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Education

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Why Your District Needs Process Automation.

By | Business Process Automation, Document Management Solutions, Education

Process Automation

Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 Upland Software, Inc. – All rights reserved.
Over the past decade, document management — the storage, management, and tracking of electronic documents — has become standard for large and small school districts alike, as reams of paper, file cabinets, and storage rooms have been replaced by server- and cloud-based solutions to house digital records.

Process automation takes document management to the next level. It replaces time-consuming and unstructured manual processes with streamlined, automated systems to improve productivity. With process automation, your district achieves efficiencies that are not possible with document management alone, which frees up time for administrators, teachers, and staff to devote to other initiatives — like providing high quality student services.

PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME SAVINGS.

Automating the processes around digital documents makes more of an impact on your district’s productivity than the initial transition to electronic records. As educators well know, many administrative functions can be cumbersome, even with digital document management. Using process automation, your district can streamline multi-step processes that often require form completion, approvals, signatures, permission to edit forms, and the need to share and access the forms later. With less time spent on these tasks, your teachers and staff have more time to focus on finding ways to better serve students.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY.

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) are federal laws that protect the privacy and security of student records and personal information. The laws aim to prevent the use of students’ personal information for commercial benefit, as well as to stop the more serious abuses of discrimination, identity theft, and other malicious or criminal acts. In 2016, California enacted the first state law on student privacy and security, SOPIPA (Student Online Personal Information Protection Act ), and other states quickly followed suit. In the 2017 legislative session alone, data privacy was a focus of 93 state bills.

Despite the seriousness of these laws and the principles they protect, many districts may unknowingly expose their students to privacy and security risks by using free tools such as Google and Dropbox. In 2014, Google was sued for violating FERPA and exploiting student information for commercial gain, a case that forced the tech giant to change its practices.2 No district wants to find itself on the wrong end of a lawsuit where children’s rights have been violated. That’s why it is critical for your district to have adequate process automation and document management systems in place: to ensure confidentiality, data integrity, and compliance with state and federal privacy and security laws.

COMPREHENSIVE PERMISSIONS.

Strict processes for setting comprehensive permissions, and for handling changes in permissions from year to year, is an effective way to comply with privacy and security requirements. For example, classroom teachers will have access to their students’ IEPs one year but may be restricted the next year as class configurations change. Free and reduced lunch status is another area where information is restricted to a limited number of administrators to respect students’ privacy. Granting, managing, and updating all these permissions district-wide can be an administrative time sink at best without the right tools; at worst it can open a district up to errors, negative publicity, and lawsuits. The capacity to quickly and accurately manage permissions is a critical piece of any process automation system.

For more information on FileBound! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today

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Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

By | Education
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 Digitech Systems, LLC – All rights reserved.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law designed to preserve the privacy and accuracy of student educational records. In addition, it provides students with various rights regarding how that information is used and disclosed. To maintain compliance, schools are looking for solutions to help them guard against unauthorized access.

  • Intelligently locate student records in seconds with keyword searches from any location, at any time to facilitate timely responses to requests.
  • Securely send student records electronically to improve the speed of requests for information.
  • Leverage our patented artificial intelligence (AI) engine to recognize and sort student records automatically.
  • Ensure FERPA requirements are being maintained by securely managing and storing student records electronically.
  • Restrict access and maintain control of student records to ensure that only the necessary documents are being disclosed.
  • Simplify your disaster recovery strategy using electronic files and cloud-based storage.
  • Enable administrators to easily share annual FERPA notices or copies of records with students in seconds, saving money on operational expenses.
  • Reduce operational expenses by eliminating hardware and IT costs by managing records in the cloud.
  • Turn document storage space into instructional space and student services.

“The term “education records” is defined as those records that contain information directly related to a student and which are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.”

-U.S. Department of Education

How Does Digitech Help with FERPA Compliance?

What if you could reduce the amount of time and money your school or university spends on managing student records? To ensure compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations, simplify records management, and improve the productivity of the entire office.

Securely Manage Student Records.
Are your files protected in accordance with federal regulations? Under FERPA schools must securely store and manage student records. You can reduce operational expenses by eliminating hardware and IT costs by managing records in the cloud.

