Protect and transform student record-keeping through digitisation

Updated Regulations continue to demand more from school administrators, with a heightened importance on retaining and storing sensitive documents and data. This puts pressure on both the storage and the cataloguing of information, creating problems for staff trying to locate these documents – with time mis-spent on these searches. This may be further compounded by the loss of some of this data over time. However, by securely digitising and enriching these documents, schools are able to use storage space for more useful activities whilst creating digital workflows that enable more efficient, sophisticated back office operations.

Climbing paper mountains

Paper still dominates many school administration departments across Australia. From old student records to enrolment documentation, paper leads to one obvious problem: storage. This volume of paper can be particularly problematic for schools already spending on external storage space.

This challenge also extends to the time and ease of staff locating this information. Doing so in the archives, either at the request of a parent or a regulator, can be incredibly time consuming. In fact, it’s estimated that searching for lost forms costs every school up to $14,000 annually^[1].

Paper also raises the question of security. If finding information takes so long, how many schools are confident that the only people who access and look through these sensitive documents are those with the permissions to do so?

All of the above reasons and more are driving schools to seek out suitable digitisation solutions.

Digitising the back office

Digitisation is the process of securely scanning and indexing a school’s paper archive into electronic files that are ready to be digitally archived.

The primary result of this is clear: it frees up storage space for more useful activities, as well as allowing for rapid information collection. Through a single interface, staff can search for and access whatever information they need, exactly when and where they need it. It also reduces costs for those businesses spending on external storage.

In addition, schools often find that after digitising, a wide range of secondary benefits can contribute to more efficient processes.

Data, not paper

A vital part of the digitisation process is creating and recording metadata and keywords, with an overarching taxonomy that ensures information is structured in a way that makes life easier for staff. With “tags” organising all the digital data, schools can then use analytics processing applications for staff to pull insights from what is now a huge, searchable dataset.

This also automates back office processes such as enrolment, so staff can find and share information rapidly – boosting efficiency and overall productivity. To find out more about this, take a look at our dedicated blog, Bridging the gap between people and digital: the enrolment process.

Digitisation also presents an opportunity to interrogate documents, helping schools to get more value from this data. That could be about changing how staff and school communicate with parents through the enrolment process, or simply to refresh an-out-of-date document with more recent and relevant information.

Security is also changed for the better. With digital permissions, only those who are registered and allowed to access sensitive material can do so. It also enables the tracking, registering and revoking of access when necessary – such as when a member of staff joins or leaves.

Enhanced marketing

Digitised, easily available (but secure) data ensures back office staff understand exactly who the parents are of the children coming to a school, as well as those who’ve registered an interest. By pulling together data such as demographics, geography, child ages, and known feeder schools, schools can build an “avatar” of the ideal parent that they can then use in highly targeted and effective communication strategies.

Schools can also track these leads through advertising and comms processes, providing them with relevant, tailored information that will help to win them over, all the way to the interview and registration – and all without having to send a single form manually.

Where to begin?

Firstly, schools have to approach digitisation in the right way, not only to correctly capture and record vital meta-data and keywords, but to ensure a secure, accurate and efficient process that achieves the necessary results.

At FUJIFILM Business Innovation, no matter what your document storage requirements are, we can assist to digitise them. To learn more about digitisation, or find out the right combination of solutions that best meets your school’s needs, visit www.fujifilm.com/fbau or call 13 14 12 for more details.

Fujifilm Business Innovation