10 reasons for

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

1. Efficiency
   Ultimately any office system is only as efficient as its weakest point. However fast and accurate the access to data on a computer system, everything grinds to a halt if a paper file needs to be located and relevant documents found and, probably photo- copied or faxed or emailed. Scanning all paper files and storing in easy to access document management software eliminates this weakest point.
2. Time Saving
   How much time does an average office spend finding paper files. If the file is in the same office then perhaps only minutes each time but if the file is in another area or not been put back in the right place or on somebody else’s desk….. And then if the particular document is not where it should be…… And if a customer or supplier is waiting and has to be phoned back….
3. Cost Saving
   A case study revealed that the major cost saving for a specific document management system was the reduction in return telephone calls to customers waiting for response to queries. Because all files were on the computer system and immediately available the vast majority of queries could be answered immediately without the need for return calls. Increased efficiency inevitably equals cost saving – particularly in the area of staff levels.
4. Customer Satisfaction
   The advantage of having all documents relating to customer transactions immediately available is reflected in increased customer satisfaction. Queries can be dealt with immediately – especially those that involve more than one department within an organisation. And problems can be highlighted and solved before they become an issue.
5. Space Saving
   Document files can take up an enormous amount of very expensive space in today’s high-tech offices. Filing cabinets are inefficient, taking up valuable floor space but providing fairly low storage area. Suspension file systems are more space efficient but unwieldy and inflexible. Moving files into ‘filing rooms’ increases the time spent in finding files. Moving into another building increases this time even more. Moving offices becomes a nightmare.
6. Security – from Loss
   A case study for one of our major projects involving the scanning of over 30,000 files housed in a secure filing area. Over 500 files were not available for scanning as they were missing from the ‘secure’ area. A trawl around offices, in-trays, desk drawers, filing boxes etc turned up over half of the missing files but still left nearly 200 unaccounted for! When files are removed from storage they often do not get replaced – or put back in the wrong place. In addition is the problem of individual documents being removed and either not replaced or put back in the wrong place – this is virtually impossible to track until such time as the document is needed urgently! Once scanned the files and documents are always in the same place.
7. Security of data and information
   Data security is a very high profile topic. Paper files are very insecure. Anybody can pick up a file and read it, copy it, remove pages or (sometimes even more worryingly) add pages. Digital files can be protected from unauthorised access at a number of levels. Access to and management of images can be restricted by document management system user rights. Images can be encrypted so that they can only be viewed by specific software and specific users. Once scanned the documents can be securely destroyed and no embarrassing data ends up in a waste disposal site.
8. Security – disaster recovery
   Paper documents can be destroyed or damaged by fire and water (as well as age and hungry mice!) – just about any natural or unnatural disaster! Even high-tech document warehouses are not immune to total destruction of millions of documents by fire – if the flames don’t get them the sprinklers will! How do you securely back up paper documents for disaster recovery other than by scanning and storing digitally – photocopying every page and storing off-site? The short answer is – you don’t. Every file stored in paper form is a potential irrecoverable disaster. Scanned images and indexes can be backed up as often as required for virtually no cost.
9. Future System Changes and new system Integration
   Documents are scanned to an industry standard format – normally .tif or .pdf images. Indexes to files are maintained on industry standard databases. Because so much data is stored and used in this format any technology changes and innovations must be able to handle this data. Having all records in digital format will make system upgrades and changes easier, quicker and cheaper.
10. Inter-departmental and inter company co-operation and efficiency
    Ability to access files from other departments within a company and other companies within a group can greatly enhance efficiency and save time and money. Nowadays very few departments operate completely independently of other areas. Even areas holding highly confidential data such as HR departments can profitably share some of this data with other departments. They would not be comfortable allowing access to a whole file but access to certain information via secure user rights can save a lot of time and cost.