Documents claim up to 60 percent of office worker’s time and account for up to 45 percent of labor costs.
Documents are a necessary evil to the function of any business. You can no longer just file it away and forget about it, you have to actually MANAGE it. Do yourself and your organization a favor: Don’t get into the “we’ve just always done it this way” rut. Even though it is a process you’ve been following for an extended period of time, it doesn’t mean it’s efficient. It may be time to map a new course to follow; time for some new document management solutions. Don’t fear new technologies that could make your life a whole lot easier.
It doesn’t matter if documents are paper or digital, they require money and people to produce and process. The goal is to find the most efficient and cost effective way to do it. Here are some helpful tips to get you started with better document management.
Decide what’s important Within the thousands of documents in your business, some will have a limited amount of importance, where others will be vital to your business. These will be the ones that will be scanned and kept digitally. During this process, decide what can be discarded. Some no longer have value or need to be retained for tax or law purposes. Only hang on to the documents you might need at some point in the future.
Now what do need to do the job? Determine the resources, tools, and perhaps hired help to do the job. Once you determine these things, some may think it may seem a lot to ask. Keep the long term benefits in mind and remind the people who are being asked to put it in the budget, assist, or change the way they do things.
Get everyone on board Some people may resist change, once you point out the benefits to them and the company as a whole, they will begin to get the picture. You need everybody to participate in order to have success with your document management strategy. Track the progress that has taken place and make note of how it has benefited the team. Be sure to point out the specific benefits to the organization as a way to convince people of the usefulness of the changes.
Bring in an outside expert – Consider hiring of the many consultants or a document imaging company that can help give you the best strategy and tools to put your plan into action. The scanning, classifying, and indexing of all your documents may seem a daunting task. Especially with large amounts of data, the company you choose to go with will have the skills, experience and proper tools such as high volume scanners, to do the job effectively and more promptly. An added bonus is avoiding some of the resentment some of your personnel may have when faced with this colossal and tedious new job in addition to their existing list of duties.
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