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Document Management

"The system is so easy to use, from the imaging/indexing process to document retrieval. Compared to other systems I have reviewed over the years, this one is by far the most cost efficient and customer friendly."
—Frank Alexander, McDowell Research

Evolution of Document Management

In The Beginning

Before there was paper, man used walls and stone to record history and information. Much later, scrolls were used, taking up too much space and were difficult to protect from damage, or they were simply lost. These scrolls were very time consuming to create and had to be completely recopied by hand in order to make changes or additions. Since that time, many different forms of printing have been invented. But we still face the same issues today of inaccurate information, low quality, maintaining preservation, trying to update information, and retrieving the latest information within a timely manor.

Present Day

Amazingly enough, most office settings still face these same challenges with paper. Since the 1900's, businesses have rapidly grown in size and volume. America and the rest of the world have continued to grow in population and prosper in business. As the population continues to grow, and communication of information keeps increasing by way of fax, email, or courier, paper use has grown exponentially. In some cases, businesses are cutting prices to be more competitive, therefore, working with more customers, doing more business for fewer profits, and creating more paper. New laws have also created many costly issues; in order to remain compliant, businesses must keep additional documentation and back-up copies in multiple locations, and retention requirements demand up to ten years of protected records before destruction. As retention records are kept for longer time frames, and paper continues to grow, most offices are spending a tremendous amount of money on filing cabinets, floor space, and off-site storage facilities, and employees that physically manage and handle these documents.

The Future

Imagine an office with no stacks of paper on desks, 90% less filing cabinets, no fax machines, and joyful office administrators. Sounds like a dream, but the reality of it is already here! People are finding information within seconds, preventing documents from being misplaced, damaged, or stolen. Experience less headaches and stress knowing your information is secure and always available to you anywhere in the world. Money and time are saved by finding information faster, requiring less physical space, and traveling less distance to retrieve and return papers.

Present Processes versus Future Processes

It is helpful to examine how documents and information are handled to see the benefits and potential when considering a Document Management Storage & Retrieval Software Solution.

Creation of Documents:

Documents are created by typewriters, word processors, computers, and dot matrix, just to name a few. The time spent creating these documents and the expense of a printing device, such as maintenance and supplies, can be very costly.

Distribution of Documents:

This information is then distributed to other departments and filing cabinets, or sent by fax or by courier. These expenses could be reduced by simply emailing the document to the recipient, or faxing directly from your computer to avoid the actual printing out and handling of the paper.

Filing/Storing of Documents:

Paper is being printed and received by couriers and faxes continuously. Paper is compounding daily and being handled for many different purposes. Any received paper can be trashed, filed, physically redistributed to other departments, or left on a desk. Filing paper sometimes involves making several copies to be distributed to other departments for multiple backup procedures, which is a time consuming and costly way of storing information. Some companies have moved on from this type of redundant storage to scanning in documents using stand-alone scanners and multi-functional copiers. (These images are typically Tiff or PDF.) If these documents are saved on a stand-alone PC, this information is only viewable by its operator, and the information is much more vulnerable to theft, corruption, destruction, or getting lost. In larger office settings, networks/servers using Windows Explorer are able to perform what a single PC cannot offer, which is making information more available among users, making it more secure, and offering more efficient and frequent back-up procedures. Even though a server provides many improvements compared to using a stand-alone PC, there are still many important issues to consider: (A)The more information being saved to a server, the more folders within subfolders, within subfolders are needed. (B)Documents are more susceptible to being misfiled or deleted. (C)Audit tracking can be difficult or non-existent. (D) Determining which document is the latest, or appending a document with changes or updates can be difficult or impossible. (E)Without audit tracking to prove this document is the original or unaltered, it may not stand up in court as a legal document. (F)Searching through file after file, page after page, for documents or for broad amounts of information will take a tremendous amount of time and effort. (G) It is difficult to prevent disruptive malicious intent using servers. (H)Accessing the same document or information simultaneously is impossible. (I)Servers also limit customer service environments and other departments who would like to further communicate information about a document or account by placing sticky notes on the document or applying annotations.

If your office is tired of managing information inefficiently and with outdated methods, then take a look at how things could be when upgrading from a stand-alone PC or a Windows Explorer network/server environment:

Evolution of Document Management