Paper doesn’t work anymore.
Think about it, when was the last time you went to a store and received a handwritten receipt? Or paid your phone bill via a check rather than online? Paper for personal use has become nearly obsolete, and yet many organizations still rely heavily on paper for common day-to-day processes.
Now is the perfect time to look into other solutions – as 2022 comes to a close and organizations are in the midst of planning for 2023, eliminating paper processes should be the number one priority to ensure success this coming year and the years ahead. We’ll walk through some of the biggest problems with paper, common organizational targets for a paperless solution, and show you how to start your Document Management journey.
What’s the problem with paper?
It's inefficient
Employees can spend up to half their time looking for information, and nearly a quarter of productivity is lost because of document issues. When there are only so many hours in the week for your team to produce, any loss of time can be detrimental to the efficiency of your organization.
It's costly
Apart from the productivity impact and paid hours spent chasing documents, sticking with paper can be costly in other ways. Physical materials and storage are typically considered sunk costs, but with the cost of supplies going up, every little bit counts.
It's not secure
Storing information on paper is an easy way to lose it. Messy desks or unintentionally tossed documents can lead to sensitive data going missing. Even worse, malicious actors can easily access this information and take it without being noticed. In the case of a fire or flood in your facility, years worth of data can go missing in an instant.
It's bad for the environment
As organizations look for ways to lessen their negative impact on the environment, a reduction in paper is one of the simplest ways to “go green.” Typically an overreliance of paper stems from employees printing out multiple copies of documents or re-printing documents that have gone missing.
Employee access from anywhere
One of the most notable benefits of document management is the ability to access files from anytime, anywhere, on any device. Rather than ask for PDFs or scanned attachments or run around looking for physical documents, employees can quickly retrieve a file from a digital repository and continue working without hiccups. The solution is specifically designed for documents to be accessible anywhere, anytime, on any device.
It’s also user friendly, meaning your employees will be able to utilize the system without spending extensive time in training, which is ideal for those who work far from your central office. Document Management is made to be versatile, and is designed to work with multiple locations, departments, and devices. Even with its versatility across your organization, it’s extremely secure, allowing for version control and user-based access to ensure that a document doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
Document Management is designed for ease of communication across your entire organization, meaning employees can all access the same documents and be equally productive regardless if they’re in-office, remote, or on-the-go.
Reallocating resources
Due to a variety of factors, your organization may have made the difficult decision to reduce your employee headcount. As you reallocate work to be completed by a reduced workforce, reestablishing roles to not be redundant is especially important. One opportunity to ensure the same productivity (or better) with a reduced headcount is by reevaluating your current approval processes, specifically within accounting functions.
Some questions you can consider are: who is involved in your current processes, who receives it, who needs to approve it, what departments does it go through before getting filed away? Are there extra steps that are not necessary, is time wasted sending documents across the office (or mailing them to multiple sites across the country)?
Employees that may have been involved with your previous document approval process may no longer need to be as directly involved with the implementation of a document management solution. Since all documents live within the system and are accessible to be reviewed and approved at any time, those employees can then be delegated to complete more valuable tasks. Within your accounts payable process, vendor invoices can be routed, approved, and filed away with close to no human intervention. You can set custom thresholds to immediately approve invoices under a certain amount. With your invoice processing hands-off, your employees can focus on higher value tasks that help to grow your business.
Keep your business protected and secure
Security and risk mitigation are top of mind for many executives. Many organizations don’t fully understand the impact of lost data or audits, which can cause them to lose countless hours and a lot of money.
In the third quarter of 2022 alone, roughly 15 million data records were exposed due to security breaches, up by 37% from quarter two. Because our secure document management system is securely hosted in the Cloud or on your server, and allows for user-based access, you don’t have to think about who can see your organization’s important data.
There’s an antiquated notion that in order for documents to be utilized in a legal or audit situation, they have to be in the original physical document form, which is no longer true. In most scenarios, scanned documents are legally accepted. This means you no longer need to rely on physical documents, which can help further reduce risk or loss of data.
How to implement a Document Management solution
Many organizational leaders are hesitant to take on new technology out of fear of a complex implementation, pulling technical resources away from other projects, or simply are anxious that their out of the box solution won’t work for them. PiF Technologies offers the customization of a custom-built solution, with the ease of out-of-the-box software. Our professional services team works directly with you to identify your business needs, and builds a solution around them to enhance your workflows company-wide. It is an optimal investment for organizations looking to establish a robust records management policy and a more efficient organization.
Given the benefits of Document Management and the predicted rapid growth in the market, the question may not be, “Can I afford to implement an electronic document management system?” It may be more appropriate to ask, “Can I really afford not to?”
Complete the form below to get in touch with us, we can answer any questions you may have and take the first steps towards implementing your Document Management system.
