Company Departments That Benefit From IMS

Human Resources

Employment history, applications, letters of recommendation, and medical records are just a few areas out of up to a hundred separate pieces of documentation concerning each employee. HIPPA compliance, confidentiality, detail, accuracy, and trust are all important aspects in communicating and managing employees and their information. Some environments require upper management to view particular documents concerning an employee, while confidentiality is still of highest concern. Would it be helpful to allow upper management access to only some employee information with strict guidelines to avoid tampering, duplicating, or sharing information? Would it also be helpful for upper management to be monitored and restricted to information without using your time and energy? Would it also be nice to place document retention rules per document/employee to automatically be destroyed within pre-determined time frames without, again, using your time and energy?

Does your office maintain records for multiple locations all in one central environment, or are there shared documents within multiple locations? Does it allow user permissible rights to upper management to view particular documents, from any computer on the network and/or web?

How often is a confidential document misfiled within non-confidential documents? How often is a document lost or stolen? How much time is spent before giving up an exhausting search for a missing/lost document? Do you have any computer-generated files that are printed only to be filed in a filing cabinet or simply filed within a secure folder on the network? Would it be helpful to have only one image of this file or just the file itself managed within one repository?

Helping us understand your world and your greatest concerns will help us help you achieve the highest level of security and information access possible. When the pressure is on to improve costs and staff, even the Human Resources (HR) efficiencies department comes under scrutiny.

This means a growing number of tasks have to be handled by fewer employees. In addition, meeting the latest legal requirements is a very critical aspect that also adds to a department's work and document pile. Answering these questions would most certainly lead you to a path to implementing a HIPPA compliant software based document and file storage/management system.

Communication

Questions from employees, management, and colleagues from Accounting can be immediately answered thanks to IMS. The time previously needed to research and return calls is eliminated.

Improved Productivity

From recruiting to mentoring, promotions to salary calculations — all of the processes handled by HR become more efficient. Employees feel better supported, and management is aided daily by IMS to make better-informed decisions. Improved job satisfaction is the natural result.

Highest Security

IMS can allow for even the system administrators to have denied access to HR related information. Privacy laws could not be more in compliance when considering paper documents, computer files, and emails that need to be handled with the greatest of care. With the growing number of electronic files and paper documents stored in multiple locations, it is becoming more and more challenging to preserve control.

Administration Support

Personnel files include documents such as resumes, application letters, contracts, transfers, promotions, evaluations, report cards, goals, training certificates and much more. To provide employees with the best support, it is crucial to have access to all this data quickly. Whether it's for a transfer, promotion, legal dispute, or annual goal setting, this information is critical. In many companies, HR staffers spend much of their time managing paper. Working with paper documents is not only inefficient—it's a waste of critical time.

Benefits of IMS

Improved confidentiality
Centrally access information
Significantly increase productivity
Improve response time to internal or external requests
User permissible access and rights to perform any tasks
Authorized staff may retrieve any information at any time
HR is relieved of routine tasks requested, with user permissible access
Access to most current documents with detailed tracking for earlier documents
All personnel documents can be electronically filed and secured for the life of the document
Reduce the increasing expense and time spent on additional storage, while speeding up retrieval time of information
Provide password-authenticated PDF attachments with encryptions for increased security and response time using email (Potentially requires 3rd Party Integration)

Accounting / Accounts Receivable

In today's market, competition has driven companies to handle more accounts for less profit. With an increase in communications by email, web, and fax, business is no longer limited to just a small geographical area. Everyone's workload has increased, including the accounting departments. When trying to meet today's legal and financial requirements, using a document management system can reduce time spent looking for records stored off-site and can prevent misfiling or losing information all together.

Challenge

Running out of filing space
Slow collections of accounts receivable
Time consumed by searching for documents or information
Department codes of general ledger numbers must be available at all times
Provide perfect documentation
Email and strict documentation rules have to be enforced due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Retention requirements can be up to 10 years or longer when considering product liability issues or contractual disputes
Close or finalize an invoice within a reasonable time frame and potentially receive an early payment from a supplier
Sometimes many hands are required to approve an invoice; this raises many questions or discrepancies, which only prolongs the process for payment
Commuting long distances to filing cabinets or offsite storage sites to obtain dated insurance policies, employee reports, inter-company expenses, etc.

Benefits

Better cash flow
Improved accuracy
Simultaneous access to information
Qualify for early payment discounts
Compliance with legal requirements
Resolve matters quickly and efficiently
Drastically simplify preparation for audits
Conserve time and increase accuracy and accountability within a department
Considerable motivation and job satisfaction growth
Shorten time between invoices arriving and finally getting paid
Better organization of internal processes, which improves security and efficiency
Access information within seconds, while abolishing objections or disputes during the first phone call with a customer/vender
Control all documents and documentation within one repository software management system
Minimize calls, faxes, and emails from other departments or clients who are requesting information by giving access, with user permission rights, to view records/information

Type of Documents to File

Detailed reports, customer purchase orders, internal contract review forms, original drawings & sketches, and material lists
Revised orders and reports
Corresponding accounting department records found in the closed order files—invoices, packing slips, bills of lading, freight bills, and financial reports

Sales

Time is money; therefore document efficiency can lead to more productivity/sales/money. From providing quick and accurate information for customers to retrieving contracts, statements, invoices, bills of lading, and many other documents, companies will increase opportunities to retain customer satisfaction and win new business. Keeping track of these important documents and files can be difficult. Waiting on other departments to retrieve this information can waste time that could be spent preparing quotes or moving onto the next step in a sales process. The average sales representative makes over $20/hour, so spending any amount of time looking for documents and information or spending too much time doing basic clerical work, can be an absolute waste of time and money.

Benefits

More competitive edge
Better customer service
Quicker processing times
Increased time for additional sales
Limit dependency upon other departments/co-workers from which information is needed
Limit interruptions from billing/accounting departments, sales managers, and co-workers, all requesting information from your files
No more time-consuming experiences, fumbling through files and accessing inaccurate/out-dated information

Shipping & Receiving for Warehouse and Distribution Centers

Employees spend a great amount of time searching through multiple sources in filing cabinets, stacks of paper, or digital files, and even walk long distances across the building or to off-site storage sites. These employees are looking for paper-based shipping records, usually consisting of invoices, packing lists, shipping manifests, bills of lading, and other related documents.

Purchase orders, invoices, payables, receivables, and shipping records can all be scanned in to be digitally managed with IMS for intelligent search capabilities. Eliminate time-consuming manual searches through paper files and waiting on a file to finish a previous process to view it. Verbal communication of changes or additions can be noted on a document within IMS; electronic documents, such as those created in Microsoft WORD, received faxes, and received emails, can all be managed and quickly retrieved for print-email-fax-view within one secure repository. This information can be retrieved within seconds so that an immediate response can be made to a customer's or supplier