Stop your Office from Becoming the Next Bermuda Triangle
When a company wants to go paperless and begins to scan the contents of their filing cabinets into a document management system many are surprised to find many files previously thought to be lost.
When it comes to document storage, filing cabinets are simple things with no brain. We’re provided a drawer and a key and the rest of the work is left up to us. There’s no advice on where to put documents, we’re not told exactly where certain documents can be found, documents aren’t automatically routed to the right people in workflow, and our key certainly can’t be taken away to stop our access to the files.
Filing cabinets have gained the reputation as the office “Bermuda Triangle” of lost documents. Over the years multiple people in the office file, misplace and not return documents to the filing cabinets. As people organize to their own standards and methods, documents are inevitably filed in the wrong places and the next time a file is needed, it can’t be found.
Recordkeeping Principles and Document Management Help
ARMA—the national association of Records Managers and the independent authority on Records Information Management (RIM) has made public their Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP). As ARMA says in their preamble, “As a key resource in the operation of any organization, records must be created, organized, secured, maintained, and used in a way that effectively supports the activity of that organization.”
Are you interested in going paperless? Do you want to see how document efficiency can help your office go green? If your business is interested in the concepts behind records management, or is looking to implement document management software, this website is a great way to start obtaining information.
Assessing & Benchmarking Document Costs: Developing a Future Document Strategy
Are You Asking Yourself…
- How much am I really spending on desktop, workgroup, internal production print, and outside print services?
- How do our total document expenses compare to those of our key competitors?
- What factors contribute to these costs?
- How much money can we save and how?
- How much of an investment in time and money is needed to assess my document costs?
- Does this require a detailed on-site audit?
Challenges
- Getting to the true cost of documents across your organization
- Cost reductions
- Determining peer performance & benchmarking
- Developing an enterprise document strategy
- Increasing efficiency & optimization
Introduction & Objectives
The proliferation of output devices such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and scanners has significantly contributed to the dramatic increase in document output volume and cost over the years. While the majority of today’s organizations acknowledge the potential savings from better document management, many still lack the understanding and expertise to address the problem. Third-party providers including office equipment manufacturers, document outsourcing firms, and independent service providers are offering assessment services that focus on identifying costs and inefficiencies around document output.
Do Your Documents Manage You?
Document and content management involves the transformation of paper files into a digital format. A document management system can cover areas such as security, disaster recovery, collaboration, and printer management.
If an organization develops and maintains its content and documents effectively, the information that is in your system can save your company time and money. If not handled properly, however, content and documents can decrease your company’s productivity.
The migration from paper to pixels has changed more than a few companies. The task can involve major changes to workflow and transform your company into the best it can be. Digging through old documents and records can be a long and exhausting process. With a document management system, all of these troubles can be taken care of and your business can become much more organized.
Document Delivery & Management System
Control and Management of Business Documents Made Easy. Document-based information enters a company in a multitude of ways; by mail or courier, fax and e-mail, either digital or paper formats. The various processes used to manage this information contained on paper or in faxes, e-mails and application files are often de-centralized, making it difficult for employees to access and exchange the knowledge assets buried in company files, on individual computers, on networks. Now imagine all those processes compiled into one centrally organized and managed system where information can be simultaneously directed to multiple destinations REGARDLESS of format. AccuRoute captures and moves information from one format to another, from one location to others, efficiently and cost-effectively.
What is AccuRoute? AccuRoute is a modular, scalable enterprise document delivery and management application consisting of a core server and desktop software with a robust feature set that serves as both a paper on-ramp and a messaging based digital document exchange system. Optional system components add world class enterprise fax and document security features to an already robust platform. Why purchase, install and maintain separate fax, scan-to-archive or secure mail systems? AccuRoute provides all of the functionality you need, in a single Windows Server based, MMC managed system.
Examining the Cost and Value of Documents
Dramatic changes in the ways that organizations define and use documents today have given rise to tremendous opportunities— as well as significant risks. The same documents that can have a negative impact on costs can have a positive effect on helping achieve an organization’s goals. To ensure that documents are used to their best advantage, it is important to have a clear understanding of the kinds of costs they can incur, as well as a sense of the ways in which they can create value. It may not be possible to determine precisely the value of a document in the same way that one can identify the specific costs associated with it, but recognizing that cost and value coexist is vital to managing documents effectively.
Why cost and value matter more than ever
Predictions of a paperless workplace were widespread as recently as ten years ago, when new technologies were radically transforming the ways in which people communicated and connected with each other. In the wake of developments from e-mail to electronic data storage, who could blame anyone for expecting the piles and piles of paper in organizations to eventually go away—along with the high costs associated with printing, sharing and storing them? Reality, however, has proven far different. Networked access to the Internet and all the information available there has led to more printing, not less, and e-mail appears to have caused a large increase, rather than a decrease, in paper consumption.* Documents have become a kind of currency for today’s far-frompaperless workplace, and the organization that hopes to realize the most value from them must build those hopes on a sound document strategy. Such a strategy starts by identifying some of the key sources of document cost and value.
Balanced Deployment at Work
Recent IDC research suggests that “a large site with 1,000 plus employees is paying $200 plus per employee in direct hardcopy costs alone.”* So, not surprisingly Gartner research reveals a new trend in the way organizations think about managing their printing and imaging environments. “By YE05, 60 percent of all enterprises will have begun an enterprise wide effort to optimize document output fleet spending through changes to their purchasing and asset management policies.”** The same research suggests that there are significant savings to be had by those who turn their thinking into action, “Through YE08, enterprises that actively manage their document output fleets will be able to save between 10 percent and 30 percent of their recurrent spending.”
HP Document Management Solutions®
Streamline business processes, enhance information workflows and enable effortless information collaboration with HP MFPs, HP AutoStore and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.
Document capture and management = instant access to information
Together HP MFPs, HP AutoStore and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server provide a superior document capture and management framework, giving you increased access to business information and the ability to easily share the information—for a reduction in costs and more efficient workflows.
Businesses experience a constant challenge in managing and accessing the volumes of documents generated each day, including e-mails, faxes and a range of other materials. In addition, information is stored in a variety of ways and in a variety of locations, making it difficult to find the right document at the right time. Complex paper-based systems result in ineffective, time-consuming and costly business operations.
Improve Your Productivity and Facilitate Knowledge Sharing By Automating Your Document Capture and Management Process
In today's business environment, documents come in all forms and shapes, with many of them still in paper format. AutoStore is uniquely designed to capture, index and route documents regardless of file format or the source of content.
One platform for all of your capture and compliance needs.
Knowledge workers in today's business environment not only have to worry about their own tasks, they also need to worry about how to address corporate mandates and compliance issues.
Q: How do you deal with all of these rules and directives?
A: With AutoStore you don't have to.
AutoStore manages all of the capture workflow rules and processes, which are set up by the IT administrator. All you need to do is click the right button on the copier, or select the right workflow from within your Microsoft Office environment.
Digital Document Storage Reduces Costs
The average office worker spends up to half of their workday searching for simple information! No wonder it’s hard to increase production. A digital document storage system will not only increase worker productivity, but also reduce 
company costs.
Lost documents create ripples of inefficiency throughout any organization. Although small and medium sized organizations are often hit harder than large corporations, the effect is devastating across the board. In paper-based environments, digital document storage is a great alternative. These systems provide an easy-to-use, secure document storage alternative to ultimately boost productivity and reduce operating expenses.
