Go Green with Document Management

Extend the Power of EDM with BPA | 3 minute read

Introduction

While the core capabilities of Electronic Document Management (EDM) – document versioning, check-in and checkout, search, and workflow – have remained largely the same over the past 15 years, advances in usability, scalability, application delivery and “smart” technologies that improve process automation have dramatically changed its value proposition.  Today’s EDM systems draw on new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to ramp up the ROI on organizations’ EDM investment.  This is particularly important for small to mid-sized businesses that may have been less willing previously to invest than larger enterprises. 

Document Management is the #1 Required Workplace Technology | 5 minute read

Introduction

According to a recent report by CMS Wire, 73% of office workers surveyed considered Document Management to be a very important workplace technology.  Next in line was Collaboration Tools, followed by Communications and Knowledge management.  Interestingly, when asked about the current effectiveness of these same workplace tools within their organization, those surveyed rated Document Management well down the scale at #8, with only about 17% of employees saying that their Document Management was working well. 

In this same survey, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Automation were cited as “very” or “somewhat” important by 83.3% of the respondents. Unfortunately, data show that businesses who don’t have their foundation tools (like a robust Document Management system) in place before moving on to these more advanced initiatives are not as successful with the initiative and their employees are not as satisfied.

Manage the Information Explosion in Your Organization

According to a 2016 survey conducted by Brousseau & Associates,  the volume of documents (paper and electronic) flowing through business operations increased between 2014 and 2016.  In fact, paper still accounts for much of the information flow.  Two-thirds of organizations report that there has been no reduction in the amount of paper flowing through their business processes, and many report more paper than ever.

In our technologically advanced world, with nearly every organization reliant on computers, the Internet, email and speed of information exchange, the fact that paper documents are increasing boggles the mind!

Getting to the Data (and ROI) in Your ECM

How to Decide if EDM is Worth the Cost

Organizations have been managing information for as long as they have needed to record transactions.  From clay tablets to papyrus and palm leaves, as soon as humans began recording events, trading goods and marking property boundaries, some form of documentation has been used.

Eventually, parchment replaced papyrus, then paper replaced parchment, with the first papermaking process documented in 25-220 AD.   Later improvements to the papermaking process came in the 19th century with the invention of wood-based paper.  But all that easily manufactured, readily available paper created a new problem…where and how to keep it in an orderly fashion.

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EDM and ROI – Is Electronic Document Management a Good Investment?

We had a potential client last week tell us that he just didn’t see how going paperless could make a big enough difference in his business process to make the “hassle of scanning and learning a new system worth it.”  (His words, not ours!)  

We pointed out that even if his employees have been working with paper documents and forms for years and have gotten very efficient at handling paper-based documents, he just might be underestimating how much time, effort, and money is being lost to paper.  In fact, the costs associated with paper systems are the main reasons why organizations go digital:

What’s YOUR Excuse for Not Using EDM?

Lately I’ve been taking an informal survey of the business managers that I meet who do not have a document management solution.  I’ve been asking them this question:  Why don’t you use document management?

Here’s my top ten list of the best (or worst?) answers I’ve been give:

1. We’re so busy managing the business that we don’t have time to think about document management.
2. We thought about it, but it’s just way too expensive.
3. Too much trouble.
4. We manage our documents in Word.  (REALLY???)
5. It’s just not a priority.
6. No time to learn a new system.
7. We don’t want to invest money in something that we’re not sure about.
8. I think all those “Cloud” solutions are a big hype.
9. We have a good staff.  They can usually find any document that I need.
10. No need.  We just pack-up all the paper files at the end of the year and move them into storage.

So, if your business revolves around paper (and what business doesn’t) and you’re not using document management, what’s YOUR reason?

Getting Your Money’s Worth from EDM

In last week’s blog post we talked about scanning, the first step toward going paperless.  If you downloaded our scanning white paper last week and started analyzing your paper-based systems, we’re betting you’re a little closer to thinking that converting from a paper-based system to a paperless office makes a great deal of sense.  But…you still have some lingering doubts…

How can you be sure that scanning your documents and going digital is right for your office?  After all, you don’t want to spend the time and money on going digital if you’re only going from paper chaos to digital chaos.  How do you get your money’s worth from Electronic Document Management?

How to Decide if EDM is Worth the $$$

Here at Paper Alternative, we’ve been talking about this subject a lot lately.  Not surprisingly, it’s been a hot topic because so many of the people we talk to every day about their document management needs ask us this question, or some variation of it.

In fact, we get asked this so often that we’ve scheduled a webinar to talk about this very issue.

But, leading up to the webinar, we thought we’d take the next few weeks to touch on the various aspects that contribute to EDM ROI, starting with document scanning...