Contributed by
Rosa Bonali
The idea of striving for the “paperless office” to save trees has been around for decades, and today seems more a utopia, than an achievable goal. On the other hand, giant leaps have been made in the last few years in our understanding of the overall environmental impact of document management, particularly in relation to the waste of natural resources, not only paper, but also printing consumables, and the energy, storage and transportation impact of working with paper documents.
In the uncertain economic climate we are currently experiencing, the risks of only paying lip service to environmental concerns are getting higher and higher, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), fighting for survival in the unforgiving corporate jungle created by the financial crisis. The collateral price for not acting timely to reduce the damage done to the environment can be heavy indeed, and includes missing a chance to achieve long-term cost savings, improve the company’s reputation and brand value, and use environmental concerns to motivate and inspire employees.
Implementing an effective Document Management System (DMS) is possibly the simplest, most cost-effective and most efficient way for businesses to reduce their environmental impact, and improve their green credentials in the short and medium term. DMS Solutions combine sustainability, relatively low initial capital investment, and proven cost efficiencies, providing SMEs and businesses in general with a golden opportunity to deliver environmental benefits, while reinforcing organizational objectives, such as increased profitability and improved customer service levels.
The key to success is to reduce the volume of documents being printed, educate users not to make unnecessary copies and improve corporate processes, in order to avoid physical documents being printed in the first place, then copied, sent and stored. If these changes are applied whenever possible, organizations can make a significant and positive difference to their environmental footprint.
So what are the major benefits of a well-designed DMS solution?
- Cost savings, first and foremost. Companies that switch from a paper-led system to a digital environment report very sizeable savings, particularly when replacing manual processes traditionally involved with documents such as invoices. The direct savings achieved by foregoing the costs of sourcing paper and consumables, printing, folding, inserting into envelopes, franking and posting can be staggering.
- Improved customer service – the importance of this point cannot be stressed enough, and should be a great selling point for any company. In a DMS scenario, documents are made available to customers and their business partners more speedily, in a format that allows easy and quick search, retrieval and electronic storage.
- Reduced administration burden – documents can be retrieved much more easily and efficiently when electronic searches are carried out directly from the user’s desk, eliminating the time needed to physically file, locate, retrieve and return a paper folder. Electronic documents are immediately ready to be attached to records in a database, or to email messages, saving time traditionally spent at fax and photocopy machines.
- Improved efficiency – Unlike their paper originals, electronic documents can be made accessible whenever and wherever you can connect to the web, whether you are travelling or in a meeting. Moreover, more than one user, in any company location, can view the same important documents immediately, and at the same time, straight from their desks.
- Security – access to documents can be managed securely and tailored to complex situations, through different levels of authority. Additional security features can include audit trails, showing who has accessed or updated documents; the ability to encrypt document contents; better disaster recovery provisions, by having a copy of all your vital documents in electronic format, so that they can be easily backed up and stored at different locations.
A well-designed DMS solution is likely to be welcome and embraced by management, employees, and the whole of the supply chain, provided it matches the following charactestics:
- Ease of use – it is vital that employees and business partners alike feel that your new way to manage documents is an improved process that brings great additional benefits all-round, such as a free online storage and archiving facility, ease of retrieval of documentation, as well as a sizeable reduction in carbon emissions.
- Intuitive search facility – this is the real strength of modern DMSs, so it is vital that users are able to retrieve documents quickly and efficiently based on either full-text indexing or a keyword indexing system. The efficiency savings achievable through an easy-to-understand, powerful Search facility can be huge.
- Flexibility – whether you are a large organisation, with distributed offices and partners in a variety of locations and scenarios, or a smaller company, protecting your legacy investments, it is important that the DMS you use is designed to work in a variety of situations. It should be compatible with a large number of scanners, must display correctly on all the major browsers, and produce standard format documents from your scanned files.
- Integration – in most situations, a DMS is likely to benefit from the possibility of integration with other applications, by-passing the need for reports and other documents to be created in paper format in the first place. It is wise to check that your DMS supplier can provide middleware solutions to enable you to produce and distribute corporate forms and documents in digital format.
- Adaptability – a DMS Solution provider will prove their worth by the importance they place on carrying out a thorough needs assessment of your company’s processes, to ensure that they can design the most efficient and effective solution that is right for you, and matches your exact requirements.
Reducing carbon emissions and minimising paper usage can save costs, provide better efficiencies and a more satisfying working environment, proving that going green is not just a challenge, but a great opportunity.