Enterprise Document Management: The Basics

Of course, these documents cannot be created for free, so there must be a cost involved with all documents whether they are birth certificates, insurance claims, or the bill from your lawyer. There must be someone who is paid to create, store and distribute these documents. Over time this process has evolved into a much simpler process to improve productivity of employees hired to produce documents, but there is still a price to pay for it. The evolution of document productivity can be tracked through time to the age where they were made on stone or clay. Documents have been around as long as man has, we are just thankful that the process had become much easier to get a final document produced.

At this moment in time, mankind is at a pivotal point in document management for business purposes. The mechanical times of preparing documents is progressing into the information age where electronic copies of documents replace the older paper copies. This means less paper copies to create, distribute and store. Some think that paper documents will eventually be a thing of the past. We can’t tell for sure if this will ever happen, but we do know that documents will always be needed, and change is always happening with document management.

What is Enterprise Document Management?

Enterprise Document Management relates to a company as a whole when it comes to document management systems.

In the past, each company has had it’s own system of managing documents throughout the creation, distribution and storage stage of a document’s lifecycle. Documents from every type of company go through this same lifecycle from the time it is needed to the time it is just put away for storage. Most companies have just always considered the cost of documents to be a normal part of doing business. But new technology is allowing companies and government offices to lower these costs.

Because companies have a current system of managing documents that works well for them, company executives may not attempt to change the methods. They may not understand the resources that could be saved by an adequate company-wide document management system.

Enterprise Document Management addresses document management needs of a company as a whole, not just by document type or for the needs of one department. Companies have attempted to take care of the flaws with their current system but with limited understanding of resources and methods to take care of documents, they often fail and hinder the development of a management system.

Key points about business documents:
The current document management system you are using dictated how well documents are managed. Progressing into a new era will mean that traditional paper and electronic methods will need to change and synchronize with one another.

The management of documents is only as good as the organizational skills of current employees. If the current system is hard to navigate, documents may get lost in the shuffle if not properly managed.

Many industries still rely highly on paper documents. Even though they are making efforts to progress into a more electronic age, many government offices, financial institutions and insurance companies still rely on paper documents for day to day business. This is the dilemma that faces businesses daily. Getting rid of the paper documents. A good example is “The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act” put in place to eliminate the need for paper checks in financial institutions and the banks are hurrying to meet the needs to comply.

Some industries are burdened with government regulations that require documents to be retained and accessible. The Sarbanes Oxley Act was put into place so that business documents would have to be produced within a reasonable time frame when needed.

There are industries that haven’t realized the need to change their current document management system. It may be true unless there is a possibility of a merger or acquisition in the future. As long as companies are currently making plenty of money, they may not see a need to lower the cost of their current document management system. But in reality, having an efficient document management system is beneficial because the ROI becomes apparent in just a short time.

Weak document management system can impede business performance.

Quite simply, document storage can affect operations and the system incompatibilities are symptomatic of this era. Effective document management systems are often challenged by computer hardware and software systems that are incompatible and will not full integrate with the standard paper document storage system.

Documents that are needed at a later date by someone from a different department within the company may not be able to be found unless they know specific details about it. It could be a document that is saved in the computer or stored as a paper copy in a filing cabinet. The document needed could be stored in any of the departments in your company. Many things can happen to a document during it’s lifetime if you have a segmented management system in place.

Companies who show a fast growth rate will outgrow their small scale operational system when it comes to document storage. Profits and further growth of the company will come to a stand still or decline until a new system is put in place or the old system evolves. When operations are inefficient, customer satisfaction will decline. The company’s existence could be threatened due to ineffective document management if regulatory compliance becomes too difficult.

It’s survival mode for businesses. Often a market will be tight because of economic circumstances and the business side of the company must evolve. Competitors might pull ahead from the pack because they have analyzed their enterprise document management system and streamlined their operations to better themselves.

When daily operations of a company get overrun due to storage, distribution and creation issues within the company’s document system, the entire enterprise’s document management system must be evaluated. There are a number of solutions currently available and knowing which one is right for your company is beneficial. IT professionals, executives, and records managers may need to look at the big picture of operating as a whole to make sure things work smoothly. When performing research, a document management consultant can assist in analyzing the necessary data to make an educated decision on correcting the problems. Business professionals will be more prepared for the new age of document management systems by doing research and becoming knowledgeable about the options currently available.