Top 5 Ways to Manage Documents That Can Reduce Operational Costs

CFOs and CIOs looking for ways to cut costs and increase productivity already know that good document management can pay for itself within months. Digital document management (sometimes referred to as "enterprise content management" or ECM) reduces man hours and therefore costs by automating workflows and eliminating time-consuming manual tasks.

The Nucleus Research Document Management ROI study found that small and medium businesses (SMBs) return $8.55 for every $1 spent. A Nucleus Research report reveals key benefits and best practices for small and medium businesses to start saving every dollar and win back employee time.

Five ways to save on operating costs:

1. Storage costsMoving from paper documents to digital document management means you no longer have to pay to store and maintain hard copies of your business records on site or offsite. -website.

2. Copy and print costsDigital document management eliminates need to print and store paper documents. In today's telecommuting environment, we all need digital files that can be shared securely and instantly, not hard copies.

In a document management system, everything from letters and emails to invoices and contracts is stored digitally. Current copies of these electronic documents are stored in centralized storage of system and are available to all authorized users. Version control ensures that everyone is working on latest document. The results of this? Employees save time and companies save money on printing, supplies and equipment.

3. Staff Hours

Employees spend less time storing, searching and sharing documents. Tasks that would take minutes or hours to complete with a paper-based manual system can take seconds with a digital document management system. This is a huge advantage for HR department. They can simplify recruitment, automate all onboarding tasks, protect employee files in encrypted repositories to meet privacy and regulatory requirements, and control timing of their performance evaluations. HR staff can also eliminate redundant data collection by using web forms to collect employee data.

4. Business process costsAutomated workflows streamline business processes in accounting, sales, customer service, human resources and other departments. Take advantage of a streamlined workflow management system to speed up payment collection, reduce purchasing costs, and increase customer satisfaction and employee retention.

5. Security and disaster recovery costs

Backing up documents is very easy if you use a cloud solution. Document management systems such as DocuWare Cloud protect critical business information by encrypting documents and messages, separating customer data from system data, and storing data securely. Multiple backups of data to ensure that data can be restored even if active system is unavailable. Even mobile users can securely access sensitive data, and with powerful logging and analytics capabilities, organizations can record who (and when) opened, modified, or deleted documents.

Discuss five ways digital document management can reduce costs. This is a great opportunity to implement effective processes that ensure company's flexibility and responsiveness to a changing business environment.