What Digital Disconnection means for your School

Advancements in technology have brought about significant changes in the education sector, revolutionising how learning is delivered, teaching is conducted, and school administration is managed. With technology moving fast and the need for seamless processes heightened, implementing the right solutions into your school environment has become increasingly complex. Implementing the right mix of technology into your school's technology ecosystem can provide countless opportunities to reduce manual tasks, save time and make processes easier. However, implementing technology solutions that don’t integrate with one another can often mean extra cumbersome manual processing tasks and extra time needed for your staff to get the task at hand completed.  

The outcome is a phenomenon called 'digital disconnection,' where technology can leave gaps and can fail to integrate seamlessly with schools' existing online tools, leading to difficulties in task processing. This blog delves into the notion of digital disconnection in school technology, particularly in finance processes. We examine the obstacles that schools face when integrating their payment processes with current systems and suggest solutions to surmount this hurdle.

What is Digital Disconnection?

Digital disconnection refers to the adverse effects of implementing digital solutions disorganised or incompletely. MYOB's 2022 report highlights the challenges businesses face due to disconnection, including difficulties in decision-making, adding capabilities, and adapting to changing environments.    

The study found that many Australian and New Zealand businesses need clearer visibility into their operations, and SMEs need help with digitisation. These findings demonstrate the need for streamlined and effective digital solutions in education. Digital disconnection can manifest in several ways, including:  

• Lack of strategic planning: Implementing digital solutions without fully understanding the organisation's needs or the problem that must be solved can lead to a disconnect between the technology and the intended outcomes.  
• Poor integration: Implementing digital solutions that do not integrate well with the existing technology ecosystem can create a siloed approach to data management and result in a fragmented workflow.  

• Insufficient resources: Implementing digital solutions without the necessary team or resources to back up the implementation can make it slow or hard to prove ROI. It can also lead to operational inefficiencies and result in poor adoption rates.  
• Over- or under-engineering: Implementing systems that are too advanced or not advanced enough for the organisation's needs can lead to a mismatch between the solution and the problem, resulting in poor performance and adverse outcomes.  
• Slow implementation: Implementing digital solutions that take a long time can lead to delays, missed opportunities, and decreased productivity.  

Overall, digital disconnection can significantly impact an organisation's performance and success. It is crucial to consider the potential pitfalls and risks of implementing digital solutions and ensure they align with the organisation's goals and objectives.  

The Impact of Digital Disconnection on School Finance Processes

Digital disconnection has a significant impact on school finance processes. It is caused by a gap between the school's payment processing and its existing online tools, such as School Management Systems (SMS) or Learning Management Systems (LMS), leading to inefficient practices.  

The result is often an added workload on staff, rendering automation solutions useless. This leads to schools not realising the promised value of automation solutions and being held back from experiencing the full potential of well-integrated automation.  

Challenges Schools Face with Integrating Payment Processes

Integrating digital solutions in schools can be challenging, with the potential of various issues that could make it difficult for schools to adopt new technologies.  

• Lack of integration with existing systems: Some digital solutions must integrate effectively with the school's existing technology ecosystem, leading to a workflow requiring staff to handle tasks and making automation useless manually.  
• The industry-wide approach required: To address digital disconnection, solutions providers must lead in building in-depth integrations that address these challenges.  
• Time and cost to implement: Implementing digital solutions can be time-consuming and expensive, making it challenging for schools to adopt new technologies.  
• Researching the right solution: Finding the right digital solution for the school's needs can be challenging, requiring extensive research to ensure the chosen technology meets the school's requirements.  

• Staff training and change management: Training staff on new technology and managing the change that comes with implementing new solutions can be challenging for schools, requiring a significant investment of time and resources.  
• Data management and security: Implementing digital solutions can raise concerns about data management and security, with schools needing to comply with relevant regulations and standards.  

The 2022 Digital Transformation in Education Survey found that integration and usability of current solutions was the most common challenge to digitisation for education institutions. To overcome these challenges, schools must prioritise finding well-integrated digital solutions that meet their needs and invest in staff training and change management to ensure successful implementation.  

Improving School Finance Processes with Intelligent Digital Solutions

Digitising the payment process can give education institutions real-time visibility into financial transactions, making it simple to manage and track expenses, log actions, and create audit trails.  

The increased visibility can also help to identify potential errors by performing ABN, ASIC and duplicate checks before the final processing of an invoice. This can allow for timely corrective action and maintain financial compliance for schools, resulting in better management of time, resources and sensitive data.  

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Benefits of Digitising School Finance Processes

Effective digitisation in education institutions can significantly improve processes in several departments, including administration, IT, and finance, making tasks more manageable and providing a streamlined approach to otherwise time-consuming manual tasks. The benefits of digitisation include:  

• Time and cost savings: Automation software can significantly reduce the time and resources required for manual processes, allowing staff to focus on more critical tasks.  
• Fraud prevention: The accuracy of payment processing and invoicing can be improved with automation, reducing the risk of errors and discrepancies and preventing fraud.  
• Increased governance: Good digitisation practices can improve governance, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and standards.  
• Increased visibility: Automation can provide a more streamlined approach to otherwise time-consuming manual tasks, increasing visibility into processes and improving decision-making.  

For example, automation software can significantly improve the accuracy of payment processing and invoicing, reducing the risk of errors and discrepancies and preventing fraud. Using automation, even in the finance department, schools can save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on manual processes, increasing profits, productivity, and staff satisfaction.  

While digitisation can be an excellent solution for schools, the solution must provide with seamless integration with existing tools. With the use of a Digitisation Action Plan, digitisation can reach the full potential that is intended. With the proper digital solution, schools can improve the accuracy, efficiency, security and visibility of their administrative, IT and financial operations, making the transition to digitisation smoother and more effective.