Notify Parents and Students Easily
Is notifying parents and students of their rights a time-consuming manual process? Under FERPA schools must notify parents and students yearly of their rights or when certain information is disclosed. You can setup notifications that are automatically sent out on a pre-defined or annual schedule.

Respond to Requests Quickly
Are you tired of spending hours responding to student records requests? FERPA mandates that all requests be fulfilled within 45 days. Powerful search functions that allow you to locate and send information electronically in seconds. Improve the speed of information requests and ensure you stay in compliance.

Easily Maintain Audit Trails
Can you account for who has viewed or had access to every student record? Under FERPA, schools must account for each student record released, shared, and requested. Document tracking is automatically applied making audits a breeze, saving you valuable time and money.

Safe from Disaster
Are your students records safe if disaster struck? Electronically protect files from loss, theft, cyber-criminals, and natural disasters. You know your files are always protected safely in the cloud, allowing you to recover from any disaster quickly.

Integrate Seamlessly
Do you work with multiple systems? Make complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act simple by combining multiple systems. With easy to use point-and-click integrations that make it quick to integrate student record information with other line-of-business applications.

“Now that our records are stored electronically, we maintain better compliance with FERPA, and student information is ultimately more secure. Thanks to PaperVision Enterprise, document tracking is applied automatically giving us better control of our records.”

-Janine Gruhn, Director of Special Education Secondary Programs and Compliance Waukegan Public Schools

For more information on Digitech! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today

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How to Simplify Student Records Management in Schools.

By | Document Management Solutions, Education
Student RecordsSourced from our Systems Partner, By Chelsea Bawab © 2018 PSIGEN Software Inc. – All rights reserved.

Automated capture + distributed indexing = simplified student records management.

Records management in schools is a complex task. Student records include dozens of various documents, such as transcripts, medical information, test scores and regulatory forms like FERPA. All of this information must be kept up to date and secure in order to comply with federal law and to be accessible to students.

The easiest way to keep all of these student files organized is to digitally store them in one central location where they can be easily searched for and accessed by the appropriate personnel. Of course, that’s more easily said than done. However, with the right document capture software, organizing these documents can actually become a painless process.

PSIGEN eases the pain of managing student records with advanced document capture and data extraction technology. With PSIGEN’s PSIcapture and PSIfusion, schools can easily streamline the process of managing records. With a fully integrated solution, processing searchable documents into a content management system becomes fast, easy and convenient—even for large institutions with thousands of students.

It all starts with importing the student records. PSIcapture can capture documents from any network scanner or multi-function printer (MFP), making it easy for workers in various departments across campus to scan documents. PSIcapture also has Extended File Format capability, allowing users to import documents in digital format. Once imported, documents are made searchable with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. PSIcapture also has the ability to automate indexing in order to extract the appropriate metadata and can connect to an existing database to speed up the process.

Captured documents can then be routed to PSIfusion to be validated. With PSIfusion, users can access captured documents through a browser from any approved device. Once documents are routed to a PSIfusion queue, the user can verify the accuracy of the indexed information. If information is incorrect or missing, the user can run a lookup directly from PSIfusion with the connected database, to locate the right data. Once the information has been verified, they can be automatically routed to the content management system.

The seamless combination of PSIcapture and PSIfusion provides the most convenient, manageable way to handle the vast assortment of student records schools need to keep on file. Because PSIGEN’s products are so compatible with hardware and other software products—including 60 ECM systems—this combination is the ideal choice for any school. Not only does this solution streamline and automate document capture and indexing, but it also allows schools to leverage existing investments, like scanners, MFPs and content management systems. Save money, improve records management and create smart, efficient processes with PSIGEN.

For more information on PSIGEN! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today.

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Eliminate Paper Pains with Papervision® Enterprise

By | Document Management Solutions, Education
Enrollment
Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 Digitech Systems, LLC – All rights reserved.

When Fernando Marino, the Director of Business Solutions, was tasked with improving the student enrollment process at Texans Can Academies, he quickly realized the paper in his department wasn’t the only paper causing problems. The school was literally drowning in paper. “Everywhere you looked in the enrollment offices, there were stacks of paper,” said Marino. “It was apparent to me that we needed to digitize our paper records for a variety of reasons.”

After implementing PaperVision Enterprise and PaperFlow across multiple departments, Texans Can Academies has saved over $1 million dollars in one school year.

