Document Management – What is it and Why Do you Need It?

In its simplest form, Document Imaging is the practice of converting your paper-based records to electronic files. Once these files are converted, they are indexed by specific ‘keyword’ information, stored in a structured system, and retrieved through your company’s network or over the Internet. Document Imaging alone can help an organization generate new efficiencies and dramatic cost savings, such as eliminating the costs associated with storing paper.

Document Management takes Document Imaging several steps further. document management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of paper-based, or electronic (i.e. Word, Excel, email) documents. Document Management provides a simple and efficient way to input, retrieve, manage revisions (managing multiple versions of a document), collaborate, track and retain all of the unstructured data that doesn’t already exist in your organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and other computer systems.

Why Document Management is a ‘Must Have’
Document Management experts report that today up to 90 percent of all corporate information resides on paper or some type of unstructured format. Further, the Document Management technology available today requires little or no organizational change while providing amazing benefits. That’s why Document Imaging and Document Management solutions are becoming must-have technologies for organizations of any size.

When we look at running a business, there’s typically an unrecognized cost of operating and maintaining a paper-based filing system. Although companies have to use paper, many industries and organizations become inundated with it. Medical practices, law firms, real estate and lending companies are all paper-intensive industries. Managing that volume of documentation is, for most, a time-consuming, labor-intensive, customer-facing process that eats away at the bottom line.

Take the medical industry, for instance. Doctors’ offices have an entire wall full of paper files and an established routine of pulling and re-filing patient charts. Study after study shows that even in these highly organized paper-based systems, it still takes an average of six minutes to pull and re-file a chart.

Now keep in mind that this six-minute statistic is drawn from highly efficient paper-based filing systems. The small to mid-sized business (SMB) today can expect a slightly longer timeframe to pull and re-file a contract, accounting record, personnel file, or any of the other documents that may be needed on a day-to-day basis. This unnecessary time spent searching for files or pulling documents adds up to money wasted and efficiencies lost.

Here is further research from Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), on the time and money spent on paper in today’s typical organization:

• Of all the pages that get handled each day in the average office, 90 percent are merely shuffled.
• The average document gets copied 19 times.
• Companies spend $20 in labor to file a document, $120 in labor to find a misfiled document, and $220 in labor to reproduce a lost document.
• 7.5 percent of all documents get lost, 3 percent of the remainder get misfiled.
• Professionals spend 5-15 percent of their time reading information, and up to 50 percent of their time looking for it.
• There are over 4 trillion paper documents in the U.S. alone – growing at a rate of 22 percent per year.

As with many technologies, today’s Document Imaging and Document Management solutions are far more affordable than those sold in the 1990’s. The primary reason for this dramatic price decrease is the lower cost of hardware. For instance, a scanner manufactured in the early 90’s that scanned eight pages per minute through its automatic document feeder (ADF) cost upwards of $30,000 and would easily take up half of a desk. Today, some entry-level scanners can process up to 66 images per minute and are on average the size of a household toaster. In addition, the street price for these efficient, smaller form factor machines weighs in at under $1,000.

And yet with hardware becoming more affordable, the decrease in software price has not followed suit. Most imaging systems available today still carry a low to mid five-figure price tag for the software alone. For an enterprise company, this cost is justified given the large volumes of documents. However, SMBs cannot justify such a high cost of entry and most cost analyses offer unrealistic volume assumptions for the small business. Consider the following scenario:

1. Company generates or receives 100 important paper documents per day that must be filed.
2. documents x 6 minutes to file each = 600 minutes filing per day.
3. 600 minutes per day = 10 man-hours per day.
4. man-hours per day x $15 per hour (inclusive of benefits and burdens) = $150 per day.
5. $per day x 250 working days per year = $37,500 per year.

If a company commands these volumes, the associated costs are accurate and the above analysis is a great tool to show how companies can save time and money by implementing a Document Management system. Yet again, many SMBs can’t afford such a large investment given their smaller volumes.

For example, a typical SMB may only receive or generate 20 important paper documents a day that must be filed. Using the same example as above, if the same calculation formula was used, filing these 20 documents in a paper-based system will cost up to $7,500 per year. And that is only the ‘time cost’ of a paper-based system – there are still many other hidden costs, such as off-site storage expenses, on-site space usage, filing supplies and document distribution expenses including overnight shipping and mailing.

