Policy Management Solutions for Digital Landscapes

When I stop to think about the enormity of what we’re tasked to do, it almost sounds like an impossible riddle: How can one effectively manage a living machine with hundreds of interlocking and evolving parts, each owned by different entities and moving at different speeds along separate but intertwining paths? As policy administrators, we know it’s not so much a riddle as it is just another day in the job. 

At Utah Valley University, our policy administration process involves tracking and managing hundreds of policy drafts and documents through separate review and approval stages, coordinating the necessary entities and stakeholders from drafting to review to approval of each individual draft, and publishing and maintaining approved policy documents (both publicly online for current versions and in a digital archive for those no longer effective). And this represents just a fraction of the responsibilities and services with which our office is tasked. Even under normal circumstances, effectively managing our office’s complex workload can be challenging. Toss in a global pandemic and a sudden, unceremonious switch to a digital-only environment, and we were left scrambling to adapt—an exercise in simultaneously reinventing the wheel while still keeping the cogs in motion.  

In the past, technology was a supplement to our processes, never the backbone. We utilized a combination of both third-party and in-house developed applications to manage different areas of our responsibilities: project management software (Monday) to track development and progress, cloud storage (Box) to share drafts, email newsletters (Outlook) and blog posts (online) to inform the campus community of policy developments, and our own homegrown policy publication software (TOPS), which allows us to upload and publish policy drafts in different stages of development and following approval. And while this worked fine for us in the pre-COVID past, it was admittedly never optimal, and its disadvantages have become even more obvious and obstructing now more than ever.  

Consequently, we have been searching for better ways to optimize our office’s processes for this new digital-only landscape and beyond. After nearly a year of adapting as we go, we now have a better idea of the benefits and challenges of remote work in relation to the unique needs of our office. We’re now working with a business process analyst to decide between purchasing a comprehensive out-of-box policy management application or custom building our own tools within Teams and other Office applications.  

Both options come with advantages and drawbacks. Purchasing an out-of-box application is a quick and relatively painless solution, but finding one that will work seamlessly with our institution’s complex policy process has been a challenge. Many of these policy management applications include additional features that are not applicable to our process while missing features we do need. Additionally, the initial hurdle of implementation and ongoing licensing costs and training are also considerations. And while building our own solutions would allow us the flexibility and customization needed, the time needed to complete the project is time we spend in the current state with our current challenges. 

However, I know our office isn't alone in the growing pains we've faced over the past year. I think most of us fortunate enough with the flexibility to transition to remote work have experienced both the challenges and benefits of this new digital landscape. And I've been wondering how others have reinvented their own wheels. For those of you who have used policy management applications, which have you used and what have your experiences been? Have you found them to have helped in the transition to and continued practice of remote work? What challenges do you still have? And if your institution doesn’t use licensed policy management software, what other solutions does your office implement to aid with your processes? Have you encountered additional challenges with continued remote work? And how has your office adapted to these challenges?