Remember the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the priceless artifact Indiana Jones has been fighting to preserve is wheeled into storage in a yawning warehouse? Schools and universities often have similar storage areas for their “treasures” – i.e., their academic records. Raiders of the Lost Ark ends with the implication that the ark will probably never see the light of day again, but the opposite is true for school records. Schools must be able to provide students’ records on request at any time, even decades after a diploma has been granted.
Maintaining a well-organized, clean student records archival area is no longer “good enough” as far as business disaster recovery for schools and universities is concerned. Fire and flood can rip through archives, damaging them in a manner of minutes. Insurance industry statistics found that more than 6,000 educational institutions were harmed by fire in 2008 alone, resulting in $66,000,000 of damage.
The cost of restoring or recreating critical student records and other precious documents is avoidable, however. Schools and universities can protect themselves by converting important papers to digital form. Document scanning services can help educational institutions convert their paper files to electronic files that may be stored in the cloud or on a remote server. (Business disaster recovery gurus recommend remote servers in another geographic zone so they will not be hit by the same disaster that may potentially affect your school.)
Beyond achieving a reliable, fail-proof business disaster recovery plan for student documents and other important archives, schools and universities can see the following benefits from converting to electronic storage via document scanning services.
Document Scanning Services: Benefits for High Schools and Universities
Sustainable, long-term solution. With more and more students opting for higher education, schools have a duty to maintain academic records for every student who passes through their doors. On-site filing is unsustainable for a couple of reasons. First, paper documents are liable to be damaged in natural disasters. Yes, a business disaster recovery company can be brought in after the fact to remediate or reverse damage, but this is much more costly than preventative measures such as contracting out for document scanning services. Second, it’s unrealistic to hope that schools will have the lush budgets needed to add additional storage space on site. Finally, with the business world transitioning to storage in the cloud, it just makes good sense for schools to follow suit.
Increase in usable space. Documents scanning services from a business disaster recovery company can help you reduce or completely eliminate the on-site storage of bulky filing cabinets. Virginia Commonwealth University and Metropolitan Community College both recently made the transition to digital storage, and representatives from each school expressed surprise at how much space opened up after the transition to digital was complete. Indeed, both of these learning institutions were able to locate desks for new employees in the area previously dedicated to document storage.
Polygon is passionate about helping schools and universities transfer important records to digital storage. Our experts have decades of expertise in restoring documents and books. We are dedicated to both the “before” and “after” stages of business disaster recovery. Before a disaster hits, we can prevent archive disasters through our document scanning services. And if the unthinkable should come to pass, we can also restore wet documents that may seem completely lost. Our professional team has worked in schools across the country, from Columbia University in New York to the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges in Allentown, Pa. Trust our business disaster recovery experts to take your school’s archival process from antiquated to cutting-edge.
