The 'Paperless' Office - Document Management System Must-Haves

A recent study by Fujitsu Computer Products of America and the AIIM Board found that 46% of small to medium sized businesses have experienced a decrease in annual revenues, and 38% have seen their profitability fall flat. This trend has challenged businesses in this economy to come up with creative ways to give their company a competitive advantage. Two main options for success include; expanding your market and growing your business despite the downturn or cutting costs and streamlining operations in order to encourage profitability.

A document management solution is one of the most cost effective ways to take your office into the ‘paperless age’ and reduce expenses. Statistics show that the amount of discarded office paper each year is measured at 4 million tons. On average each office worker will go through about 150 pounds of paper a year… now consider how much that is unnecessarily costing your company. It can add up quick. Couple that with the costs of filing, storing and retrieving paper within your organization – especially if you are required to store records for any length of time.

Documents can be electronically captured in several different formats, and can then be easily retrieved. Storing documents on your hard drive greatly reduces costs in the areas of administrative support, print, mail and storage. You’ll help the environment by using less paper, and you will be better able to streamline your business by automating document distribution, and greatly reduce the need for duplicate data entry. Reducing paper usage makes sense all the way around and benefits everyone involved.

The right document management and workflow solution will do the following:

• Integrate with your ERP solution
• Reduce data entry steps
• Improve accuracy
• Strengthen accounting controls
• Keep track of your important documents in a secure location

More than just a document repository, document management solutions now have electronic workflow modules, the ability to automate to your specific business rules, and automatic distribution to the appropriate people within your organization. This provides you with faster invoice processing and smoother annual audits. Ultimately, this kind of solution can help you reduce overall operating costs, increase efficiencies so resources can be applied to other areas.