About the client

West Gate Studios (part of Genesis International) operates the largest private student housing campus in Romania, located in Bucharest. The campus accommodates approximately 1,600 residents across three buildings. As a flagship project within the Genesis Property portfolio, West Gate Studios combines modern residential living with integrated operational, security, and community services. Managing high resident turnover during peak academic periods requires scalable, well-orchestrated processes—making efficiency, compliance, and digital workflows essential to daily operations.

Challenge

Between June and August, West Gate faces an intense “rush period” where up to 1,600 students need to sign and finalize contracts in just 3–4 days. Before implementing Autenti, this process created multiple operational risks and bottlenecks.

• Time bottlenecks: The check-in process took 35–40 minutes per resident, creating long queues and immense pressure on staff.
• Manual burden: 40-page contracts had to be signed page-by-page manually.
• Operational overhead: The team faced significant burdens regarding printing, scanning, archiving, and searching for physical documents.
• GDPR Risk: A previous provider moved servers outside the EU, raising data privacy concerns.

"Each contract must be signed page by page… this cost a lot of time, a lot of resources, and sometimes it has been a big bottleneck."

— Dragos Cozma, IT Manager at West Gate Studios.

Solution

West Gate selected Autenti to ensure the onboarding process could scale under peak volume without compromising security or speed. They implemented a workflow that moved signing upstream—before residents arrive.

• Pre-signing as a check-in requirement: Contracts are sent via email and must be signed digitally before residents come to the desk. If documents aren't signed electronically, residents are not eligible to check in.
• API integration: West Gate integrated Autenti with its visitor management platform. Security teams can now instantly verify via API whether a "Roommate Agreement" is signed, removing the need for manual file checks.
• High-volume support: To handle peak season, the team utilizes automated reminders for residents and "mass signing" features for managers to countersign large batches efficiently.

"We send the contract and in 10–15 minutes everybody signed it."

— Dragos Cozma

Results

The move to digital onboarding delivered immediate, measurable impact, most notably reducing the check-in window drastically.

• Reduced check-in time: Time per resident dropped from 35–40 minutes to under 6 minutes.
• Paperless Operations: Approximately 3,000 documents are processed digitally per year, saving hundreds of kilograms of paper annually.
• Better Governance: API-based validation ensures access rules are enforced consistently and instantly.
• EU Compliance: Switched to EU-based data hosting to align with GDPR expectations.

KPI Summary