Paperless 101
Going paperless with a document management system has notable benefits for businesses and nonprofits. According to Accenture, 59% of managers report missing deadlines because they’re unable to find documents. This loss of productivity extends deep into teams and across departments when documents are misplaced, lost, or only available to a single person at any given time.
Not convinced this is a problem? In a whitepaper on document management systems, the International Data Corporation found that a company with 1,000 employees wastes $2.5 million to $3.5 million a year chasing documents. While you may not have such a large workforce, one of our clients with a team of 18 realizes savings of close to $2 million annually using document imaging, document management, and workflow automation services.
The paperless office has other advantages, including the ability to:
• Build a secure and trusted repository of accessible documents.
• Track and get approval on work as it traverses departments.
• Drastically reduce the steep costs associated with off-site storage and retrieval.
• Address both internal and external auditor’s requests in a timely manner.
• Prevent fire, flood, or theft from putting your company out of business.
- Build a secure and trusted repository of accessible documents.
- Track and get approval on work as it traverses departments.
- Drastically reduce the steep costs associated with off-site storage and retrieval.
- Address both internal and external auditor’s requests in a timely manner.
- Prevent fire, flood, or theft from putting your company out of business.
Learn More About:
Document Scanning
Also known as document imaging, document scanning is the process of converting a paper document to a digital image format. Document scanning software is ideal for long-term and archival storage. It is important to keep in mind that information contained within a document stored this way (such as any text) is unsearchable. You can think of document scanning as an electronic filing cabinet with the same limitations as a physical paper filing system, but without offsite storage and retrieval costs
Document Management
Document management is the process of capturing and tracking a document the moment your business encounters it, eliminating many of the difficulties associated with managing paper copies. Notably, it’s not just a solution for paper—document management applies to any type of media that can be stored and indexed (made searchable). In addition to handling traditional file formats, a good document management system will also allow you to store electronic artifacts, including audio, video, and creative file formats.
Workflow Automation
Workflow automation takes document management to a new level of productivity by standardizing the steps in the process, allowing you to apply custom rules and logic to your document process flow. This ensures that certain actions are taken or conditions are met before a document can proceed to the next step.
Examples of Automated Workflow
Applications
Still unsure of where to apply automated workflows? Below are several examples of different departments that can benefit from automating their tasks:
Accounting
Benefits from automated invoices that span the process from generation to client payment.
Manufacturing
Benefits from automated order processing, credit approvals, and fulfillment.
Engineering & Marketing
Benefits from automated follow-ups and renewal reminders so they can focus on more lucrative tasks.
Human Resources
Benefits from the automated hiring and onboarding of new employees, posting job listings, and responding to candidates with templates.
Additionally, automation provides valuable insights into your processes and workflows, including information that may not have been clear before starting this project. With measurable data about your workflows as well as benchmarks to compare them to, your organization will benefit from a deeper understanding of how your departments function and what you can do to improve them going forward.
Still Have Questions?
Depending on the scope of your project, you may need to consult a professional and trusted document management and workflow solutions partner.
Glossary of Technical Terms
The terms used in document management and workflow systems can sometimes be confusing. We put together a glossary of technical terms to help.
Be sure to ask potential providers these important questions:
- Can I have a demo of your solution?
- Is your support phone based?
- Is your support based in the United States? This is mainly important if you are government funded.
- Do the people on the support team use and configure the solution in real life?
- Do you offer phone support or just email support? Is there any upcharge for phone support? How is that priced?
- What is your service-level agreement (SLA) if I have a problem? How long will I typically wait to hear from someone?
- What kinds of protections are in place to protect personally identifiable information found in my documents?
- How many users does your product support?
- Can I speak with four or five of your clients with the same number of users I plan to have on my system?
If you need any assistance getting up and running with workflow automation or document management solutions, feel free to reach out to us at (540) 347-2552, and we’ll be happy to help.
