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Topmarks for efficiency
Located inSowerby,WestYorkshire,
RyburnValleyHighSchool is a
secondary school and specialistmedia
arts collegewithapproximately
1,400pupils agedbetween11and
18.TheStudent Services department
is responsible for administeringall
aspectsof student life. Inevitably, this
involves ahugeamount of paperwork,
nowheremore so than in the
attendanceandbursariesoffices.
One of the essential tasks carriedout
by the attendance office is themanaging
of pre-planned absence notes from
parents.These usually come in as hard
copies,which staff would traditionally
photocopy for filing and distribution to
the teachers affected.The school grounds
at RyburnValleyHigh School are large
andwalking around the site handing out
copies to the teachers concerned took up
valuable time.
The bursaries office, too, spends a
lot of timeworkingwith paper. It has
to process large numbers of financial
records and receipts inorder to assess
students’ eligibility for bursaries and
ensure they receive the financial support
needed to continue their studies.
Traditionally, staff would log paper
documents and circulate copies to the
relevant authorities.
Student Services attendance and
bursaries officer SueThompson grew
increasingly frustrated at the amount
of time takenupwith paperwork.“The
students are our number one focus, and
a lot of time iswastedon processing
paperwork, time that could be better
used for supporting students and their
school experience,” she said.
Fast and secure
In September 2013, IT solutions
and services providerQC Supplies
recommended a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500
desktop scanner, because of its speed,
ease of use and ability to convert paper
documents, from business cards toA3,
into PDFs and editable electronic files,
such asMicrosoftWord.Once digitised,
scans can be filed, organised, shared,
emailed and accessed from anywhere.
The Student Services department
now digitises all information regarding
RyburnValleyHighSchool isusinga Fujitsudesktop scanner to
speedupadministrativeprocesses in the student attendanceand
bursaries departments
and parents and improving the student’s
learning experience.The amount of
time that the scanner has savedus is
astronomical – it’s amazing that one little
machine can do such good,” she said.
One of Student Services’ duties
is tomonitorwhat studentswith
medical conditions or special dietary
requirements eat during the day.Now,
informationnoted in paper form can
be scanned and emailed to parents
immediately.When a student is off
sick, classwork they havemissed can be
digitisedusing the scanner and sent to
them at the pushof a button, ensuring
they stay up to datewith coursework.
The Fujitsu iX500has had such an
impact on the school’s administrative
processes, from faster decision-making to
reduced paper use, that RyburnValleyHigh
School is now considering replacing the
outdated scanners in its IT classroomswith
compact, high-speed Fujitsu ScanSnaps.
Just don’t take SueThompson’smachine.
“I would be extremely disappointed if
this equipmentwere taken away – it
plays an important part in the school’s
administration,” she said.
scanners/scansnap/
...teachers
are constantly
connected to
email, this is
the quickest
andmost
secureway
of getting
absence notes
and other
information to
them.
a student and circulates it to teachers
via the Scan-to-email function. Because
teachers are constantly connected to
email, this is the quickest andmost
secureway of getting absence notes and
other information to them.
In the bursaries office, digitisation
has enabled staff to process bursary
applicationsmore quickly andmade
it easy for them to locate and retrieve
electronic records of applications and
supporting evidence.
SueThompson says that since
installing the scanner, Student Services
has foundmany other uses for it.“We
are seeing the benefits in variousways,
such as communicatingwith teachers
A3 scanner
Plustek Inc., amanufacturer of consumer,
prosumer, professional andoffice imaging
devices,has introducedanew rangeofA3
scanners.With ISISandTWAINdrivers as
standard, theSmartOfficeSC8016U series is
compatiblewithmost commercial document
imaging/management applications.
Dr. KarenKu, President of Plustek Inc., said:
“The SmartOffice SC8016Uoffers customers a
cost effective solution for high speed scanning
of documents up toA3 in size.They are ideal for
both front office and back office scanning tasks.
We are confident these high speed, high volume
scannerswill increase our customers scanning
productivity.”
The Plustek SmartOffice SC8016U can scan
A3-sized documents up to2500mm (98”) long
and rigid cards (e.g. ID cards) up to1.2mm thick.
Suitable for back office or distributed scanning,
they have a duplex colour scan speedof 160
images perminute, a 100-page automatic
document feeder (ADF) and a daily duty cycle
of 8,000 pages. Ultrasonicmis-feed detection
and integrated image processingmaintain
productivity.
The SmartOffice SC8016Uhas a suggested
price of £1,680.
