Digital Signature Blog

Transitioning To The Paperless College Admissions Office

Going paperless in your Admissions Office is difficult and costly if not done correctly. Creating an effective paperless plan can increase applications, assure compliance and minimize transition costs.

With the transition to a paperless admissions system, students applying to colleges and universities should find the process faster and more dependable, not to mention more helpful to counselors.

Making every applicant’s documents available electronically streamlines the process, saves time, and virtually eliminates the risk of losing materials. In addition, any admissions staff member can access a student’s file. That all adds up to better service for counselors and students alike.

By using SIGNiX for Education, both public and private universities – as well as institutions and medical colleges – are expanding student services, improving financial performance, enhancing operational visibility and reducing costs. The result is better management of communications for campus activities, student lifecycle, research, grants, financials, operations, human capital, procurement, and assets.

How Does SIGNiX Work for Higher Education?

* Provides the convenience of signing/reviewing documents, regardless of format, from anywhere
* Facilitates rapid completion of a transaction without delay
* Reduces direct costs of printing, overnight deliveries, couriers, copying, filing, storing, etc.
* Provides immediate application processing and obtains consent for background search for students, staff and volunteers
* Helps reduce the resources and costs associated with preparing, reviewing and archiving student and employment packages
* Helps provide a positive on-boarding experience for new students and new staff

Admissions will become fully paperless once more schools make the switch to electronic transcripts, greatly reducing the amount of time it takes to process an application. Timalyn O’Neill, Assistant Director of Admissions, said, “I’m confident this will result in even better service for students and counselors.”

Going Paperless Is A Process

The decision to go paperless is by far the easiest part of the whole process. The actual act of becoming paperless is a long process and should be planned in advance. At the outset, it seems impossible, but with some planning it can be a much smoother process. After the initial planning the the most important thing you can do is take Action! How do you attack this project? A little bit at a time.

Come up with a clearly written out schedule and stick to it. Measure it by either amount of files scanned in a day or number of hours spent scanning during the course of the day. Set aside one hour a day scanning. It sometimes ends up taking more time than we expect but in the end makes a huge difference. The point is to get started and to chip away at the monster a little bit everyday.

One misconception that many people have when starting out is that just opening a file and throwing it in the scanner is all that needs to be done. Scanning files and using less paper is just the beginning. In order to reduce further paperwork use digital signatures. In medical, financial, real estate, and government offices, often times documents have to be signed multiple times maning many pages are printed and usually several copies. Using a digital signature in these cases will greatly reduce paper as well as postage, paper and employee costs that are associated with such processes.

The Benefits of Using A Digital Signature Solution:

    * Signer Authenticity
    * Reduced Processing Time
    * Reduced Operational Costs
    * Security and Confidentiality for Documents and Data
    * Enhanced Process Efficiency and Optimization
    * Speedy Decision-making and Approval Process
    * Non-repudiation and Integrity

When people think of a paperless office, they usually focus on how to store documents in a digital form. This is important, but it misses the real point of going paperless. The real benefit comes from creating  documents in way that they are digital for the entire lifetime. Once a document gets printed out, you’ve broken the paperless life cycle.

Going Green is an opportunity to innovate and help the environment.

A True Commitment To Going Paperless

Going Paperless

Sounds easy doesn't it? You just decide one day that you're going to make your office a paperless one, as if becoming paperless was as easy as just making a conscience decision to do so. If that was the case wouldn't everyone be paperless, from the work at home mom to the largest insurance company? I would hope so, but I doubt it, which is partly the reason why it may just be impossible to become truly paperless. In order to become totally paperless every individual or business that your company works with must become paperless as well. Is that likely to happen soon? It's not likely.

If you're waiting to go paperless when everyone else does you'll be waiting a long time. Do it now. Make a hard, determined decision to go paperless and begin the long but ultimately rewarding process of getting it done. Concentrate on the future benefits of becoming paperless instead of dwelling on the seemingly insurmountable task of physically getting it done. It will be a large undertaking, but it is very achievable and not as difficult as one might think.

One part of going paperless is the digitizing your files. Do you have to filter your files first? No, of course not, but it sure will help in the future if you ever need to retrieve that information. Some of you may be fortunate enough to already know without a doubt that every document in every file is important, and therefore, will be scanned. In that case all you need to do is get busy scanning.

    * Remember to attack the monster one day at a time.
    * Quantify each days work by time or number of files.
    * Set a goal and schedule for each the week and stick to it.
    * Filter useless paperwork from files to be scanned.
    * Get busy scanning or pay someone to get busy for you.

The other step that must be taken is to put in place a digital signature solution for your company. Despite the myriad challenges faced by large institutions in today’s economic climate, it might just prove to be a perfect time for small- and medium-sized institutions to focus on green initiatives and grab market share from their competitors who have put these inniatives on the back burner.

In this age of Internet and mobile transactions, it’s hard to imagine some industries such as banks operating without paper. Whether a customer completes a paper application or internal documents are passed along for signatures most employees and customers still assume all transactions end with a stack of paperwork and a “wet” signature on the bottom line. There is technology that can reduce everyday paper use, while reducing costs.

The solution is to create an enterprise-wide digital environment that is superior to a paper-based environment—one that customers want to join because it makes their lives easier. There’s growing evidence that such green efforts boost the bottom line and can help companies outperform their competitors. It’s an opportunity to innovate and help the environment.

Go Green And Spend Less With Digital Signatures

The amount of paper used today is staggering. A typical document is copied 19 times, a typical office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and a typical office discards 350 pounds of paper per employee each year, according to Ecopreneurist.com. Seven out of ten consumers receive paper bank statements. If every household stopped receiving paper bills and statements, 687,000 tons of paper would be saved every year—enough to circle the earth 239 times. The National Archives and Records Administration estimates that a cubic foot of records costs $23.24, virtually all of which is the rental cost of the office space.

In this age of Internet and mobile transactions, it’s hard to imagine some industries such as banks operating without paper. Whether a customer completes a paper application at a bank branch or prints the application off a bank’s website, most employees and customers still assume all transactions end with a stack of paperwork and a “wet” signature on the bottom line. There is technology that can reduce everyday paper use, while reducing costs.

For utility companies, hospitals & banks there is a heavy price tag to this paper addiction. A typical statement has an all-in cost of approximately $1.20, according to industry estimates, and multiplying that by millions of customers adds up very quickly. Industry experts state that the banking industry alone spends $70 billion to $80 billion per year on printing and mailing statements. This number does not include other paper correspondence, or any other costs associated with paper.

These are astounding numbers. But getting consumers to turn off the paper is not an easy task. Most consumers, even green-leaning ones, need an incentive beyond the environmental benefits to make the switch to digital. The solution is to create an enterprise-wide digital environment that is superior to a paper-based environment—one that customers want to join because it makes their lives easier. In an era of heightened environmental awareness, green initiatives resonate strongly with the public and can strengthen a businesses brand. There’s growing evidence that such green efforts boost the bottom line and can help companies outperform their competitors.