Reducing Paper Usage with ERP: A Step Towards a Sustainable Campus

Educational institutes strive to teach students about the necessity of saving the planet by adopting eco-friendly activities. However, do schools and colleges practice what they preach? Do they implement strategies to reduce paper waste or eliminate surplus energy consumption?

Besides, paper-based processes have been the conventional way of carrying out major activities, making it difficult to shift to other mechanisms. However, digitalisation, with the help of advanced tools such as the university ERP, helps to optimise various institutional operations.

But how do the ERP solutions help to reduce paper usage and assist in creating a sustainable campus? Let us find out:

1. Organised Data

Schools and higher educational institutes must collect, create and maintain a huge database of information. It includes the records for student activities ranging from their enrollment procedures and class performance to examinations.

Paper-based procedures like the files and folder system have been central to recording all information related to institutional processes. Also, discarding specific old and outdated files as the institute no longer requires them has been a usual practice.

Attendance registers and receipts of payments become useless after the end of an academic year and audit process. This is where the ERP system can prove to be useful in the following ways:

• Digitalise the database system, enabling institute staff members to send and receive crucial documents in the digitised format.
• Record and maintain student data conveniently.
• Automates the data collection and maintenance, helping to reduce the reliance on paper-based processes and eliminating paper wastage in the long run.

2. Reduces Reliance on Paper

How many paper or exercise books do students use in a year? The number can vary from student to student; however, on average, students use at least 900 to 1000 papers in a year. Besides assignments, class work, homework, projects, assignments, and examinations cause such paper usage.

Students might not be able to give up paper-based processes completely, but they certainly can reduce the waste of paper with the help of the university management system. The system allows the integration of several learning and teaching solutions.

Therefore, they can utilise the digital platform to complete assignments and projects and improve their research activities. Furthermore, the system streamlines the enrollment procedure, helping students to avoid paper-based verification processes.

3. Institutional Productivity

In fact, one of the biggest advantages of establishing an ERP campus is that it provides a variety of tools to eliminate manual pen-and-paper-based procedures. For instance, institutes no longer need to keep and maintain a roster or register to record staff attendance.

Thanks to the built-in appropriate feature of the system, institutes can record and keep track of various staff activities. Likewise, institute team members do not need to deal with additional paperwork in terms of leave applications or proposals from clients.

The system provides the necessary mechanism to approve the leaves digitally. On the other hand, the staff and admin can execute a particular task efficiently without being overwhelmed.

4. Sustainable Exam Management

The amount of paper that goes into printing question papers each year is huge; therefore, institutes must strive to minimise it. One of the best ways to do so is by opting for online exams, wherein teachers can assess students through the online medium.

Moreover, a key responsibility of schools and colleges is to foster a sense of responsibility towards the planet. Also, a major step towards employing eco-logical strategies is ensuring sustainable development.

The University ERP solutions help to implement the following:

• Conducting assessments through remote assessment platforms.
• Automates the evaluation of the examination process.
• The software enables the integration of examination software, helping to digitise all exam-related activities.
• Stores questionnaires for future reference.

5. Paperless Report Generation

The enrollment rate, attendance rate, performance scale, and the number of passouts and graduates are all important factors of institutional success. Paper-based processes wherein the staff relies on outdated methods can be prone to errors.

On the other hand, when they use smart campus solutions, the institute team members do not need to worry about manual intervention. The system operates efficiently through error-free result calculation and the generation of varied MIS reports.

As a result, teachers can identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual students and prepare lessons to help them improve. Similarly, the institute leaders can look into the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and prepare appropriate action plans.

6. Automated Data Import and Export

When a particular department requires a report, the admin or the staff copies the document and gives it to them. The unnecessary use and waste of paper are easily avoidable through the automated system.

The ERP system allows users to store, maintain and send documents easily to stakeholders; teachers can send updated performance reports to individual parents and team leaders.

Besides, the import and export features of the software allow easy access to concerned authorities.

7. Eco-Friendly Financial Management

The first thing that comes to mind when discussing finance and educational institutes is fees, which are part of a crucial transaction between students and institutes. But the post-transactional documents are just as important to store and maintain.

Reducing paper-based receipts is the best way to sustain an eco-friendly process by opting for online payment. That is why the university ERP is the optimum solution because it provides varied facilities such as :

• Digitised receipts of paid and received fees.
• Accurate financial records, including ledgers and trial balance.
• Sends automated messages for each transaction.
• Income and expenditure statements.

8. Effortless Library Management

Books and libraries have still not lost their popularity and purpose despite the prevalence of e-books and e-content, making it all the more crucial for institutes to take necessary measures.

Libraries continue to be a vital part of the education institutes, but it takes time and effort to organise the books and maintain all other related activities. Thankfully, smart campus solutions help to rescue team members from manually exhausting activities.

Besides, the solutions automate the book searching process, simplifying the book-obtaining procedure for students and staff. Additionally, the librarian can record and track the movement of books and other resources seamlessly without having to depend on paper-based processes.