Document Management

Protecting sensitive, proprietary or classified information has always been challenging. Nevertheless, before the advent of today’s digitally networked offices and increasingly sophisticated threats, maintaining airtight security of confidential documents often meant simply putting those documents away and locking the door behind you at the end of the workday.

In this uneasy, post-9/11 environment, however, managers in government as well as healthcare, financial services, pharmaceuticals and other segments of corporate America are more aware than ever before of the need for deploying more sophisticated document security processes and technologies to ensure confidentiality.

By James True

The Small-to-Medium (SMB) business segment may be one of the most misunderstood markets ever. Vendors erroneously assume SMB is a large, undifferentiated market that is easy to sell into, especially compared to large enterprises, where big brands and massive corporate sales forces are needed to get a foot in the door.

In fact, SMBs vary substantially in their technology needs. The smaller prospect is very different than the larger mid-sized firm in terms of the technologies they can use as well as how they buy, support and implement these technologies. The differences between small and mid-sized companies are well-illustrated by their document management technology needs. In particular, integrating electronic document management technology with the business applications commonly used by the small enterprise poses a special challenge.

In today’s business world the ROI of any project is important as competition increases, it is imperative that a company make sure investments generate a large enough return. Increasing business efficiency is the most compelling reason for investing money in any project. Obviously technology has helped many businesses over the last 10-15 years become more efficient. Just replacing typewriters with word processors and calculators with spreadsheets initiated a huge increase in productivity per employee. Taking the next step is more challenging than simply replacing one tool for another as these programs were basically point solutions. It was predicted as early as 1975 that the “paperless office had arrived”. Obviously progress has been made toward this goal, but the amount of paperwork necessary to run a business (particularly a regulated one such as financial services and medical clinics) has increased a great deal since 1975. Just to maintain the status quo requires businesses to move to the next level in office productivity and implement a complete document management solution.

from ScanGuru

The Business World is a rapidly changing entity, and technology helps adapt to these changes quickly and will help a company keep its competitive advantage. Paper has always been an inefficient medium for conducting business processes, and recently has become a key focus for Business Process Improvement (BPI) initiatives. So what are the main reasons for a company or organization to move towards the paperless environment?

Below are the two main categories: