Graduation season is just around the corner – or for post-secondary undergraduate and graduate institutions, it has already begun. And beyond that, the back-to-school rush of registration and course scheduling is just three and a half months away, depending on scheduling specifics making transcript processing a challenge.

That means plenty of record keeping and processing for admissions offices and administrative staff. Whether it’s students requesting their transcripts for application requirements or university faculty needing AP test results to determine a given freshman’s placement in the right general education tier, staff have to address these responsibilities in a timely and efficient fashion.

If still using paper records for these purposes at an inordinate rate, processes slow down considerably. Administrators can’t afford to underestimate this challenge, but with the right tools, they can surpass it.

Outsourcing data entry and document management procedures to ARDEM can be the perfect partner for their efforts. Let’s take a look at the specific issues and how best to manage transcript processing:

Enrollment going strong for transcript processing

According to data from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, slightly more than 50 million children attended elementary or secondary school in public districts throughout the U.S. in 2016 – with 15 million of those being high school students – and 5.2 million children went to private schools at all such levels. As for college, the NCES noted approximately 21 million Americans attended the country’s colleges and universities, with 13.3 million of them going to four-year institutions.

Because those totals were all small increases from 2015, it’s reasonable to project 2017’s figures will remain at or around those documented for 2016. In a nutshell: That means tens of millions of transcripts to process.

Serious paper inefficiencies

Many guidance and admissions offices are a blend of high and low tech – combining computerized records with paper documentation. But for those more on the “low” side, staff members use countless work hours finding paper records for college students or young professionals who need their transcripts to satisfy employer curiosities. When file cabinets date back decades and searches become complicated, a chain reaction of delays and complications frequently results.

Digitization saves in multiple ways

Transcripts and related documents must be accessible to staff, students and all who need them. This goal doesn’t mean you should completely eradicate paper records, but they simply can’t be the only or dominant record-keeping method for transcript processing.

At ARDEM, our cutting-edge document scanning solutions and dedicated team can process your school’s records with all deliberate speed and efficiency, while also ensuring they enter the digital space in an accurate fashion. Once processed into the system, all records are indexed so that our QuickFind search application can track down any student record in seconds – and then you can get it where it needs to go ASAP. The graduation and back-to-school seasons are nothing to slack off about, but with the help of ARDEM, your institution will ace this particular test.