Electronic document management: Another step toward the paperless office?

Although we are in the digital age, a significant number of organisations still find they have large quantities of paper documents to manage and store.

The paper issue is a problem that has actually escalated over the years. Today, there are an estimated 2.5 trillion printed pages a year worldwide, of which 45 per cent are thrown away within a day. In certain industries, this problem is further compounded by the need to legally retain documents for a given period of time, sometimes believe it or not, as long as 100 years!

Traditionally limited to large organisations, comprehensive electronic document management (EDM) systems are increasing in popularity among mid-size and smaller organisations.

A range of factors seem to be driving interest. EDM technology has become more affordable and accessible. Organisations who have implemented EDM solutions are demonstrating significant gains in productivity and efficiency. Culture and work habits are changing and both professionals and their clients have become accustomed to performing a range of tasks in the electronic environment.

The regulatory environment has become stricter, increasing awareness of the need to govern risk relating to document loss and security. Issues such as working remotely are also influencing decisions. However understanding the cost to an organisation of paper based processes is one of the main drivers.

Storage costs, lost data, manual processes are but a few of the costs associated with paper based processes. The raw cost of filing documents alone can often be viewed as justification for implementing an EDM system. Add to this the cost of searching for lost documents and the impact this can have on your ability to service customers and the business case becomes very clear.

It is widely accepted that the cost of filing a document is approximately €10 and the underlying cost of misfiling a document can be in the region of €100. Add to this the cost of losing these to a fire or flood and you have quite a compelling story.

With EDM, searching for client or employee records, legal contracts, tax returns, insurance statements and general correspondence no longer requires a trip to the file cabinet. Instead, you simply search by name or keyword without leaving your desk. Some EDM solutions also provide a web-based customer portal that enables your customers to save and retrieve their own documents (if you permit this), saving you the trouble.

Savings and an increase in productivity through improved operational processes and enhanced risk management are cited as the most quantifiable benefits of EDM. Clients also benefit from the implementation of EDM as it allows you to respond more rapidly to your client’s needs.

EDM also facilitates the management of governance, risk and compliance. Transferring to a secure EDM solution with document tracking and data backup significantly reduces a firm’s exposure to data loss. It is safe to say that an EDM system, with the benefits it provides in the areas of security, information backup and disaster recovery, will assist an organisation of any size to take a more consistent approach to the management of governance, risk and compliance.

The implementation of EDM is often a daunting prospect, however, the experience of those who have put one in place suggests it is not as challenging as many people assume.

Anticipated costs are a major obstacle for many. Others cite concerns about the integrity of information and security or the reliability of hardware and/or software. However, in our experience, the most common barrier to implementing an EDM system is how to transition from paper to electronic documents.

Many organisations have considered back-scanning all the paper archives but this often proves to be too expensive not to mention fruitless in case of certain documents which will never be accessed again! This also means that the business benefits to be derived are often deferred until the back scanning project is complete as users have to look in both the paper archives and the EDM system until the transition is complete.

This problem can be solved by integrating an audit of your paper mountain with the EDM solution. This allows you to eliminate costly up front bulk scanning and scan only what you need, when you need it.

While the totally paperless office is still a thing of the future, great strides have been made in this direction over the past few years

6pm is hosting a breakfast meeting which will focus on the business case and advantages EDM solutions offer. This event, on July 7, will be of interest to chief financial officers, chief executive officers, chief information officers, project managers and IT managers. The registration deadline is July 5. Attendance is free but limited places are available.

www.6pmplc.com

Mr Barry is a director and head of business intelligence at 6pm, with experience of implementing EDM systems at the NHS in the UK.