Enterprise Software Brings Cost Savings to School Districts Worldwide

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 09/24/09

Paper keeps getting more expensive. Printer toner may have plateaued in recent years, but at a pretty steep price point. Add to this the costs of printer and copier upkeep, and even replacement, as well as the physical space required to maintain paper files, especially as government reporting demands mushroom. Is it any wonder budget-challenged schools and districts are looking for a feasible alternative to miles and piles of paper files?

In recent years, enterprise software has grown enormously in popularity, both for the time it saves by streamlining often disparate school office processes, and for the money it saves on all of the aforementioned costs. One such solution finding its way onto more and more school networks is Xerox's DocuShare ECM Platform. The platform offers extensive content management features, including:

• Quick and easy document access with check-in/check-out tracking;
• Version control;
• Both single-word and advanced searches;
• Bimple document routing;
• E-mail, blogs, and wikis;
• Scanning for high-performance image capture;
• Access control, including permissions, password management, and customized rules; and
• SSL encryption for advanced online security.

Educational institutions of all types that use the platform have noticed extensive savings in terms of money, time, and inconvenience. Chelmsford Public Schools in Massachusetts reported as much as $150,000 in annual savings on textbooks and printing. "Xerox helped us uncover significant savings by gaining control of more than 150,000 printouts per day," said Bruce Forster, executive director, information and educational technology, Chelmsford Public Schools. "DocuShare gives our students the ability to 'log in and learn' in an interactive environment beyond the classroom, without sacrificing our budget dollars."

In addition, Manteca Unified School District in California used DocuShare to scan and archive its older paper files, to the tune of $300,000 in operating budget savings per year, not to mention freeing up physical space to build more classrooms. And a university in Peru began saving its students a wealth of valuable time by using DocuShare to give them all instant online access to course materials that previously had to be checked out of the school library, one copy, and one student, at a time.

Extensive information about DocuShare and sister application (for business and industry) DocuShare CPX, including technical specifications, features, supplemental products, and downloads, can be found here.