Document management - Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse or the Software Before the Plan

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Document management is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. Despite the advances in technologies over the past couple of decades, paper is still an ongoing issue. Many people are used to working with paper in their hands instead of looking solely at electronic screen. Many legal documents still require paper copies. All of this means many new businesses are looking for document management solutions. Document imaging has become a popular solution. Once the business no longer needs a paper copy, the company scans the document into electronic image and destroys the original. To manage these images, many companies use document management software.

Businesses face many legal requirements on retaining documents a certain length of time. Retention of documents can range from months to years to even indefinite periods. If they should fail to retain the document, a business could face stiff fines or legal penalties. That makes document management solutions critical in many businesses. Most jurisdictions allow electronic document imaging in place of retaining the originals. Using document management software, a company can pull up the required documents when needed. That makes document management a much easier than going through hundreds of filing cabinets.

Document management software is not a single solution. There must be a comprehensive document management plan in place as well. The company must identify the document in some way. Many times, it is by customer number or invoice number. That ties the document back to something the company would understand. Once the company no longer needs the original, the company uses document imaging to save the file. For example, if they were looking for particular invoice associated with the customer, they can look up the document by either the customer number or a known invoice number. Document management solutions are growing part of the business world.

Are you investigating document management solutions? Look at your company as a whole. Create a plan before committing to document management software. Purchasing software without a plan is like contracting to have a house built without architectural plans. Don't put the cart before the horse. Another factor to consider is the additional costs involved. Document imaging will probably put be part of that plan. That will require some hardware as well as software. You can drastically reduce the amount of paper required in your business with a little bit of thinking. You should do document management with a bit of planning and lots of thinking.