Ask the Expert (Office Automation)

Why should we use a document management system?

• By Jesse Wood
• 09/01/19

The higher education world is full of paper. Final exams, transcripts, financial aid forms, student records, and athletics documents fill filing cabinets in universities and colleges nationwide. When one of these documents is needed, finding it can be a challenge for whoever has to look through the filing cabinets, hoping the document was put in the correct place.

Traditional paper storage also takes up valuable real estate on campuses that could otherwise be used for classrooms, or to provide additional resources to students.

While technological advances have revolutionized education—Smart Boards replacing chalkboards, online testing, tablets replacing textbooks, etc.—many universities and colleges are still using old, inefficient processes to manage their paper documents. There must be a more efficient, streamlined method to handle all of the documents in the higher education world, right?

There is. The answer is a document management solution (DMS).

Many colleges and universities still utilize an archaic method of filing, which costs more than a digital document management system. Aside from cost, perhaps the most compelling reason to use a DMS is for security. A DMS can keep all your documents secure and easily accessible. Your filing cabinets are probably full of student, faculty, and other records required to keep your college running. Why risk the security of these documents?

Don’t put your students’ records at risk. Increase your efficiency and save money by using the most secure, user-friendly document management system available. You won’t believe how easy it is to go paperless!

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management September 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.