Many schools still have time-consuming, unstructured paperwork processes. As a school administrator, you may experience the long wait when you want some broken facility replaced. A broken projector might need wait for IT inspection, IT approval, Facility approval, Finance approval, transportation and replacement. Then you need to fill in several specific printed forms, walk from department to department to get the required signatures. It could take days or even weeks before the projector could be replaced. Consider that we are living in a 4.0 era, schools should start thinking about ways to transfer their data online, using process automation as a potential solution.
What is Process Automation
Process Automation is the act of building common path way for repetitive task (e.g.: facility replacement or sick leave) and automate it (e.g.: You fill in a form and it is automatically sent to the next in-charge recipient(s) until you get the desired result). It exists to take the low-value added workload off everyone shoulders. It even completes the task in a much more structured and faster manner.
Why should Schools use Process Automation?
Money Saving
In the U.S., an average school spends $200,000 on paper annually, much of this is not used by the students, but rather the paperwork of school staff. Therefore, schools can significantly reduce the waste to the environment and school budget by digitalizing and automating the process.
Time Saving
As stated, it can relieve the burden of going to different department for reporting or signatures. By forming a common dash board of Need-to-Replace Facility, leaders can solve problems in a systematic and faster manner. For example, when 40% of the projectors got similar issues, administrator can work with the supplier to resolve the issue, instead of replacing it one by one.
Room for Innovation
When these burdens are lifted, educators could spend more time and money on renovating other aspects of schools. These automation process can give valuable and structured data to address and solve existing and coming issues. For example, leaders could easily get access to facility condition of the last school year for future renovation.
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