  • Records can be located in minutes instead of days.
  • All documents are 100% protected from loss, theft or natural disaster.
  • Saved over $1 million dollars by eliminating paper records and invoices.

The Situation

For over thirty years, Texans Can Academies has worked to become a premier dropout recovery school system for high school students who are seeking a non-traditional opportunity to earn a high school diploma as the first step to a fulfilling and productive life.

With thirteen campuses, across the state of Texas, they are dedicated to providing the highest quality education for all students, especially those who have struggled in a traditional high school setting. Currently, over 5,000 students are enrolled, and their graduation rate is 2,000 students per year.

For years, student registration was a very laborious activity. Students turned in handwritten forms that staff members then processed and filed into file cabinets. Due to the nature of the environment and process, registrations were often misplacing, resulting in duplicated enrollment.

When Marino visited other departments, he could see they also had a paper problem. Soon, he had involved the Accounts Payable (AP), the Purchasing department, and Human Resources (HR), in his plan. The AP department wasn’t communicating with the Purchasing the department, resulting in occasional errors in invoice payments. The HR department had sensitive employee and student records that require compliance with federal regulations, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). These federal laws regulate how student educational records and private health information is protected, shared, and secured. Digitizing these records would assist with the security of such sensitive information.

Thus, it became apparent how eliminating paper across the entire organization would save time, improve efficiency, and increase physical space that could be used for what is most important – the students and provide better security for sensitive information.

The Solution

Texans Can Academies worked with CASO, a Digitech Systems re seller, to craft a solution. They wanted an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn system that would allow them to digitize student records, invoices and purchase orders. They chose PaperVision Enterprise, because it was easy for them to manage in-house. CASO is handling the scanning of more than thirty years of paper records. They started in August 2016 with the smallest department, Finance, then moved to HR and are now scanning all prior, current, and past student records.

“PaperVision Enterprise is fantastic! Now when a student shows up for enrollment, we don’t have to delay their enrollment and tell them to come back in a week when we finally find their records. The system is saving us more than $1 million dollars every year!”

– Fernando Marino, Director of Business Solutions Texans Can Academies

Today, student registration is handled 100% online, then combined with any scanned paper files, and uploaded into PaperVision Enterprise. When the Finance department is done with purchase orders for the day, they scan and upload the invoices and checks into the system, so anyone can instantly see what has been paid the day prior.

Instead of spending half their time looking for missing student records, Marino’s staff can locate the records in seconds or minutes instead of as long as 12-20 days. They now spend the extra time helping students get started with classes immediately. It’s made the entire process more efficient. Marino said his favorite feature is the search function. “Even if you are looking for something and you only have a piece of information to go by, you can type that in and boom! There it is! This has helped improve the perception of our department so much. Instead of our standard answer, ‘I don’t know, I’ll have to get back to you’; now we know right away.”

Texans Can Academies also have better control of information. With paper documents, there is always the fear of private student records being compromised, but PaperVision Enterprise requires users to login before they can view records. In addition, because all student and financial records have been converted to an electronic format, they are now 100% protected from loss, theft or natural disaster.

Certainly, the most measurable benefit Texans Can Academics has seen from the implementation is the money savings. Marino was tasked with reducing expenses by $200k in a single school year. The conversion to electronic records has saved the school over $1 million dollars. Marino credits the savings with allowing the organization to grow, “Thanks to the money we have saved with PaperVision Enterprise, we are able to hire more teachers, and now we actually have the classroom space for them!”

Savings have been so remarkable that Texans Can Academies continues to roll out the new process despite district budget pressures, with an estimated completion date of June 2017.

For more information on Digitech! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today

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The Only Paper They Really Need – Student Record Retention!

By | Education

Beginning in kindergarten all the way through their higher education, a student creates a trail of paperwork. The whole time, each document may need to be found any number of times, repeatedly being reentered into systems each time. Student record retention solutions allows easy searching and viewing with a few clicks of a mouse. Whether outsourced or scanned in your facility. Document management can simplify any workflow and reduce costs.

Retrieval:

  • Searching by last, first name; DOB; social security numbers; or even graduation year are just a few ways to locate documents in an instant.
  • Digging through filing cabinets is time consuming and inconvenient. Being able to type in a few details and see records regarding certain classifications increases productivity.
  • Viewing can go the same direction with personnel files, viewing not only current employees, as well as terminated files .

