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Common Business Challenges
Common Business Challenges
Familiar document-management frustrations paired with practical approaches a document management system can support.
Businesses depend on information to serve customers, manage operations, make decisions, and respond to unexpected situations.
Yet even well-run organizations can struggle with missing documents, inconsistent filing practices, restricted access, and employees spending unnecessary time searching for information.
Many of these problems have existed for decades. Moving documents from filing cabinets into ordinary computer folders doesn't necessarily eliminate them.
Here are eleven common business challenges and how Imaging Made Simple (IMS) can help address them.
1The Missing Document: Who Has the File?
The challenge
An employee removes a paper file from a filing cabinet to review a document. They place it on their desk, underneath other paperwork, or take it to another office.
Hours or days later, someone else needs that file. Nobody knows who has it. Employees begin searching desks, cabinets, offices, and stacks of paperwork. Sometimes several people interrupt their work to help locate the missing information.
The document may even have been returned to the wrong folder.
How IMS helps
When a document has been properly captured and indexed in IMS, authorized employees can retrieve its electronic copy without locating the original paper file.
They can search using configured information such as a customer name, account number, document type, or date.
Even if the physical original has been misplaced, the electronic document may still be readily available.
2Multiple Employees Need the Same Document
The challenge
A customer calls with a question about an invoice. Accounting needs the invoice, but Sales also needs it to respond to the customer.
Meanwhile, a manager may need to review the same documentation.
With paper files, employees may have to wait their turn, request photocopies, or ask someone to bring the file to another department.
How IMS helps
Multiple authorized IMS users can access the same stored documentation without waiting for someone else to return a physical file.
This makes it easier for departments to work with the same supporting information while maintaining appropriate access controls.
3Employees Need Different Levels of Access
The challenge
Not everyone in an organization should see every document.
Two employees working in the same department may have different responsibilities and permissions.
An employee outside a department might need access to selected records without being authorized to review everything that department manages.
Simply placing documents in a shared network folder may not provide the level of organization and control the business requires.
How IMS helps
IMS Enterprise provides two complementary levels of document access control.
At the Profile level, administrators can determine which Profiles employees are authorized to access. Unauthorized Profiles do not appear in an employee's available Profile selections.
For organizations needing more detailed restrictions, Enterprise record-level security can control access to individual records within an authorized Profile.
These permissions can be configured around employee responsibilities and business requirements rather than assuming everyone in a department needs identical access.
For a more detailed explanation, see Security, Audit Trails & Administration.
4Nobody Remembers Where a Document Was Filed
The challenge
An employee saves a document under the wrong customer, enters a name incorrectly, uses an inconsistent filename, or places a file in the wrong folder.
Later, someone searches for it using a different name or filing convention.
The document exists, but nobody can locate it easily.
How IMS helps
IMS allows organizations to establish structured index fields for the information employees commonly use to locate records.
Depending on the document and its configured fields, a user may search by a customer identifier, document category, account number, date, or another known value.
Combining multiple fields can narrow the results when necessary. Properly configured dropdown selections can also reduce inconsistent entries.
5Employees Are Afraid the Software Will Be Too Complicated
The challenge
A business owner recognizes the need for better document management but worries that employees won't learn the system.
Some employees are comfortable with computers. Others are not.
The owner may even worry that they will need to ask an assistant or secretary to retrieve every document because they don't want to learn complicated search procedures.
How IMS helps
IMS can provide a straightforward starting point through Quick Search.
A user who knows one relevant piece of indexed information can enter it into the configured search field and review the matching records. They don't need to learn advanced multi-field searches before performing a basic lookup.
As employees become more comfortable, they can use additional search fields and more precise criteria when needed.
Training and thoughtful configuration remain important, but everyday document retrieval does not have to begin with a complicated process.
6Too Much Time Is Spent Handling Paper
The challenge
Employees print documents, make copies, transport files between offices, organize filing cabinets, and retrieve records from storage.
As the organization grows, these activities consume time and physical space. Even when employees scan documents, inconsistent filenames and folders can recreate many of the same problems electronically.
How IMS helps
IMS can help organizations organize captured documents using consistent indexing and retrieval practices.
Instead of repeatedly transporting or copying a paper document, authorized employees can retrieve its electronic version.
Organizations can begin with their most frequently used or business-critical documents and expand their digital records practices over time.
7Who Accessed or Worked With That Document?
The challenge
A manager or administrator needs to investigate document activity.
