Backed by research, Nine Peaks Solutions, shares the benefits a document management solution can provide companies of all sizes.
BENEFIT #1: Managing Documents
A recent study showed the average office admin takes 12 minutes to process one document. Nine of those minutes are spent searching, retrieving, and refilling it. Only three minutes are spent using the file.
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #1: MANAGING DOCUMENTS (surprise!). With a document management system, you can organize digital information for faster, more informed decisions. Instantly search documents by keywords and find exactly what you need.
BENEFIT #2: Scan & Capture
The average office spends $120 searching for every misfiled document. How many documents have you misplaced in hard copy format or digital?
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #2: SCAN & CAPTURE. Scan your paper document directly into a document management system to capture and store them in one centralized repository. It doesn’t stop there.You can also save documents into your document management system directly from Microsoft Office applications as well as importing emails. The fun continues! Save photos and files from your mobile device into the repository on the go.
BENEFIT #3: Process Automation
A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers study reports that the average worker spends 40% of their time managing non-essential documents. What?!?
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #3 PROCESS AUTOMATION. Manage your mission-critical processes to eliminate spreadsheets, emails, and busywork. Could you imagine? With a document management system, you can standardize repetitive processes which increase accuracy. Compliance policies are a piece of cake. Establish a plan and let your system enforce it to mitigate your risk of noncompliance. Then measure your success with customizable reporting tools.
BENEFIT #4: Workflows + Forms
The average office spends $25,000 to fill a four-drawer file cabinet (the cabinet, rent on the office space, and labor to fill it with documents) and $2,000 annually to maintain it. How many file cabinets do you have in your office? That’s a lot of money!
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #4 WORKFLOWS + FORMS. Put an end to file cabinets! Does your company have intake forms, customer sales forms, client information forms, inspection forms (and the list goes on)? With a document management system, you eliminate paper forms – and associated manual approvals – to provide a better user experience. Online forms for internal and external use captures information in a centralized repository and allows you to access and search from anywhere. Imagine if you’re a roofing company and you can directly enter all the prospect contact information, roof style, existing roofing material, and photos of the existing home on a site with a laptop or tablet and it’s automatically put into the sales pipeline so you can ensure excellent customer service and follow up. That’s precisely what workflows and forms can do to manage your documents and operations.
BENEFIT #5: Records Management
Research shows a five-year return on investment (ROI) of 404% after implementing a document management system. Half of the organizations in an IDC study had a payback as early as six months. IDC stands for International Data Corporation, the premier global provider of market intelligence, so they know their stuff!
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #5: RECORDS MANAGEMENT. Investing in a new software solution isn’t an easy decision. Improving your company’s bottom line is. A few benefits of implementing a records management plan using document management software includes:
Creating Efficiency – A document management system sets standards and procedures, so files are easy to access, saving time and money.
Avoiding Fines – Data protection legislation and industry-specific document retention laws set timeframes that records must be retained. That’s not easy to manage if you don’t have a document management system.
Reducing Space – Whether cloud, server, or physical space, why pay for it if you don’t need to? Having a records management system in place helps manage archiving and destruction of documents – both digital and hard copy – to free up space and save money.
You don’t always have to spend money to make money, but when you’re talking technology, you usually do. The cost of implementing a document management solution is ultimately an investment in your organization’s future success. Overall, lower costs and increased revenue result in enhanced profitability and business growth! This study proves it…
Increased Profitability by Business Size*
BENEFIT #6: Improving HR Processes
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 157,000 in July 2018. Wow! Businesses across a variety of industries are hiring like mad. Are you one of them?
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #6: IMPROVING HUMAN RESOURCES PROCESSES. From recruiting and onboarding to employee information management, using a document management system to organize, automate, and secure employee data can be life-changing…especially for your HR staff.
Here is the proof…
The City of Elgin, Illinois reports saving 350 hours of labor by integrating a document management system (Laserfiche) with their current ERP system (NaviLine) to automate onboarding and benefits enrollment for new employees. Instead of employees filling out a paper form and staff manually entering the information into their payroll system, employees fill out digital forms and workflows make automatic updates in the payroll system.
Warmerdam Packing in Hanford, California hires 1,500-2,000 seasonal workers every year. That’s a lot of forms (e.g., job application, I-9, W-4, etc.). By using a document management system, they were able to make their HR onboarding process wholly paperless and link their ERP system’s data with their documents. With 75% of their employees rehires they can now easily access historical data all in one place.
These stories are just a couple from hundreds of examples of how a document management system can improve the human resource processes in any company.
BENEFIT #7: Auditing + Reporting
Do you work in an industry that is highly regulated? Would it be helpful to know precisely who’s opened a document and when? Let’s talk auditing and reporting!
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #7: AUDITING + REPORTING. Not all firms need this much oversight but if your business depends on meeting strict regulations this function of a document management system is for you. Laserfiche is the repository for all the documents. Auditing enables you to track all activities performed on an individual document…who opened it, how long it was open for, what actions were taken, etc. Combined with other aspects of the document management system, auditing not only helps to show compliance with legal regulations but also contributes to the security of the Laserfiche repository. Basically, it’s like getting a report on the breadcrumb trail!
