Never Lose Another File
Four Reasons Why the Time Is Right to Adopt Document Management

Where's the latest client services contract? What's the medical history on this patient? Where is the case filing from last year's lawsuit? Why can't we seem to find the documents we need?

If you're like most small to midsize businesses today, you can recall a time when you had to rummage through thousands of files -- just to get your hands on the one you needed. And if you're a company in the highly regulated accounting, finance or healthcare world, you may encounter this frustrating scenario almost every day.

Worse yet, the amount of data produced and retained by companies continues to soar -- with no real end in sight.

So how can your company become more effective at organizing and locating important documents and files -- while reducing the headaches and risk associated with lost documents?

One great place to start is with an automated document management solution -- a solution that dramatically increases accessibility, security and cost savings.

If you're like most SMBs, however, you're intrigued by the idea of switching from traditional paper to digital documentation -- but view the process as a daunting, and perhaps costly, task.

The good news is that reduced pricing structures and new product innovations can eliminate many of your worries. Consider the five reasons why now may be the time for your company to adopt a document management solution.

1. Declining Hardware and Software Costs
Historically, document capture and indexing has been a time-intensive, manual process that ultimately costs businesses large amounts of money.

Recently, however, document management solutions are more affordable than ever, thanks to new market trends, increased competition between manufacturers and a renewed focus on the SMB market. Furthermore, the number of product choices available -- and the quality of features offered in each solution -- are further driving the demand for these systems.

As costs for document management hardware and software continue to decline, more SMBs are discovering the tool that many Fortune 500 firms have had for years -- an easy-to-use document management solution that helps keep their businesses on the fast track to efficiency.

2. Increased Awareness of Regulations
If your company is in a highly regulated industry, you may also turn to document management solutions to help address the growing number of government regulations.

As compliance with such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which regulates corporate financial disclosures, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which addresses the privacy and security of medical records, becomes a mandate, the need and demand for electronic filing grows.

With document management solutions in place, you company can improve its data quality, assure regulatory compliance, and reduce costs by making sure that up-to-date information is easily accessible by the right people.

3. Surge in Popularity
The availability of document management solutions designed and priced for SMBs, coupled with declining hardware costs, have contributed to an increased demand among midsize companies, which, like larger firms, want to find better ways to drive efficiencies through increased automation and comply with government regulations surrounding document archival and retrieval.

If your company is thinking about jumping into the document management game, you're certainly not alone.

As a whole, document management has grown about 20 percent in the last five years, and industry analysts expect the market to grow even more -- especially in the SMB niche. Why?

Document and information management technologies can have a dramatic impact on enhancing internal business efficiency and customer service.

According to the VARBusiness Market Insight Report, which polled more than 600 midmarket and enterprise IT managers, document management solutions rank among the top five solutions buyers cited as spending priorities for the next 12 months. More specifically, one-third of midmarket IT decision makers say document management systems are high on their priority list for the next 12 months.

Survey respondents say document management solutions -- printers and scanners integrated with storage and archiving systems -- are an essential component to three other major goals: streamlining business processes (66 percent), backup and disaster recovery (45 percent), and regulatory compliance (33 percent).

4. New Product Innovations
In the last 12 months, the market has witnessed several new advancements in document management technology that can now bring even more functionality to SMBs like yours. Consider the following innovations:

One-Touch Scanning
Many of today's low-cost scanners offer one-touch scanning, which makes it easy for SMBs to digitize paper documents. These scanners are designed so that pressing one button takes the user all the way through the scanning task, instead of only launching the program. Advanced users can quickly learn to customize the buttons for even more power.

Some scanners also offer high-speed USB 2.0 interfaces, enabling them to deliver extremely fast imaging -- scanning a full-color page at 300 dpi in less than 15 seconds.

Plus, many devices also feature patented scanning technologies, 2400 x 4800 optical resolution, two-way scanning, robust image management and editing software -- all to provide a powerful scanning solution at an equally incredible value.

All-in-one Devices
These devices, often called multifunction printers (MFPs), have been around awhile, but many now offer enhanced networking capabilities and processing speeds that boost their popularity as front-end document capture devices.

Not only do these devices offer small business owners a one-stop resource for document faxing, scanning, printing and copying, they can also become easy-to-use methods of moving information between the paper and digital worlds.

For example, some devices now offer double-feed detection capabilities that reduce the likelihood of duplicate document imaging. Other devices offer one-pass duplex scanning technology, which enables both sides of a document to be captured at the same time. Plus, some drivers improve the image data appearance in documents by letting users combine two or four pages of scanned documents to create a single image or divide them into two separate images.

Built-in Software
Many desktop scanners now deliver increased value for budget-conscious SMBs by including built-in management and image-enhancement software. This software enables users to scan, convert, capture and import documents quickly and easily -- with no additional cash outlay.

Recent applications even help users import documents into their databases -- a feature that simplifies document indexing by intuitively recognizing and extracting keyword fields, bar codes, and handwritten text. Furthermore, wizard-driven software can also make it easier for SMBs to maintain and customize solutions after the initial installation.

In addition, cost-effective software suites now offer comprehensive solutions for managing paper and digital documents -- and often include productivity-enhancing features such as automatic workflow and version control.

If your company is ready to jump in the game with document management, we can help you consider all your hardware and software options -- enabling you to take advantage of the growing market selection and decreasing cost. Call us today to get started.

What Is Document Management?

Document management systems are computer systems used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. Typically, they are comprised of a number of layers:

• an optical scanner and optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert paper documents into an electronic form
• a database management system to organize stored documents
• a search mechanism or data management interface to quickly find specific documents

When a document is scanned in using an optical scanner, the OCR software coverts the document into a searchable PDF file that is than stored in the database management server library or archive system and is searchable using an interface or search mechanism.