What is the most valuable asset in your business today? No matter the type of industry you operate in, information is one of the most valuable assets you can have. Organizations need information to make business decisions. They need information to evaluate their products and markets. They also need documents to transact business with internal as well as external stakeholders formally.
However, if your inbox is always full, your filing cabinet is often stuffed to capacity, and there is more paperwork on its way to your storage warehouse. It’s time your organization implement an electronic document management system. Managing business documents through manual processes can be costly and time consuming.
In this post, we will discuss top benefits a document management system can offer to any organization that is looking to improve their bottom line. :
Improved Workflow
It’s expected that most businesses process would entail communication both internally (department to department) and externally (third parties). For instance, some people will create the documents; others will review, approve and finally dispatch the documents.
With document management systems, it is possible to utilize validation rules and perform specific actions on your documents, such as metadata capture, classification of documents. This speed ups business processes as well as enhances their quality. 20-35% of operating revenue costs are caused by poor data quality.
Reduced Storage Space
Paper based systems need a lot of storage space. In most cities, commercial property (larger offices or off-site storage) cost an arm and a leg. Paper, file folders, filing cabinets, and filing staff can also be very expensive in the long run. An electronic document management system can reduce such costs significantly. Besides cutting costs on space, going paperless means you will also save time lost in faxing, copying, and manually searching for files.
Easier Retrieval
According to a survey done by Gartner, an average organization spends about $120 in labour to find a misfiled document and another $220 in labour to reproduce a lost document. This research further reveals that 7.5% of all organizational documents disappear into thin air while 3% of the remainder gets misfiled. Also, most employees will spend only 15% of their time consuming information, but waste half of their valuable time searching for it. As a solution, organizations need to implement a reputable DMS that can retrieve files by a word or phrase in a document or apply index categories to a document or folder.
Enhanced Security
It’s no secret that security is a foremost challenge for most organizations. No manual document management system is watertight to protect sensitive information from leaking to malicious people. However, with a strong DMS, you can control who can access what document. Also, most document management software leaves an audit trail to let you know who viewed and edited your document, as well as the time when the document was accessed.
Better Collaboration
DMS can access captured documents from multiple locations. Also, using electronic imaging, it is easier to share documents over electronic document management software. Collaborators can know when a shared document has been accessed and modified by other collaborators.
Better Backup and Disaster Recovery.
Documents are the lifeblood of any business. An organization that manages its documents efficiently makes sound business decisions, cuts business costs, and smiles all the way to the bank! Make the decision to overhaul your document management strategy.
