Toshiba Streamlines Homework For Philadelphia Area School District
Streamline Content Management Needs
Upper Merion Area School District (UMASD) executives were looking forward to refreshing the district’s print fleet. This was no easy decision, however, for Mark Erb, Director of IT, and Mike Keeley, Business Administrator. They are tasked with the technology concerns of 5,500 students, teachers and administrators at a 170 year-old school district with roots tracing back to the state’s founding father, William Penn, who mandated the creation of schools in Upper Merion Township. Their constituents – who average a million prints per month – include six schools (four elementary schools, a middle school and one high school) as well as the UMASD administrative office, transportation depot, warehouse and print shop.
Keeley’s counterpart at nearby Montgomery County Intermediate Unit had achieved significant document workflow efficiencies with Toshiba so he passed the recommendation along to the school district leaders. Toshiba was invited to discuss UMASD’s document management needs and present opportunities to improve workflow and streamline operations. Toshiba’s capability to integrate its e-STUDIO multifunction printers (MFPs) within UMASD’s Google workflow environment were impressive and immediately put the company ahead of the competition.
Supporting A Digital Learning Environment
“Toshiba’s integration with Google Drive™ has helped us become more efficient district-wide,” Erb stated. “Scanning to and printing from the Google Drive allows our staff to have more flexibility in how they communicate with their peers when team planning. Scan to Google Drive functionality has helped complement how our teachers communicate assignments with parents.”
Toshiba’s Google Drive integration allows teachers to drop homework and classroom media directly into their proprietary Schoology systems with the swipe of a badge. This functionality is not only efficient, but it also promotes UMASD’s objective of creating a digital learning environment for students by better acclimating them to a broader spectrum of technology. The combination of technology and the cost savings of eliminating pricey onsite storage systems has clearly benefited the school district, its students, parents and teachers.
Toshiba MFP integration with Google Drive assured Erb and his IT staff that the technology would enable UMASD to fully address such rigid security compliance benchmarks as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights and Protection Act (FERPA). Beyond bolstering workflow efficiencies and ensuring security compliance, Erb and Keeley were both pleased with how the technology positively impacted UMASD. “Toshiba solutions have helped our staff and faculty to work at a much higher level of efficiency,” Erb noted. “We consider Toshiba to be a key partner in the spectrum of how we operate as a school district.”