelaide is the third-oldest higher education institution in Australia. As a public research university, it has several research subdivisions. One of its crown jewels is the Defence and Security Institute which develops and sustains the research skills, infrastructure, commercialisation, and knowledge transfer essential to Australia’s defence and security.

Stringent compliance requirements

This focus on national security, however, brings significant responsibilities. To collaborate with defence bodies, the university must comply with the various pieces of Defence & National Security legislation and sector guidelines. It needs to demonstrate that it conducts appropriate due diligence investigations for all foreign engagement partners or providers. For example, if the university hires a staff member or signs a memorandum with a foreign university to establish exchange programs, it must demonstrate that it has thoroughly evaluated the security implications. It must also record decisions made by delegated authorities before committing to any activity with a foreign entity. 

“The penalties for non-compliance are severe, including potential jail time. Compliance is particularly critical for us, as the University of Adelaide is Australia’s most defence-engaged university. We can’t afford to get this wrong,” shares Bruce Northcote, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Operations and the Chief Security Officer at the University of Adelaide.

However, performing a complete audit of international activities, including existing or historical arrangements, is challenging. “We need to collect information from all over the university and track all foreign activities authorised by the university,” explains Northcote. “Creating a centralised system is the best way to do this.”

A centralised, automated system

To collect data and maintain records in a more streamlined way, Northcote built a Foreign Engagement Compliance Review System in Smartsheet. “This system allows any activity proponent to submit a description of their activity. My office then triages the activity to determine which delegated authority needs to make an assessment.” For each entry, the university collects complete due diligence information about the companies or entities involved, and everything is recorded in one place. Workflows and email notifications are automated, letting each team member know what’s required of them.

The university uses a number of Smartsheet functions to speed up the process, starting with forms. Participants can drag and drop files and add comments or information, giving the university a fuller picture of every activity. “We collect data on 15 different types of activities, so it helps that Smartsheet adjusts the questions based on the responses, speeding the process up,” adds Northcote. “Smart formatting and clickable URLs also simplify everything.”

Updating effortlessly

With Data Shuttle, the University of Adelaide keeps an up-to-date database of its employees by mapping Human Resources position IDs to staff IDs and their email addresses. This supports automatic workflows, such as sending emails to the correct individuals responsible for compliance checks or decisions or even automating notifications for multiple people in the proper sequence. Changes in university structure or employee positions are dynamically reflected in the database. 

“This automatic workflow is critical when we have so many people doing compliance checks. Without it, we’d still be exchanging emails or dealing with SharePoint files or massive Excel sheets,” says Northcote.

Adding to this is Dynamic View, which allows the university to tailor reports and data access to various roles in the organisation. “For example, professional staff or line managers can see all activities related to their responsibilities. University executives can view institution-wide activities visualised on dashboards, monitoring performance through real-time data, all in one place—having a single source of truth is just fantastic,” adds Northcote.
 

More visibility with less effort

With Smartsheet, Northcote can easily see the big picture and locate information quickly. 

“With real-time monitoring, we can easily maintain compliance and demonstrate to the government at any time which delegated authority endorsed an activity and the steps we took.”

The team achieves this transparency with less effort. “Using automation, we have eliminated manual and repetitive tasks and improved real-time collaboration and productivity. As a result, we’re seeing significant returns on investment.” Now that submitting information is simpler, more staff members are meeting their obligations. 
“Using gamification, dashboards and automated reminders we were able to drive the response rate for a required staff declaration to 99.6%,” Northcote adds proudly.

Securing the university’s standing

Importantly, with Smartsheet, sensitive information is secure. “We encrypt our data at rest and in transit with keys that we manage, which means that we maintain the highest standards of data security,” shares Northcote. With Dynamic View, the team also controls that only specific groups have access to compliance information. “Setting up customised views for every job function or delegate was simple, I only had to do it once,” Northcote adds.

Today, Northcote is looking for more ways to streamline the compliance processes. For example, he’s considering using the Control Center for managing and setting up templates, projects and reports efficiently. “I wish I had Smartsheet in my previous role, as it would have simplified managing the 40 concurrent projects we had at the time, making my life so much easier,” Northcote concludes. 

For more information, check out our infographic showing how Australian universities drive innovation, compliance, and efficiency using Smartsheet