Businesses create and need to handle more data than ever before. In the past, this would mean that there would be a lot of wasted data. Today’s document management system can completely revolutionize your business. Let’s take a look at the steps that go into creating a comprehensive digital document management system.
Every person has documents that they need access to, so it stands to reason that a business has hundreds. If you and your staff are tired of sifting through dingy file cabinets to find that the document that should be in a certain place, isn’t, considering a document management system may be right for you. Today we will give you five good reasons why moving to document management can be a benefit for your business.
Many businesses are searching for ways to go green. Most of the ones that do are trying to cut out their reliance on paper and printing. This is strategic thinking, of course, since the cost of printer toner has skyrocketed over the years. Today the most affordable printer ink on the market still comes in at an astounding $13 per ounce; or, slightly more than Dom Perignon. This is why businesses that are looking to cut costs, as well as embrace environmentally-friendly initiatives, are going paperless.
There’s no denying that digital records have quite a few advantages over paper documentation. Benefits of ‘going paperless’ include simplified search capabilities, more efficient storage, heightened security and automated backup capabilities. There are plenty of sources around the Internet that discuss making the switch to paperless documentation, but to keep your business documents safe, it is better to know what you’re getting into.
Transferring data is nothing new, but the technology used to accomplish it has changed considerably. While the technology once peaked at simply scanning an image of the data into your computer, there is now the capability for scanned media to become a handwriting-interpreting, searchable document. A practical example can be seen in the use of online databases to track one’s genealogy. Handwritten ship manifests, immigration documents, and other handwritten bits of history are now much easier to access and search thanks to advancements in document conversion software.
However, there is wisdom in the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” that can be hard to argue against. On top of that, there are some industries that are held to regulations that require adherence to assorted record storage and disposal requirements. Before you begin the process of converting and destroying any of your records, you need to make sure that you are not beholden to any of these requirements. Again, these requirements are mostly based on your industry, or the industries you serve, but you may consider following the lead of many small and medium-sized businesses and retain your records a little longer than you are required. After all, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Your industry might also impact how your digital copies of your data are handled. Privacy is a major concern, especially in the medical industry and those industries that make a lot of transactions where credit cards are used as payment. These industries need to be sure that they are in accordance with the regulatory compliance standards set forth by HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and PCI DSS, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, accordingly. These regulations, and others like them, make it crucial for you to ensure that your data meets the compliance standards both before and after it has been transferred to a digital record.
You must also consider what kind of resources you can spare for the involved conversion process to take place. Consider this: if a business averaged 5 customers each day in the 1990s, they would have at least 13,000 paper records to either securely store or mindfully destroy.
However, if you want to digitize your paper records but lack the time and equipment, numerous third-party services exist who would happily take on any document conversion process. Your business’ needs, security requirements, and budgetary constraints will dictate if outsourcing this task is appropriate for your business.
If you’re prepared to go digital from the very start, the organization provided by a document management solution can assist you.
If you’d like to learn more about keeping digital records and utilizing a document management system for your business purposes, reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.
The file cabinet. It may be a staple of the office, but boy can they be a pain in the neck. Every file needs to be printed and collated only to be filed in a dingy file cabinet with the off chance that it will ever be needed again. For businesses that have a lot of paper filed away, a document management system can go a long way toward modernizing your organization, and providing a access-controlled database where you can find any file in seconds.
Consider for a moment how many documents are floating around your business at any given point. Memos, notes, invoices, receipts, and whatever else you happen to accumulate in the course of business, all floating around the office. This isn’t a great approach, and unfortunately, the classic solution for this, the filing cabinet, isn’t the most effective solution anymore.
However, there are now alternatives to the classic filing cabinet and other now-antiquated document management options that are much better suited to the needs of the modern office. In fact, these solutions are what enable businesses today to effectively go paperless.
As printing has become a more costly endeavor, its associated expenses have begun to absorb a larger piece of a budgetary pie chart. Between the costs of the printers and other hardware components themselves, the materials they use up as they operate, and the costs associated with your staff filing all of this information away, businesses have seen their budgets whittled away. Furthermore, it can be very difficult to locate information that has been filed this way - especially if it was filed incorrectly.
