Document management was essentially born out of the need to manage ever growing amounts of information being created within organizations and enterprises. As the business grows, it becomes increasingly complicated to gain access to accurate and relevant information from the bundles and stocks of paper documents and files and as a result precious paid working hours of the management is wasted.
Research says that an employee spends nearly 40% of their time looking for information locked in e-mails, documents and filing cabinets. Managers spend an average of 4 weeks a year searching for or waiting on documents that have been misfiled, mislabeled or just plain lost. The average cost of handling one document over its life cycle is between Rs. 200-500, and upto Rs. 2000 if it’s misplaced and Rs. 5000 if it gets lost! No enterprise would want to incur such a loss on a single document. Additionally, it costs money & time to file, print, store, handle the documents.
The answer to all these issues is a Document management system (DMS). A DMS can saves time, money and space without affecting your business. As DMS is trendy, it gives a tech-savvy touch to the enterprise.
How will it help your enterprise?
1. Make better utilization of money spent on office rental
Paper based documents storage competes with employees for floor space within an enterprise.
DMS reduces the amount of prime storage space required for files. Having real estate prices touching the skies, an enterprise would not want to waste spend space for paper documents and files. It should rather with the help of DMS, use that space for employees who will add to the productivity of the enterprise.
2. Easy retrieval
For most enterprises, tracking down files is a hassle. It all adds up to about 2 hours/year for each corporate client and about 15 minutes/ year for personal clients. By going paperless with DMS, enterprise can track down files within seconds, not minutes and hours.
Compared to the traditional file storage methods, DMS users can access information from the in less time. They don’t spent time locating the documents and can retrieve them without leaving the desk.
3. Easy document distribution
Sharing documents electronically with colleagues and clients over a network or by e-mail becomes easy. On the other hand paper documents would need photo copied to be shared.
Everyone owns a smartphone these days, so sharing documents within or outside the enterprise, while traveling or sitting in any corner of the world is possible with just a click. With DMS, your smartphone will become smarter.
4. Security
DMS will protect your documents and folders from being accessed by intruders. A DMS also removes the possibility of having confidential material or trade secrets lying around unattended in an office.
5. Disaster recovery
DMS provides an easy way to back-up documents, working in conjunction with your other backup systems to safeguard your work. From natural to man-made disasters there is no way that paper documents can be saved. A DMS allows the back-up of documents in form of data at multiple location and hence is the only convenient solution to secure critical documents.
6. Improved cash flows
The most important documents of any enterprise are its invoices, bills, debt collection, etc. With proper records of all documents related to finance of the enterprise, it ensures that the flow of cash can be controlled centrally and all documentation required making cash flow decisions can be accessed immediately. With this there will be no loop holes in the accounts and more transparency in the enterprise.
7. Improved customer service and satisfaction
With DMS, the enterprise will waste no time on finding files. It will lead to quick reaction times, a more expert reaction; a more faultless reaction to the problem and quarries of the clients and customer. By this the employees will be able to concentrate more on the core activities of the business, thus leading to more customer satisfaction.
8. Competitive edge
The same data that was a while ago put away as paper can now be dispersed to clients and target people electronically. With growing competition, the fight for survival in the market has become very tough. DMS adds a competitive edge as it improves the working of the enterprise by reducing time wasted on less important work and focusing on the core business activities.
Looking at these benefits of the Document Management System, it can be surely be said that DMS is the need of the hour which has to be adapted by enterprises for their smooth working. This will result in reduced costs of the enterprise and increased productivity and profitability.
If you decide to start looking for a DMS, following are few selection tips I could tell from my experience.
How to make the right choice while looking for DMS?
- Look for companies that have some years of business under their belt and that they are in a proper track with a growth plan. It shouldn’t be a case where they close up a year after you purchased.
- Always look for those DMS which offer 24 – hours support and have troubleshooting resources available online.
- Price shouldn’t be a major concern for you. You should rather focus on whether the software you are purchasing meets your document storage needs or not. On the other hand, if the software adapts to structural changes of your company, you should go for it, no matter what it costs. The initial investment will pay off exponentially in the long run.
With inputs from Sarthak Malani, SoftwareSuggest