Thursday, December 24, 2015

University Cloud Document Management Systems That Work

By Loris F. Anders


Universities have several layers of administration. The student population often numbers in the thousands and sometimes tens of thousands. Every action taken by a student, from application for entry to obtaining financial aid generates paper and digital documents. The school is overburdened with managing and storing these mountains of paper and digital documents in a usable manner. University cloud document management systems are the solution to this data overload problem.

Documents are stored and retrieved, saved and stored again by various authorized users. When an administrative process can be completed online it saves the school and the student time, money and frustration. Naming and saving protocols are established to enable easy retrieval by students and by university staff. Naming and saving are done seamlessly by the system to prevent human error.

The secure cloud management of documents allows multiple users access for different purposes. Most of the digital files are PDF files, portable document format that are compatible with most computers. Users only need to have Adobe Reader, a free application, on their hard drives. Many of the files cannot be edited or altered, while others were designed to be edited.

Added to the traditional work flow of universities is the move towards online education. Each class needs its own web portal for the students and teachers to access homework assignments, eBooks and communications. Every action has a reaction of paperless documents.

Adobe, one of the driving forces behind a universal way of saving and reading documents, has further developed online cloud based application software. One of the features is that users are able to electronically sign files. This is another cost savings for schools and students. This one feature facilitates the completion and progress of tasks.

The cloud is a secure way to process, store and retrieve virtual paperwork. With millions of hard copy paper documents, the school needs to convert these to digital in a manner that allows retrieval as needed. The companies that manage these systems can complete this work for the school. Electronic documents stored in this manner are more secure than paper copies in unlocked file drawers.

A wonderful, high tech function is intelligent data capture. This function allows the school to extract data points from digital files and appropriately incorporate the data into their enterprise system to use as needed. File storage is crucial to the success of the system. The minimum for back up redundancies is three, but there will typically be more back ups. If one or two back ups are lost, a crisis is averted because other copies exist. Even if you do not understand the cloud, you are using it.




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