Author: Warren Glick of ACOM Solutions
Teachers and educators are awash in paperwork. Student applications, regulatory paperwork, grants, proposals, requisitions — the list goes on and on, with more and more paper getting in the way of the real work. Instead of spending time improving educational opportunities for students, educational administrators lose hours every week filling out forms, filing or searching for the documents they need.
No wonder teachers suffer from burnout at alarming rates. Amazon lists nearly 100 books on the topic of school administrator and principal burnout.
No wonder teachers suffer from burnout at alarming rates. Amazon lists nearly 100 books on the topic of school administrator and principal burnout.
Reducing the amount of paperwork that administrators and their teams deal with on a daily basis can speed tasks and make processes more efficient, helping you improve the quality of student education while reducing unnecessary stress for your staff. Here are a few ideas for eliminating the headache of paper:
Automate processes for improved efficiency
Any organization has business processes that must be followed, whether it’s purchasing books and materials, enrolling students or posting student evaluations. Automating the processes with document management ensures that tasks are complete on time. Paperless workflow alerts keep the process moving by ensuring that people know that a task is awaiting their action. Papers can get lost as they are passed hand to hand through the approval stage, but workflow makes it easy to keep abreast of the status.
Student applications, enrollments and transfers require coordinating reams of paperwork from letters of recommendation to financial aid applications. With paper, someone needs to keep track of each piece of paper and ensure that it is in the right folder. Ensuring that applications are complete requires paper checklists, and more paper to support the necessary verifications. The process is time consuming and error prone when done with paper, but it’s simple and efficient with a paperless system. The paperless system automatically keeps track of all the necessary information and each application status.
Almost every process can benefit from automation, from scheduling parent conferences to sending college recommendations. Teachers have more time to spend with students because they won’t be spending time sorting, filing and searching for documents.
Reduce risk with enhanced security and control
The laws regarding student and family privacy are strict, and it’s impossible to ensure compliance if paper files are passed from person to person during review or application processes. It’s even riskier if teachers or educators want to work on the files at home, since files can be misplaced, lost or even stolen. Using an electronic document management system to store sensitive information improves security and increases your control over information access. With the right security set up, your team can still access the information they need from home, in conference rooms, or while on the road without the risk of paper.
Save money and go green
School budgets are shrinking, and the more you can do to save money the further your remaining budget will go. With electronic documents you save sufficient money and time, while saving the planet. Don’t waste money on paper documents, forms and printed reports when it’s easier, more efficient and more cost effective to use document management. Teachers can read documents on a PC or a mobile device such as an iPad or Kindle. They can share the documents with parents during meetings or conferences without having to print reports, saving the time the teachers might have spent printing, collating and filing reports while reducing your carbon footprint.
Electronic document management will reduce the headaches of dealing with paper and help your team avoid burnout by alleviating an unnecessary source of stress.
Automate processes for improved efficiency
Any organization has business processes that must be followed, whether it’s purchasing books and materials, enrolling students or posting student evaluations. Automating the processes with document management ensures that tasks are complete on time. Paperless workflow alerts keep the process moving by ensuring that people know that a task is awaiting their action. Papers can get lost as they are passed hand to hand through the approval stage, but workflow makes it easy to keep abreast of the status.
Student applications, enrollments and transfers require coordinating reams of paperwork from letters of recommendation to financial aid applications. With paper, someone needs to keep track of each piece of paper and ensure that it is in the right folder. Ensuring that applications are complete requires paper checklists, and more paper to support the necessary verifications. The process is time consuming and error prone when done with paper, but it’s simple and efficient with a paperless system. The paperless system automatically keeps track of all the necessary information and each application status.
Almost every process can benefit from automation, from scheduling parent conferences to sending college recommendations. Teachers have more time to spend with students because they won’t be spending time sorting, filing and searching for documents.
Reduce risk with enhanced security and control
The laws regarding student and family privacy are strict, and it’s impossible to ensure compliance if paper files are passed from person to person during review or application processes. It’s even riskier if teachers or educators want to work on the files at home, since files can be misplaced, lost or even stolen. Using an electronic document management system to store sensitive information improves security and increases your control over information access. With the right security set up, your team can still access the information they need from home, in conference rooms, or while on the road without the risk of paper.
Save money and go green
School budgets are shrinking, and the more you can do to save money the further your remaining budget will go. With electronic documents you save sufficient money and time, while saving the planet. Don’t waste money on paper documents, forms and printed reports when it’s easier, more efficient and more cost effective to use document management. Teachers can read documents on a PC or a mobile device such as an iPad or Kindle. They can share the documents with parents during meetings or conferences without having to print reports, saving the time the teachers might have spent printing, collating and filing reports while reducing your carbon footprint.
Electronic document management will reduce the headaches of dealing with paper and help your team avoid burnout by alleviating an unnecessary source of stress.
About the Author:
Warren Glick, a forum participant and noted BPA industry contributor, is currently Director, Corporate Marketing for ACOM Solutions, Inc. Long Beach, CA and Atlanta, GA. Serving in executive leadership roles in enterprise software organizations throughout his career, Warren has been responsible for developing and executing corporate strategies in marketing, product development, operations and sales.
Warren Glick, a forum participant and noted BPA industry contributor, is currently Director, Corporate Marketing for ACOM Solutions, Inc. Long Beach, CA and Atlanta, GA. Serving in executive leadership roles in enterprise software organizations throughout his career, Warren has been responsible for developing and executing corporate strategies in marketing, product development, operations and sales.
