The Paperless School:

The Facts & Benefits

Building a Better School Schools are looking for ways to cut costs, save space, reduce inefficiencies and enable administrators and teachers to focus on students.

Online forms and workflows are quickly being adopted by campuses across the country as a means to building better, greener schools. Learn the facts and benefits of reducing a school’s dependency on paper processes.

Rapid Return on Investment

A common misconception is that moving toward a paperless system will cost more overall in training, hardware, and software than continuing with the use of paper. Going paperless certainly has expenses; however, the return on investment is enormous. It’s possible for the switch to a paperless process to pay for itself quickly.

Reduce Printing & Photocopying Costs Printing copies of documents requires the purchase of paper, toner, ink, printers, and printer maintenance. A mid-size school district (10,000 students) spends $200,000 each year on paper alone without taking into account the cost of supplies. Photocopiers are also very expensive to purchase and maintain. By going paperless, a digital document can be edited, sent electronically to an intended recipient and accessed by many people, thus reducing the need for more hard copies. http://blog.frevvo.com/2014/10/27/how-much-paper-do-schools-use/

Increased Organization It is easy for documents to accidentally get lost or misfiled. A paperless system, on the other hand, is secure and centralized. With a paperless document management system, all administrators have access to the files they need in one convenient place online. There is no running around campus from one building to the next to retrieve important documentation. Plus, if an unfortunate event, such as a fire, were to take place, your digital documents are often recoverable—the same can’t be said for paper copies.

Environmental Impact Reducing paper use has a huge impact on the environment because it reduces our carbon footprint. While recycling paper is a step in the right direction, the number of trees used to even produce the amount of paper we use and recycle is alarming considering the length of time it takes for one tree to grow. Check out these facts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: •Approximately 69 million tons of paper and paperboard are used each year. •More than 350 magazines, 2 billion books, and 24 billion newspapers are published each year.

Increase Security Paper documents can be stolen or destroyed in any number of ways. When you scan confidential documents and use an online system, you can restrict access to particular people. A high-quality electronic document management system can enforce a school’s unique access for personnel without physically handling the files. Additionally, a system that can proactively manage notifications of soon-to-be-expired materials, such as education plans, medical documents, and more, is imperative for any diligent administration.

Maintain Clear & Accurate Data Manual data entry opens the possibility for error, especially when forms are passed between multiple people. Adopting a paperless system that minimizes human error and inaccuracies saves time and money. Retrieving data should be simple and automated, and should not require unnecessary staff time and resources. A student’s information should be accessible whenever it’s needed, with little to no effort.

Reclaim Space Paper filing systems, including filing cabinets that accommodate the documentation of an increasing numbers of students and faculty, take up physical space. Older physical files may also require a special request for retrieval, possibly due to being offsite, which just adds to inefficiencies in time and resources. This is yet another unfortunate opportunity for misfiled and misplaced documentation. An electronic document management system frees extra space to benefit staff, faculty, and students.

With frevvo, replacing paper forms and workflows with fully electronic versions is

fast, easy, and affordable. frevvo has pre-built forms that can be customized

quickly and released online. They can be signed electronically, routed to the

proper person(s), and used on mobile devices for a much more efficient process.

Website: http://www.frevvo.com/ • Phone: 203.208.3117

Contact Us

• http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Ten-Benefits-of-Going-Paperless

• http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/paper/faqs.htm

• http://paperlesseducation.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/benefits-of-paperless-education/

Sources

Summary

An electronic document management system can benefit a school immensely. Changing systems is challenging, but the benefits make the effort beyond worthwhile. Staff, resources, and time are increasingly limited, and it’s

crucial to make decisions that benefit the bottom line: the students. A paperless school makes for a more organized, thoughtful environment—learn how with this presentation.