Protection:

  • Multiple levels of control secure your student and faculty’s information.
  • Access is custom on an individualized level. No longer allowing records and documents to be seen by inappropriate eyes.
  • Disclosure tracking controls who views what, when as well as why.
  • Changing any forms, documents and records is only performed by approved faculty.

Disaster Management:

  • Fire, water damage, and theft are all recurring issues with record retention. Possessing only a single copy of any records can be problematic.
  • When retaining all documents in hard copies is required, having electronic backups offsite can decrease future complications.

Retention and Compliance:

  • Federal and State laws mandate documents be securely saved for any number of years, hence storage solutions can be difficult.
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) are easily followed in addition to documents being easily located and retrieved with a few clicks of a mouse.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR):

  • The electronic conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document.
  • Not only an amazing system for invoice processing, but can be used for documents such as schedules, registration papers, and yearly academic records.

Reduce Costs:

  • Not only will switching to an electronic solution simplify your faculties daily lives, but it saves something costlier, their time!

Each year means new students, teachers, maintenance staff, vendors, and more PAPER! Going the digital route means possibly outsourcing your document scanning while still maintaining compliance with record retention laws. Document management is not just a quick viewing option, but a way to keep documents secure and organized. Allowing permitted users to be more productive. Let us discuss more about our record retention options, document solutions and invoice processing today!

For more information on contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA

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Where is Your Focus Going to Be This Year?

By | Education
 FileBound
Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 Upland Software, Inc. – All rights reserved.

Educators know it: paperwork is frustrating, and it takes a lot of time to maintain – time that could be spent focusing on students. Why not make your systems work for you by incorporating FileBound to empower faculty and staff with immediate, organized access to the information they use every day?

How it works.

FileBound pairs with your district Student Information System and enables staff to quickly find, update, search, and maintain the slew of student paperwork. Ensure records are complete, version history is maintained, and degrees of access are controlled through comprehensive permissioning and rights.

Comprehensive Authorization. Split access to a student’s cumulative folder allows you to control the degree of access that teachers and staff are granted. Sensitive information such as health records, disciplinary files, or court documents are restricted by permission. Access to general student information can be granted to all users as needed.

“Before FileBound, we had stacks of paper halfway up the wall. Today there is no paper!”

―DeSoto County Schools

Easy to Manage. FileBound allows your district to retain all active and archived student records, per state laws, in a single, organized, easy-to search document library. Easy access enables faculty to quickly respond to requests, uncover incomplete files, and ensure records are compliant and audit-ready.

“Each student’s cumulative folder contained so many documents, forms and even handwritten notes. It took staff forever to manually collate, store, and retrieve student records. The district was drowning in paper.”

―Rapid City Area Schools

Interface Integration. Streamlines processes through interface integration allows authorized faculty to access student files while working in the district’s SIS or ERP systems. Integrations ensure the system of record stays up to date, while keeping learning curves low and adoption rates for faculty and staff high.

A District-wide Solution.
FileBound streamlines processes and centralizes documentation for K-12 educators and staff
by providing a secure, reliable system that interfaces directly with their SIS and ERP to ensure immediate adoption. From district office processes to parent and student facing programs, FileBound is a single-system solution to coordinate efficiencies across any district department.

Benefits.

Safeguard. Enforce disaster recovery and protect student privacy by enforcing rules and security protocols specific to the faculty, staff, or administrator need.

A Standard, Automate Process. Automated processes provide predictability and accountability. System tracking and reprosts give staff immediate updates on which requests have been addressed and which are outstanding.

Interface Integration. FileBound interfaces with existing SIS and ERP’s, making it simple for staff to manage and promotes quick adoption throughout the district.

One Solution. Providing staff a single system for efficiencies eliminates training and adoption concerns for several one-off systems – not to mention the cost savings of a combined solution.

For more information on FileBound! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today.

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Education Document Solutions

By | Education

Document Solutions

Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 PSIGEN Software Inc. – All rights reserved.

Shape minds don’t shuffle papers.

Education is an industry that is constantly dealing with paper records.

Whether you’re dealing with a K-12 school district, a local community college or a large university, your school could greatly benefit from the document capture and data extraction solution provided by PSIGEN’s document solutions.