Let’s review some of the solutions that we now have access to, that resolve exactly these pain points.
Document Management
Let’s face facts - one of the biggest weaknesses inherent of hard copies how difficult they can be to find (especially if they’ve been misfiled). However, a document management system makes that much simpler, as digitized copies can be stored in the cloud and searched for. Furthermore, while the reduction of printing costs offers a considerable value to a business, the time saved by this solution assists in making it a worthwhile investment, as all documents are turned into searchable PDF files.
While the initial implementation of a document management system may come at an intimidating cost to some, it quickly proves its worth. This is only made more apparent by the fact that, once the solution is in place, the only costs it creates are the ones needed to support the hosting platform.
Document Digitization
Digitizing documents has been widely adopted in recent years, as it makes it much easier to store and organize them. Not only does this approach make it simpler to store vast quantities of data, it also allows certain documents to be much easier to locate. If a member of your staff ever needs to view a document, all they will need to do is search for the right keywords and there the document will be.
Security
Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss how your documents are able to be secured within your document management solution. As it is a cloud-hosted solution, it simply wouldn’t be complete without some kind of access control. Many platforms come with this access control baked-in, some even using biometrics or two-factor authentication. More complete control over your document management system is possible, if you are willing and able to invest in a private cloud database. Once implemented, you and your staff can confidently and securely access any document needed from anywhere that has Internet access.
To learn more about a document management system, or other solutions available to you to assist your business’ operations, reach out to The Connection, Inc by calling (732) 291-5938.
For decades, companies have been looking for an efficient way to manage their documents. For the longest time, the best way was to fill one side of an office with filing cabinets and file the documents away. With most of the workplace now being run by computers, and with hard costs at an all-time low, companies have begun to file all their new files on computer network.
How many documents does your organization accumulate just by simply staying in business? There’s no doubt that you’re sick of the traditional filing cabinet, which is both hard to move around and a pain to organize. Thankfully, modern technology solutions have afforded businesses just like yours with the ability to host and manage documents in a digital, cloud-based environment.
Cloud-based document management solutions provide your business with a ton of great benefits and opportunities to improve the way your business stores and manages files. Here are some of the most notable strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
Easier to Organize and Access
Storing files in a document management system is much like storing files into folders on your workstation or in-house network. It’s much easier than color-coding with tabbed folders. Just imagine being able to store each of your related files in a cloud-based folder system and always knowing where specific files are located, depending on the type of file you’re looking for. You can save time and energy by making your files easier to find. Furthermore, you can access documents and other important files on any connected devices, allowing for more flexible for your workers.
Easier to Navigate
You’re familiar with how a search bar works in both your web browser or online search engines like Google, but what if we told you that you could add this ease of searching to your file storage? Imagine being able to enter in your search credentials for your physical documents, and you have a great reason to implement a document management system in the cloud. All you need to do is plug in your searches and find the files that you’ve been looking for, and it couldn’t be any easier.
Easier to Preserve
If you were to suffer from a fire in your office, would your paper documents survive the disaster? Our guess is “no,” which leads us to the next big question: how can you properly back up your physical file storage? There isn’t a way to do this without wasting a considerable amount of time and money on making copies of each record your business stores. If they are digital files in a document storage system, you can simply implement a data backup and disaster recovery solution to properly preserve documents in the event of the worst.
The Risk: Data Security
The concept of storing data online or in a network-connected cloud system comes with the added likelihood of a data security risk. What if a hacker infiltrated your company’s network? They would be able to indiscriminately steal your company’s documents or access information that’s not for their eyes in the first place. Therefore, you need to consider security issues a top priority for your organization should you implement a document management system. Furthermore, you need to ensure that your data is properly backed up so that even unexpected incidents don’t sink your productivity.
Is your business ready to get rid of physical file storage and instead focus on a digital documentation system? The Connection, Inc can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (732) 291-5938.
Do you want to go green by making your business paperless, or even just make it a goal to use less paper? If you get rid of paper, what are you going to replace your information receptacles with? The best digital alternative to paper is a popular file format known as PDF.
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