What happened to the promises technology was supposed to keep? Computers were to rid us of clutter and paper files. Where is our office nirvana devoid of filing cabinets and lost folders? While email has helped to take away a lot of paper – when was the last time you got an interoffice memo on paper – most offices are still wholly dependent to paper files. But, thanks to emerging paperless technologies, business owners can bypass many of the headaches of yesteryear while decreasing their overall environmental footprint. Instead of suffering the weight of hard copies, organizations are starting to understand the benefits of document management software to lighten their paper load.
According to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), the top three business drivers when considering a document management software are improved efficiency, optimizing business processes, and maintaining compliance. And while the advantages of using document management software are numerous and well-known, these drivers serve as some of the strongest for companies who are looking to improve their effectiveness and overall productivity.
Improving Efficiency
An online document management system, like IntelliCloud™, saves incredible amounts of time that would normally be spent performing repetitive tasks. It means the end to lost, misplaced or mislabeled documents that can overtake an otherwise productive workday. Let’s assume that it takes an average of three minutes to retrieve a return a paper file (of course, this only works if the person knows the exact location of the document). If this staff member retrieves 100 documents daily that person would spend over five hours a day searching for files. Over the course of a year, that’s 1300 hours of wasted time! In contrast to these wasted hours, using a document management software like IntelliCloud enables your files to be instantly and securely captured, shared, stored and retrieved.
Augmenting Business Procedures
With a web-based document management system, a user will typically have some sort of built-in workflow to help them streamline their business procedures by eliminating the more monotonous tasks. With a rules-based workflow, you can create processes that coordinate between people, applications and services. Your documents can be seamlessly routed, reviewed and quickly approved. It’s even possible for you to integrate your document management solution with back-office applications to make you even more efficient. Collaboration between employees or departments is simplified creating a more efficient, effective workplace.
Maintaining Compliance
While audits are an incredibly daunting reality for any organization, today’s businesses are actively making considerable modifications to their IT systems and internal accounting processes to comply with state and federal regulations. Considering the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, OSHA compliance and SEC regulations, online document management systems like IntelliCloud make it easier than ever before with built in AuditShield to provide access histories and overall transactions for each document.
While a company could piecemeal several solutions together, document management applications like IntelliCloud offer organizations an outstanding way to better prepare departments for audits, improving their structural efficiency and ensuring that the enterprise is connected to the documents they need without having to jump through endless hoops.