Streamline Records Management

Educational institutions bear the burden of keeping a large volume of information on file. From student transcripts and enrollment forms to test results and financial aid information, each student has an abundance of information associated with him/her. And it all must be kept on file. With the high volume of data that must be kept on record, schools can easily fall behind on processing applications and keeping student files up to date.

Automate Financials

Higher education institutions have a lot to deal with when it comes to financials. Funds move in the form of tuition, fees, grants and gifts, and they move out through faculty and staff pay, research, academic support costs and school-sponsored scholarships. The result is a copious number of documents and associated data being filtered through the school’s financial department every day.

Distribute Information

With an organization as diversified as an educational institution, how do you easily centralize data? With information coming into various departments, such as Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid and Human Resources, documents and information are scattered across campus, and they all need to be processed and stored in a meaningful way that creates easy and secure access for those who need it.

The Limestone College Solution

“When I show the solution to other departments and other universities, ‘wow’ is the most common word used to describe the solution. People are knocking on my door asking to be the next adopters.”

– Adam Long, Associate VP for Information Technology, Limestone College

PSIcapture for Education

  • Scanning files from any MFP or network scanner, or importing digital files from any format
  • Conveniently managing student records by converting them to digital files that can be stored in an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system.
  • Reducing costs associated with paper processing, such as printing, storing records in file cabinets, and searching for and replacing lost documents.
  • Improving student experience by transforming the process of accessing information from a complicated paper shuffle to a quick and easy search on a digital repository.
  • Easily processing and record results from Scan-tron tests, surveys or other human-marked forms with Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) technology.
  • Connecting with your existing database to easily classify forms and extract data from documents.

 

For more information on PSIGEN! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today.

 

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Modernize and Simplify Your School District’s Processes.

By | Document Management Solutions, Education

Sourced from our Systems Partner © 2018 Upland Software, Inc. – All rights reserved.
Working in K-12 education isn’t what it was a generation or two ago. As you know, these days it’s all about tech: SIS and ERP systems, iPads in classrooms, STEM, e-learning, #edtechchats, and about a million acronyms and initialism.

In an increasingly tech-driven world, where we’re teaching our students how to thrive in this modern, resource-rich environment…is your central office staff still struggling with paper student enrollments and records? Are you still using physical permission slips, or transferring boxes of cumulative files as students transition to new buildings?

Aren’t you ready for something more accessible, manageable, reliable? I guarantee your administrative staff is. What if you had a software solution at your fingertips that could:

  • Streamline the intake and processing of personnel or student information by automatically extracting key elements (like name, date of birth, address, student or employee number), appropriately filing documentation, routing approvals to appropriate staff, and storing in a central, secure repository for quick retrieval.
  • Create faster response times for student-facing processes by automatically routing documents to appropriate faculty for approval based on created roles or requirements, delivering notifications, and tracking activities to improve transparency and eliminate bottlenecks.
  • Standardize your district’s content management, while simultaneously creating transparent processes that help you maintain compliance standards for funding and establish robust disaster recovery capabilities.

There’s much more to it: smart document management and process automation are a true game changer for K-12 school districts. This really is the future of work; automation is the ideal way to empower your staff and offer them more – more time, more services, more job satisfaction – and consequently, less stress!

For more information on FileBound! Contact us today!
Our mailing address is:
1933 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Missouri 64108 USA
Contact us today.

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SOCIAL RESPONIBILITY

By | Education

Corporate Social Responsibility

At AMC, we’re passionate about Corporate Social Responsibility. We live and work in a world we need to care for, and we encourage all our employees to get involved wherever they can. It’s a quick, simple and pain-free way of donating a few pence to our nominated charity campaign.

Diversity

AMC embraces diversity. We believe in creating an inclusive environment and it’s an essential part of our culture. We’re committed to implementing our togetherDiversity Policy and we expect all of our employees to treat each other equally, honestly and with respect. We want to nurture a culture where diverse perspectives can help drive our company forward around the globe.

We strive to provide a fair and supportive work environment for all our employees, regardless of their age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, or affiliation to any political party or trade union. We aim to employ people who reflect the diverse nature of society and we value each of our employees for the contribution they make, both individually, and as part of the AMC team.