Let’s face it, doing nothing is always the easiest option even though deep down you know you could do things better. It is easy for anything to take priority ahead of how efficiently you are operating your business.

The result of this is that year on year your valuable time, resource and money are wasted in carrying out mundane tasks which frankly don’t move the business forward.

So, if you know all this, what has stopped you doing something about it and shouldn’t it be your New Year’s resolution to change this?

Many studies have shown that the way to control and manage information key to your business is to adopt and implement an electronic document management system.

To help you, in this article we aim to take you through what needs to be done and what you shouldn’t do in streamlining your processes.

So What is electronic document management?

Simply put, this is the strategic means by which you store, categorise, share and organise information critical to your business via increasingly a cloud-based software platform. But electronic document management can do so much more.

The ability to easily find documents and information you require is a given, it is also the ability to standardise your document related processes and by doing so will have an immediate positive impact on how you work, react and serve your customers.

So let us take a little time to explore how electronic document management achieves this.

Document Searching: locate your documents immediately via title or text content
Central Document Hub: manage all your important documents in a single location
Version Controls: explore the different versions of your documents to ensure you are always referring to the most recent one.
Categorisation: categorise your documents based on specified criteria
File Sharing: share files between members of your team and third parties.
Automating Existing Processes: fully automate existing manual processes to the click of a mouse.

Why do you need online document management?

In recent years surveys and studies have revealed some alarming statistics in respect of those businesses continuing to work with paper files.

They have concluded that businesses continuing to work with paper faced:

Reduced efficiency: Misfiling happens so easily that it’s estimated that an employee spends an hour of their time looking for it – and large organisations lose one document every 12 seconds. How much time do your employees spend looking for information? Searching through archive boxes and lever arch files. Further, the document may be held offsite in another office or within specialist secure storage requiring time to retrieve it (assuming you know where it is) or worse staff traveling to retrieve it.
Paper wastage: The average UK office worker uses around 10,000 sheets of paper each year – with 68% being wasted predominantly due to printer issues.
Paper security Issues: As many as 20% of print jobs are never retrieved from printers This leaves sensitive data at risk – available to anyone who passes by. In addition, information may be vulnerable if you don’t have paper shredders or a secure document disposal process in place.
Data Security compliance: Businesses are legally responsible for protecting customer and employee data as part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Recent headlines have already picked up on organisations failing the guidelines and are facing large fines. GDPR replaces the Data Protection Act 1998 and places greater responsibility on how organisations handle personal data. You need to ensure that data is being processed securely and that measures are in place to avoid unauthorised access or accidental loss.
Disaster vulnerability: Disasters such as Fire or Flood can easily devastate your paper records – costly if records are not backed up, Businesses often consider backing up electronic records and computer equipment as part of their business continuity plans, but paperwork is often overlooked until it’s too late. Paperwork backup should be considered as part of your disaster recovery planning.
Slow Customer Service: Want to gain a march on your competitor? Build on your customer base and accounts? You really need to think about your overall customer experience. Manual paper led processes can slow your response, from order to deliver. The manual process of data entry, verification and checking can be both slow and labour intensive.
Keeping on top of the audit trail: The volume of paperwork required for an audit can be overwhelming and time consuming if not managed properly. And audits are required across the functions of an organisation including financial audits, health & Safety & quality management processes, asset management and environmental reporting. Many of these documents need to be stored for long periods of time and create issues with office space.
Restricted Access: Large businesses with multiple office locations, along with SME’s requiring flexible access to their records due to remote working, face real issues with paper records. It can require multiple photocopies being made and stored in various office locations – not ideal in cost, time and access.

How to best manage your documents online?

Doing anything properly requires a little thought and preparation and managing your information online is no exception.

Think about how you currently work, are these methods fit for purpose or do they simply exist to mask your current inefficiencies?
Which documents do you receive, transmit and retain, who requires access to these and who should be excluded from them?
Consider how you currently process documents, who is involved and what do they do with these documents
What is the lifespan of your documents, and do you have a process to dispose of them safely beyond this time within regulatory directives?

By properly considering these practices, you will ensure that existing procedures are scrutinised and you will be better placed to replicate them or more likely improve them when working electronically.

Your data security should be paramount

Whilst managing sensitive documents online can never be considered risk free however it is generally considered significantly safer than paper.

To ensure your data is protected and only ever accessible to the right people it is critical to put in place strict security measures which should include:

Setting permission levels: determine who has access to your data, what they can see and their powers of administration.
Using a secure platform: ensure the platform you use delivers the most rigorous security standards and that these are constantly monitored and updated
Backing up your critical information: ideally ensure your servers are backed up regularly and ideally in more than one location.

How to choose a document management system that is right for you?

Once you have taken the decision that electronic document management is right for your business the next consideration is which solution to adopt from the many available.

Whilst most provide similar base functionality, there are a number of elements your chosen platform should provide.

Let’s look at some of the essential elements:

1- Cloud storage

Over recent years business has moved away from the more traditional server-based document management systems in favour of those cloud based.

Whilst the former are still available, they are increasingly being seen as a greater drain on resource as servers obviously require a programme of maintenance and upgrade. These issues are of course non applicable in the case of cloud-based systems where all such support falls within your annual subscription.

2- Management of your documents

As the title suggests, the principal benefit of an electronic document management system is to manage your documents.

It should be capable of doing this in a manner which suits completely your way of working and allows instant access to information but only to those with expressed permission.

All BPMS cloud solutions provide as standard the following:

Instant archival and retrieval documents
Highly secure environment, backed up at multiple locations
Strict permission only access to individual file level
Full version control
Full automation of your processes and approvals

3- Seamless integration with your existing applications

One of the real benefits of adopting a cloud-based document management solution is the ability to integrate with and share data between your existing software applications.

This technology allows information to be referenced from a single location, as opposed to continually moving from one application to the next.

You can be therefore certain that in a single search request you are able to access all the information available, delivering pinpoint efficiency.

4- Automated Workflow Process

This is perhaps the biggest plus point in revolutionising and dramatically improving the efficiency of how you work.

More or less any process you are currently undertaking manually can be replicated automatically using a document management system.

From accounts payable invoice approval to employee recruitment every stage can be activated automatically including sign offs using the latest digital signature technology. All processes are tailored to replicate your existing protocols so nothing changes it just becomes much faster and more efficient.

Every aspect of the process is fully audited too so you know exactly where you are at any given part of the process allowing you to be very responsive.

5- Scalable but not over scaled

It is obviously important that any solution you invest in should be capable of growing with your business and its needs.

Having stated the obvious, it is equally important that the solution you are adopting is not over specified which can lead to confusion, employee resistance and of course unnecessary initial costs.

BPMS have decades of experience in delivering document management solutions to many clients across numerous sectors.

All our solutions are carefully prescribed having first taken the necessary time to understand your business, its current and future objectives and how best to accommodate these.

For help with all of your electronic document management requirements please get in touch with us and allow our experienced consultants to work with you in delivering absolutely the right solution for your needs, both now and ongoing.