With the adoption of Box Enterprise Advanced and Box Sign, Augusta University achieved an immediate 20% reduction in licensing expenses, empowered more than 4,000 active senders campus-wide, and cut graduation application processing times by 66%.
At the same time, Box has helped the Georgia public research institution, which serves nearly 13,000 students, strengthen its compliance posture across one of the most complex institutional environments in the Southeast.
Higher education institutions are under intense pressure from state budget scrutiny, the push to eliminate duplicative software, and the growing complexity of compliance requirements. Augusta University (AU) found a way to consolidate tools without sacrificing security or capabilities, focusing on a single secure platform that positions the university to excel in the age of AI.
Key takeaways:
- Reduced costs and tool sprawl by replacing a separate e-signature solution with Box Sign and expanding Box Enterprise Advanced
- Box Sign delivered 20% savings in contract costs, while supporting document migration and adoption across nearly 4,000 senders
- The graduation workflow reduced incomplete submissions and cut reprocessing of erroneous submissions by 50% using Box Forms, Relay, Sign, and Doc Gen
The problem wasn’t just one thing; it was everything
AU is a public comprehensive research university and academic health center in Augusta, Georgia, and part of the University System of Georgia. Founded in 1828, AU offers more than 150 academic programs across 11 colleges and schools, including the Medical College of Georgia, the nation’s 13th-oldest medical school, and Georgia’s only dental college.
Supporting diverse academic, clinical, and research missions creates complex operational and compliance requirements, including HIPAA, FERPA, and NIST SP 800-171. At the center of these challenges was a fragmented e-signature environment. Over five years, the university’s third-party solution doubled in cost, forcing IT to reduce its sitewide license to 3,000 seats and continually reallocate them to meet demand.
The graduation application process presented another challenge. Students submitted a static PDF that was often incomplete or incorrect, with about 50% requiring corrections. For an advisor processing 300 to 400 applications each semester, that translates to roughly 175 correction emails per term.
Sensitive research data also lived across on-premises file shares, desktops, and external hard drives, making secure access, external collaboration, and visibility into permissions difficult. Together, these disconnected workflows created significant administrative burdens and opportunities for improvement.
A strategic effort to move to Box
When AU evaluated cloud storage solutions in the mid-2010s, Box stood out for its focus on higher education, unlimited storage, robust permissions and security, and extended activity logging.
Security and compliance were key considerations. Box Shield provides advanced data protection and integrates with Microsoft Purview to support granular data loss prevention. At the same time, seven years of activity logs strengthen auditability for sensitive HIPAA- and FERPA-related data.
“Box is truly one of our most utilized tools,” said Paul Wheeler, Augusta University’s IT Systems Architect 3. “It provides the essential features and functionalities that empower our workforce to be more efficient and effective.”
Augusta is now exploring Box Institutional Storage as an alternative to expanding on-premises data center capacity. A Globus integration already connects the university’s high-performance computing cluster to Box, laying the groundwork for broader adoption.
See how Augusta University is using Box AI in our webinar: From Paperwork to Automation at Augusta University. Register at: https://events.box.com/box-webinars/higher-ed-2026
20% savings on Box Sign alone
AU already used Box for content management, making Box Sign a natural alternative to its third-party e-signature solution. After evaluating its needs, the university determined that Box Sign met most of its e-signature use cases, and made the switch.
Box Consulting migrated existing signed documents, organized them for easy access, and helped the university launch the new environment. The results included up to 20% immediate savings, 20 active Box Sign templates migrated to date, and more than 21,000 signatures requested in just two months across nearly 4,000 enabled senders. Strong participation in virtual and in-person training helped drive adoption across the university.
“Box Sign handles 99.9% of what we need,” says Wheeler. “Box Consulting did a wonderful job migrating all of the signed documents into Box.”
A 50% reduction in registrar processing time
The graduation application process became AU’s flagship workflow on Box and a proof of concept that’s already generating interest from other departments.
By combining Box Forms, Box Relay, Box Sign and Box Doc Gen, AU built an end-to-end automated process.
Here’s how it works:
- Students submit a structured Box Form with required fields and conditional logic, reducing incomplete submissions
- Box Relay automatically routes the application to the advisor for review
- The application is routed to the student, advisor, and college dean for signatures via Box Sign
- Clearly labeled Box folders track each application from submission through completion and delivery to the registrar
The results:
- 350 applications processed, with only four or five requiring rework
- 66% reduction in processing time, from about 15 minutes to under five minutes per application
- Six to eight hours to build the complete workflow
- Completed applications are delivered to the registrar as shared Box links rather than email attachments
The workflow is currently being piloted in the College of Education and Human Development, with plans to expand across all colleges. Box Automate is also on Augusta’s roadmap to simplify routing based on each college’s unique approval chain.
“If you talk to our COEHD advisor, he will say, ‘I was able to sleep at night because I wasn't having to write 150 emails a day to tell students they spelled their name wrong,’” Wheeler remarked.
Wheeler also notes that building the entire workflow took only six to eight hours, and 95% of that time was spent converting the old PDF form into a Word template for Box Doc Gen. He’s looking forward to upcoming PDF template support in Box Doc Gen, which he expects will dramatically cut that setup time.
Securing research data without creating friction
Moving human research data from on-premises file shares to Box required demonstrating the platform could meet the university’s security and compliance needs.
Wheeler showed the institutional review board how Box’s granular permissions could:
- Control who can add collaborators or share files externally
- Allow uploads without download access
- Enable previews without edit access
- Maintain searchable audit logs for seven years
The streamlined access process quickly gained approval. Previously, granting access required a paper form, Institutional Review Board review, an IT ticket, and manual assignment. With Box, researchers can securely access data without local Active Directory accounts or VPN access.
“Box has made it enormously simple,” Wheeler said. “We could be extremely granular.”
With Box Shield integrated into the environment and Microsoft Purview integration in progress, AU is also moving toward a unified data loss prevention strategy across both platforms.
One secure content platform for AI — and AI agents
As a Box Enterprise Advanced customer, AU has Box AI enabled for users across campus. Its security-first approach helped Box AI move through the university’s software approval process, making it only the second AI product approved under Augusta’s emerging AI governance framework.
Because data remains in Box and is not used to train models, users can apply AI to their content without moving sensitive information to another platform.
The next step is exploring Box Agents, custom AI tools that could connect models such as Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini to workflows such as contract management and graduation applications.
For AU, the opportunity is to expand AI capabilities within its existing Box environment rather than managing separate tools, data transfers, and enterprise agreements for each model.
An Intelligent Content Management model for all universities
For universities facing budget constraints, complex compliance requirements and growing pressure to consolidate tools, Augusta University’s experience offers a replicable approach: consolidate on a secure platform, automate manual workflows and measure the results.
Augusta’s results include:
- Up to 20% savings on e-signature costs
- 66% reduction in processing time for graduation applications
- Nearly 4,000 Box Sign senders enabled
- Significantly less manual rework across key workflows
What started as an effort to consolidate tools and reduce costs has evolved into a broader strategy for secure content management, workflow automation and AI adoption across the university.