Who accessed a particular record? What supported actions were recorded? When did the activity occur?
Without appropriate reporting, answering those questions can be difficult.
How IMS helps
Where the IMS Enterprise Audit capability is licensed and configured, administrators can review supported document activity by user, document, time frame, and action.
Available reporting and export capabilities can assist with internal reviews and accountability. The scope of recorded activity depends on the supported functionality and configuration; audit reporting does not automatically establish regulatory compliance.
To explore available Audit report types and related administrative capabilities, see Security, Audit Trails & Administration.
8Our Documents Are Scattered Everywhere
The challenge
An employee saves a contract on their computer. Another employee keeps a copy in a shared folder. Accounting has a related invoice in another location, while customer correspondence is stored somewhere else.
Over time, the organization accumulates documents across different computers, folders, departments, and storage locations.
Employees may not know which copy is current, where related information is located, or whether someone else has already saved the document.
How IMS helps
IMS provides a centralized, indexed document-management environment where captured records can be organized according to consistent business rules.
Instead of relying entirely on employees remembering which folder or computer contains a document, authorized users can search the records maintained in IMS.
Organizations can establish document categories, indexing fields, and access controls that reflect their business needs.
IMS does not automatically discover or consolidate every document scattered across an organization. Existing records must be captured or imported through an appropriate process.
9Customer Service Is Delayed While Employees Search for Answers
The challenge
A customer calls asking about an invoice, contract, previous service visit, or purchase order. The employee answering the call cannot find the relevant document.
They may need to contact Accounting, Sales, or another employee before they can respond.
The customer waits, the employee spends time tracking down information, and a simple question becomes an unnecessary interruption.
How IMS helps
When the relevant documents have been captured and indexed in IMS, authorized employees can search for them using information they already know, such as a customer name, account number, invoice number, or date.
They may be able to retrieve the needed record without waiting for another department to locate a paper file or forward an electronic copy.
10Our Document Collection Keeps Growing
The challenge
A small business starts with a few filing cabinets and a manageable collection of electronic folders. As the organization grows, so does the number of invoices, contracts, employee records, customer files, and other documents.
What worked when the company had three employees may become difficult to maintain when it has twenty or fifty.
Employees develop different filing habits, document categories multiply, and locating older information becomes increasingly frustrating.
How IMS helps
IMS allows organizations to establish structured indexing practices that can be maintained as document volumes increase.
With IMS Professional, a small organization can organize different document categories within its single Profile using configurable index fields.
IMS Enterprise provides unlimited Profiles, allowing organizations to establish separate collections for departments, business functions, or other information-management needs.
Organizations can plan their document structure around current requirements while considering future growth.
11What Happens If Our Records Are Lost or Our Systems Fail?
The challenge
A business depends on important documents to serve customers, meet obligations, and continue operating.
But what happens if a computer fails, a server is damaged, files become corrupted, or an unexpected incident disrupts access to business records?
Paper records may also be vulnerable to fire, water damage, misplacement, or other physical risks.
Without a deliberate information-preservation strategy, an organization may struggle to recover the documents it needs.
How IMS helps
IMS provides an organized environment for capturing, indexing, and managing electronic records.
Maintaining documents electronically can make it practical for an organization to include those records in a broader backup and recovery strategy.
However, IMS is not a substitute for proper backups or disaster-recovery planning. An organization's backup solution must protect the necessary document files, database information, indexing data, configurations, and other components required to restore its IMS environment.
Backup and recovery procedures should be established and tested by the organization or its IT provider.
Learn more about information preservation, backup, and recovery planning.
A Better Way to Work With Your Documents
These challenges often have something in common: employees are spending time managing the location and movement of information instead of using that information to do their jobs.
Imaging Made Simple helps organizations establish a more structured approach to capturing, indexing, retrieving, and controlling their records.
The goal isn't to make document management more complicated.
Explore the Solutions by Industry & Department topic to see how these principles apply to your organization, or request a demonstration to see IMS in action.
Explore More IMS Solutions
Discover how Imaging Made Simple addresses document capture, indexing, security, and cost considerations across your organization.
Capture & Import
Learn how documents enter IMS through scanning, importing, and other supported capture methods.
Indexing, Search & Retrieval
Explore how structured index fields help employees locate records using known information.
Security, Audit Trails & Administration
Understand Profile-level security, record-level security, and Enterprise Audit reporting.
ROI & Cost Savings
Explore how document-management improvements may affect employee time, operating costs, and productivity.