Laserfiche auditing gives you fine-grain control over how auditing options are configured, allowing you to audit by user or group and audit both successful and failed attempts to perform an action. You can also specify that certain types of operations (such as document deletion or export) will require users to provide a reason. Once you have selected events to audit, you can view, filter, and export audit information in Audit Reports. You can create reports to analyze audit data, see the news as a chart, filter it to include only the information relevant to you, and export the data for use in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. So many possibilities!
Auditing + Reporting: Need an example?
The folks at Laserfiche* created this “Inspector’s Office” example to help understand the use of Audit and Reporting:
As a manager in the Inspector’s Office, one of Mindy Manager’s duties is to keep track of all the ongoing inspections. She likes to keep track of which employees are working on which inspections to keep a tab on employee workloads as well as for compliance purposes. One way that Mindy can see which employees worked with which documents is to create an Audit Trail report that she can run with the click of a button on any of the inspection-related documents. This report will let her know who has made any changes to the document or its associated template.
* Contributed by Justin Pava, Software Release Manager and Connie Anderson, Technical Writer, Laserfiche
BENEFIT #8: Security + Compliance
Unfortunately, data security breaches happen daily. According to Microsoft, the potential cost of cyber-crime to the global community is a mind-boggling $500 billion, and a data breach will cost the average company about $3.8 million*. That is a lot of mullah!
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #8: SECURITY + COMPLIANCE. Implementing a document management system can protect your sensitive content, ensure compliance for a multitude of regulations, and give you piece of mind. The best thing about using a document management system like Laserfiche for data security is how granular you can get. Users will only see content they are allowed to see. In addition, Laserfiche uses built-in Windows security and AES-256 encryption to ensure that data is secure when it is in transit and when it is at rest.
We mentioned data security can get granular! Here is a high overview of the many levels of security available. For a more detailed description of each one read this datasheet or contact us for a demonstration.
User-Level Data Security
- Unique Users
- Single Sign-On
Document-Level Security
- Data Classification
- Secured Metadata
- Encrypted Exports
- Redactions
- Encrypted Content Transfers
- Delegation of Privileges
System-Level Security
- Database Security
- Data Encryption
- SSL/TLS Encryption
- Auditing
- Volume Security and Encryption
- Data Integrity Verification
- Secure Web Deployment
- Watermarking
Again, for a more detailed description of each one, read this datasheet or contact us for a demonstration.
How about certificates and compliance?
- Section 508 Compliant
- VERS V2-Compliant
- Perpetual DOD 5015.2 Certification
- Integrated Digital Signatures
* https://thebestvpn.com/cyber-security-statistics-2018/
BENEFIT #9: Piece of Mind
More than half of Americans report being stressed at work, according the American Psychological Association. Stress leads to many health problems – obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and gastrointestinal problems, to name a few. So how can a document management system reduce stress and ultimately make you healthier?
Jaw Dropping Benefits of Document Management #9: PIECE OF MIND. Whether it’s knowing all your documents are retrievable in case of a disaster or creating efficient office processes the compilation of our previous eight benefits equal #9: PIECE OF MIND. Let’s recap:
#1: MANAGING DOCUMENTS
With a document management system, you can organize digital information for faster, more informed decisions. Instantly search documents by keywords and find exactly what you need…reducing stress!
#2: SCAN & CAPTURE
Scan your paper document directly into a document management system to capture and store them in one centralized repository. It doesn’t stop there. You can also save documents into your document management system directly from Microsoft Office applications as well as importing emails. All documents in one place….reducing stress!
#3 PROCESS AUTOMATION
Manage your mission-critical processes to eliminate spreadsheets, emails, and busywork. Could you imagine? With a document management system, you can standardize repetitive processes which increase accuracy. Compliance policies are a piece of cake. Establish a plan and let your system enforce it to mitigate your risk of noncompliance…reducing stress!
#4 WORKFLOWS + FORMS
Put an end to file cabinets! Does your company have intake forms, customer sales forms, client information forms, inspection forms (and the list goes on)? With a document management system, you eliminate paper forms – and associated manual approvals – to provide a better user experience. Online forms for internal and external use captures information in a centralized repository and allows you to access and search from anywhere…reducing stress!
#5: RECORDS MANAGEMENT
Investing in a new software solution isn’t an easy decision. Improving your company’s bottom line is. A few benefits of implementing a records management plan using document management software includes: creating efficiencies, avoiding fines, and reducing stress!
#6: IMPROVING HUMAN RESOURCES PROCESSES
From recruiting and onboarding to employee information management, using a document management system to organize, automate, and secure employee data can be life-changing…reducing stress!
#7: AUDITING + REPORTING
Not all firms need this much oversight but if your business depends on meeting strict regulations this function of a document management system is for you. Laserfiche is the repository for all the documents. Auditing enables you to track all activities performed on an individual document…who opened it, how long it was open for, what actions were taken, etc. Combined with other aspects of the document management system, auditing not only helps to show compliance with legal regulations but also contributes to the security of the Laserfiche repository…reducing stress!
#8: SECURITY + COMPLIANCE
Implementing a document management system can protect your sensitive content, ensure compliance for a multitude of regulations, and give you piece of mind. The best thing about using a document management system like Laserfiche for data security is how granular you can get. Users will only see content they are allowed to see. In addition, Laserfiche uses built-in Windows security and AES-256 encryption to ensure that data is secure when it is in transit and when it is at rest…reducing stress!
If you’re interested in one or more of the above, learn more about how Laserfiche, a world leader in document management systems, can benefit your company contact us for more information and a free 30-Trial.