Managing a mountain of paper documents is a challenging, near impossible task for any school district. Thankfully 21st-century technology has given rise to new document managing systems that allow a district to convert paper documents into digital files.

These are easier to store, save money on filing cabinets, and cut back on manual work that employees have to do. Although they are incredibly useful for helping the school district run more smoothly, scanning services have some limitations. If your school is already using a scanning service or is looking into it, take a moment to find out why it may not be the best option for you and consider an even better alternative.

Paper Is Paper

A scanning service works by collecting documents from the school district, transporting them to their own facility and then scanning them. Digital copies of the documents are then returned to the school for filing. Unfortunately, this does not eliminate the high cost of printing as documents are still being printed and filled out prior to being scanned. For most school districts, printing is a large portion of the budget. Although a scanning service makes file storage safer and more convenient, it does not help cut back on the huge printing expense that most schools have.

Digital File Organization

Nearly all scanning services simply return a drive with all of the scanned documents on it. For the intensive purposes of school districts, this is not good enough. Those files will likely need to be accessed at some point and it is important to be able to quickly find them. Deciding on a way to organize and store the digital files remains up to the school district. This can often be very costly as it takes both knowledge and hardware to set up a system that is both safe and convenient to use. It may even require the district to hire another employee to manage the digital document management.

Document Security

Another issue with having a scanning service digitize school documents is the sensitivity of the documents themselves. There are strict rules and regulations in place that dictate how documents containing confidential student and employee information must be handled. Unfortunately, most document scanning services are not compliant with these regulations, putting the school district at risk. Some companies work with the district to create a scanning service in-house, but this is a costly process. It requires setting up the proper scanning equipment in the school district and then having district employees trained on how to use it. In all, it ends up costing time and money.

Fear Not, YellowFolder Is Here

If the downsides of using a scanning service sound like too much, don’t worry. YellowFolder offers a truly paperless digital document management system for your district. You’ll work with a highly trained Paperless Nation Engineer throughout the process of setting the system up and everything you need to get started will be handled by YellowFolder. You’ll have access to technical support at any time to answer any questions. Additionally, YellowFolder stores documents in the cloud meaning that all rules and regulations with security and confidentiality will be met. Your district will also be able to cut back on printing costs. YellowFolder is the all-around winning solution for managing your districts files.