Introduction

There are over 140,000 educational institutions in the U.S. alone. Many institutions need to do more with less budget and want solutions that are easy-to-use and that help them automate their manual processes. Education administrators know the benefits of a well-designed record-keeping system for education information management.  It should be able to:

• Quickly survey important information about students, such as performance history,  attendance, disciplinary issues    
• Maintain information about courses and programs
• Allow administrators to transfer records between schools
• Contain a broad range of data for decision-making, such as staffing, materials, budgeting and other critical management information

How to Maintain, Preserve and Automate Critical Records

Records maintenance and preservation is complex issue with many possible solutions. Schools, school districts, or state agencies may keep records on paper, in file cabinets. Records stored this way take up an enormous amount of space; and, locating and transferring paper records can be time-consuming.

Many districts and education agencies have adopted Electronic Content Management (ECM) systems, which often enable the incorporation of both paper and paperless content and enable time-saving automation.  ECM increases efficiency and reduces operational costs with electronic forms, process automation, and secure records management.  ECM helps schools comply with federal regulations, growing student numbers, and shrinking budgets.

In fact, educational institutions are one of the largest consumers of ECM. 

ECM Modernizes Information Management

Schools find that, when they go paperless, they reduce the cost, time and effort spent finding, sorting and archiving student and staff paperwork.  By automating processes district-wide, they improve the efficiency of back-office procedures while minimizing operating costs.  Additionally, the security, integrity and confidentiality of ECM files enables schools to comply easily with FERPA, HIPAA and regional regulations.  ECM enables schools to:

• Store and access complete student files in one digital, centralized system for efficient access
• Apply document-level security for different levels of access
• Utilize AI to automate data extraction and eliminate manual entry
• Automate repetitive processes district-wide
• Automate records retention

 “At a time when the workload is increasing and resources are already stretched thin, ECM looks to be a way for higher education professionals to graduate to digital ways of working, which is more productive, costs less and have a better outlook in the future.”

Thomas LaMonte, Market Intelligence Analyst
AIIM – The Global Community of Information Professionals

The Goal

The goal for schools is to save on operational costs in order to put more money into instruction.  ECM enables better staff efficiency, allows schools to convert storage space into classrooms and put more of their budget to work for students. By choosing the right ECM, such as ImageSilo® from Paper Alternative Solutions, consider these areas that can benefit in addition to student records:

•  Human Resources -- Automate teacher and school employee onboarding and recruiting through the capture, approval, and routing of forms and information
• Facilities Management -- File, access and respond to maintenance requests
• Accounts Payable & Receivable -- Digitize and streamline accounts payable and receivable all the way from purchase orders to vendor payments and invoicing.
• Integrate Seamlessly -- Do you work with multiple systems? Combine multiple systems to simplify records management. Easy-to-use point-and-click integrations that make it easy for you to share information with other line-of-business applications, improving the efficiency of the whole organization.

Conclusion

The right ECM solution enables schools, school districts and universities to condense records into a simple, searchable source of information, while meeting the business needs of these educational institutions.  Paper Alternative Solutions provides ImageSilo® ECM, document scanning and process improvement to schools and universities.