Document Management

Each year ITEX brings in the big guns, unleashing an arsenal of new information and product to help the office channel. The ITEX strike force is again in motion with its tenth show to address the current state of the “office economy.” Each year they find and deliver red hot information to industry providers that’s aimed at ramping up their arsenal of business tools. The annual tradition of arming the evolving Dealer, VAR, ISV, CTO and other providers in the channel has ITEX delivering key information to help organizations widen their knowledge on new innovations for product and supplies, service and IT, on document solutions or emerging programs such as MPS. Bottom line?  ITEX assists providers in repositioning their business models to magnify profits.

Professionals in office technology have found that the environment has shifted due to the “new economy” and are looking for answers; to address the changes along with their customers’ demands for cost-efficient and conveniently acquired product and services. Within this transformation, providers see the need to integrate & merge offerings of hardware, software and services to become better, single-source providers to their customers in order capture and retain market share

As providers evolve into “hybrids,” ITEX breaks it down and provides an actionable tool kit.

By utilizing DocuWare, Bozeman Deaconess Hospital has saved $20,000 a month! Patient care has improved significantly and wait times have been reduced because information is readily available to both patients and staff. DocuWare is being used to manage outpatient lab records across a multi-site environment, collect payments from insurance companies faster, as well as store radiology scripts, insurance cards and signed release forms.

Bozeman Deaconess Hospital’s primary objective is providing quality healthcare to individuals and their families. The hospital is an 86-bed, full service, not-for-profit hospital located in Bozeman, Montana, serving 85,000 people in a 90 mile radius and drawing additional patients from surrounding counties.

As the medical needs of the community grew, the hospital expanded its services to allow patients to have lab work done in any one of three locations. The pressing need for a better way to manage patient records and laboratory results across a multi-site system caused the hospital to investigate implementing an electronic document management system not only for the laboratory, but for other areas of the hospital as well.

Are You Asking Yourself…

• How much am I really spending on desktop, workgroup, internal production print, and outside print services?
• How do our total document expenses compare to those of our key competitors?
• What factors contribute to these costs?
• How much money can we save and how?
• How much of an investment in time and money is needed to assess my document costs?
• Does this require a detailed on-site audit?

Challenges

• Getting to the true cost of documents across your organization
• Cost reductions
• Determining peer performance & benchmarking
• Developing an enterprise document strategy
• Increasing efficiency & optimization

Introduction & Objectives
The proliferation of output devices such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and scanners has significantly contributed to the dramatic increase in document output volume and cost over the years. While the majority of today’s organizations acknowledge the potential savings from better document management, many still lack the understanding and expertise to address the problem. Third-party providers including office equipment manufacturers, document outsourcing firms, and independent service providers are offering assessment services that focus on identifying costs and inefficiencies around document output.

The average office worker spends up to half of their workday searching for simple information! No wonder it’s hard to increase production. A digital document storage system will not only increase worker productivity, but also reduce company costs.

Lost documents create ripples of inefficiency throughout any organization. Although small and medium sized organizations are often hit harder than large corporations, the effect is devastating across the board. In paper-based environments, digital document storage is a great alternative. These systems provide an easy-to-use, secure document storage alternative to ultimately boost productivity and reduce operating expenses.

Any business whether it’s healthcare facilities, legal firms, financial services or educational institutions, has to deal with an inordinate amount of documents.  When digging through a dusty file cabinet for a case study or client information, at the back of any file clerk or assistant’s mind is the question “Isn’t there a better way?”

Anyone who deals with paper on a regular basis has dreamed of having their paper information on their computer.  Now that the price of hardware space has decreased, the possibility of integrating an electronic document management system is more appealing than ever. 

I was recently browsing the internet when I came across a website claiming it could tell me exactly how much my life was worth as a human being.  Intrigued, I filled out a survey that asked questions about my physical, mental, lifestyle and personality factors.  Once completed it broke down every aspect of my answers and gave me an exact number of my life’s worth—$2,327,896 to be exact. 

I began wondering, if there is a method to determine something as intangible as the price of a human life, certainly any other object could be also be weighed and measured.  Businesses everywhere know the value of a document, but how much is it really worth?  While the question remains of why researchers would find interest in determining the life worth of a piece of paper, I did find an answer.  Research has shown that over a document’s lifetime the cost of handling, storing and shipping a single paper document can easily reach up to $30.

First, there is the cost of the paper itself, just a few cents to begin with, but we’re only getting started.  Then there is the cost of storage.  This can include anything from file folders, file cabinets and storage boxes to the extra office storage space you have to rent.

When a company wants to go paperless and begins to scan the contents of their filing cabinets into a document management system many are surprised to find many files previously thought to be lost.

When it comes to document storage, filing cabinets are simple things with no brain. We’re provided a drawer and a key and the rest of the work is left up to us. There’s no advice on where to put documents, we’re not told exactly where certain documents can be found, documents aren’t automatically routed to the right people in workflow, and our key certainly can’t be taken away to stop our access to the files.

Filing cabinets have gained the reputation as the office “Bermuda Triangle” of lost documents. Over the years multiple people in the office file, misplace and not return documents to the filing cabinets. As people organize to their own standards and methods, documents are inevitably filed in the wrong places and the next time a file is needed, it can’t be found.

ARMA—the national association of Records Managers and the independent authority on Records Information Management (RIM) has made public their Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP). As ARMA says in their preamble, “As a key resource in the operation of any organization, records must be created, organized, secured, maintained, and used in a way that effectively supports the activity of that organization.”

Are you interested in going paperless? Do you want to see how document efficiency can help your office go green? If your business is interested in the concepts behind records management, or is looking to implement document management software, this website is a great way to start obtaining information.

Document and content management involves the transformation of paper files into a digital format. A document management system can cover areas such as security, disaster recovery, collaboration, and printer management.

If an organization develops and maintains its content and documents effectively, the information that is in your system can save your company time and money. If not handled properly, however, content and documents can decrease your company’s productivity.

The migration from paper to pixels has changed more than a few companies. The task can involve major changes to workflow and transform your company into the best it can be. Digging through old documents and records can be a long and exhausting process. With a document management system, all of these troubles can be taken care of and your business can become much more organized.

Interactions with your clients generate a lot of paper work including consultations, office visits, contracts and invoices. In order to manage the vast amount of documents and information that inundates your office, it is imperative to have an innovative and efficient system that allows for easy storage and quick retrieval. With a document management system, you will be able to access all of your documents from the convenience of your computer’s desktop without sacrificing information security. Whether you are in the medical industry, education, or other professional services, a document management system can fit your business.

With a document management system, you can easily create custom folders to manage all your company’s information. The integration of a document management system allows for a more efficient and cost effective way to grow your business and improve customer service. The system endows you with an accessible and user-friendly access point for all client records. The system takes you one step closer to a paperless environment by making it easier to replace your bulky filing cabinets with streamlined hard drives.

Document management systems capture and store the scanned documents using a simple multifunction system. You can easily convert paper documents to a digital format. Once you have a digital document, you can easily pass them from department to department and even to your clients. Retrieving documents has never been easier. Instead of sifting through hundreds of paper files, you can call up documents by keyword or date.