Educational Institutions are Tired of Paper Hello, and welcome back to our blog! At Ecodocx, we are dedicated to providing the best in document management software and services and, as a result, we feel that we have a unique perspective on the world of document management. Although many people don’t realize it, they access and use online documents all of the time. One vertical in particular, education, is increasingly moving toward completely paperless systems. Between student enrollment and transfer request forms, all the way to parent-teacher conferences and payroll, the education system handles a large amount of documents each and every day. In the old days, this amount of paper made it more difficult for students, teachers, and faculty members to effectively access and manage this large paper trail. In today’s post, we are going to list some of the challenges that enterprise document management addresses in relation to our nation’s education system and why we feel that an increased adoption of these systems is beneficial to everyone involved in the education ecosystem. Why Should Schools Go Paperless? When schools go paperless in relation to their internal documents, forms, and submissions, they are able to decrease their paper load. Not only does this allow schools to become more efficient, it allows student and educators alike to save time and reduce the amount of confusion that arises with missing or inaccurate paperwork. While it is true that not every school takes advantage of this type of software, we strongly believe that the more institutions that adopt the usage of this software, the more likely it is that it will become the standard across the country. Below, we have listed some of the most common issues associated with paper-based systems and how the can be solved through the implementation of digital document software. Organization, Storage, and Management:As students make their way from elementary school through high school, they accumulate quite a bit of paperwork in their personal files. This can become an issue when a school is dealing with hundreds of students’ files and, honestly, has become an inefficient way to keep up with paperwork. Document management software allows educators and parents to access student progress reports, transcripts, and any other files relating to a student from a convenient access portal that collects and stores all documents in a single, secure system. Additionally, the digitization of student documents provides a faster, simpler way for people to search through these files. For decades, if an education professional had to find something in a student’s file they had to fill out a request form, wait for that form to be submitted, and then wait for the appropriate documents to be found and delivered. This process has been significantly streamlined by online document storage, saving time, money, and energy for teachers, students, and administrators. Enrollment Processes: Registering for classes has historically been a hassle. Luckily, document management software has come along and made the enrollment process highly automated, eliminating the time that used to be spent waiting in line to enroll and scheduling meetings with an advisor. No longer do students have to take time out of their busy schedule to set up an enrollment meeting with their advisor; instead, they can simply select the classes they wish to enroll in online and a notification is sent to the school’s administration notifying them that the student’s registration is complete. This has been especially helpful on college campuses that deal with literally thousands of students’ registration a year. Meeting Compliance Requirements: With the increasing importance of staying compliant with new education regulations, document management software has been a godsend for those in the educational field. This software makes it infinitely simpler for files to monitored and audited to make sure that schools are compliant with FERPA regulations. Consent forms and other important documents are safely stored in a single location that can be imbued with additional security levels such as password locks for certain documents, record retention notifications, and audit transaction trails that allow users to see who has viewed or made changes to documents and when those documents were last accessed. This provides educational institutions with a way to prove that their records are up to date and accurate in the event of an audit. We hope that this short blog has shown just how important document management software is becoming in the field of education. If you are an educator interested in learning more about enterprise document management or you simply have an interest in the subject on a personal level, please visit our website today to learn more. At Ecodocx, we are committed to providing the best in online document management and we are certain that our software and services can meet any need that you may have. Contact us today and let’s get started!