Further, the above analysis does not take into consideration that in paper-based systems, not all documents can be found. Whether someone misfiled the document or it is sitting on someone’s desk, lost or misfiled documents cost companies time and money.

So, what’s the going average for lost or misfiled documents? According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, “7.5 percent of all documents get lost and 3 percent of the remainder are misfiled.” This means that, on average, roughly 1out of 10 documents can’t be retrieved as quickly, as they should, if at all. Taking this further, paper-based files can only be in one place at a time. Therefore, files are typically copied and re-filed, both of which can cost businesses a significant amount of money.

Understanding the True Cost of Managing Paper
As mentioned before, there can be many hidden costs to a paper-based system. Storage is a prime example. A larger organization that stores documents offsite through a service averages 20 to 50 cents per box, per month and upwards of $10 per retrieval. However, many organizations overlook the costs of storing documents on-site. The average four-drawer filing cabinet requires eight square feet to operate (that’s accounting for the cabinet’s footprint and the space to open the drawers). These costs can add up. Here’s an example:

Let’s take an average of $1 per square foot lease cost for office space. A single file cabinet will cost a company $96 per year in space cost alone. With electronic document management, the average image scanned at 200 to 300 dots per inch (dpi) requires about 50KB of disk space. That means companies can store around million pages on a 50GB hard drive. For $50 a company can store the equivalent of 100, 4-drawer file cabinets full of paper on a single, 50GB hard drive.

The costs outlined to this point are quantifiable hard costs. In other words, they are costs that can be easily calculated and directly attributed to a paper-filing system. In most organizations, these are the only costs taken into account when justifying the purchase of an imaging system. Oftentimes, these costs are enough justification given they are the quantifiable and absolute.

Soft cost, however, can be difficult, if not impossible to quantify, as part of the cost justification or ROI (return on investment). Yet, they can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. Enhanced productivity and better customer service are just a couple of the many soft cost considerations. Others include:

• The ability to answer a client’s questions and email or fax supporting documents with just a few mouse clicks while they are still on the phone can prove to be a great customer retention tool.
• Allowing multiple users access to the same document, at the same time, while minimizing the risk of being misfiled, can also show soft cost savings by improving an organization’s productivity.

Document Management technology today provides many benefits that are impossible to achieve in paper-based filing systems. For instance, imaging systems today typically index every word on every page for search and retrieval. Companies are not limited to specific key fields such as client name or transaction date to search. For example, assume a company wants to locate every document that exists in the organization referring to Product “X.” In a manual filing system, this would take an enormous amount of time if it could be accomplished at all. With electronic filing, this process takes just seconds.

Lastly, electronic Document Management systems can assure that an organization is prepared for the worst of scenarios. The natural disasters that have impacted our world in recent times including tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes have been a somber awakening. Beyond the tragic loss of life, many businesses and government agencies struggled to maintain business continuity and found themselves at a standstill, uncertain of what to do next. The lack of a solid business continuity plan is crippling. Further, these disasters have shown that having all your companies assets on paper can bring business to a screeching halt.

According to Gartner Inc., two out of five organizations that experience major data or records loss due to a natural or man-made disaster go out of business within five years. With an appropriate Document Management system in place, companies have the ability to store backups of their records offsite, which greatly increases the likelihood of organizational survival if a business is struck with disaster. In many cases, a business can have its documents restored in a matter of hours and be able to continue operations.

Taking a Realistic Approach to Quantifiable Costs
When analyzing a company’s current paper-based filing system versus an electronic system, it is important to look at all costs from a realistic perspective. The safest route to justify the procurement of an electronic system is to only focus on those quantifiable costs. Although soft costs, such as better customer service, are often a lure into the purchase of such systems, the hard cost savings alone should justify the purchase. However, it is important to be certain that hard costs are realistic. If any component of the hard cost models shown above is exaggerated, the justification can be skewed.

Paper Filing System Document Imaging/Management System
Document Retrieval - Can take minutes to days.

• Onsite documents (if properly filed/re-filed) are retrieved relatively quickly.
• Archived files stored off-site take much longer and cost far greater to retrieve.
• Document retrieval is limited to basic file information such as client number, transactions date, etc.
• All documents (working and archived) can be searched and retrieved in seconds from your PC from anywhere in the world via a Web connection.
• Document retrieval is enhanced.
• You are not limited to only key index information but can search every word on every page in your entire document repository.

Missing/Lost Documents - On average, 7.5% of all documents get lost and 3% of the remainder get misfiled.¹

• Lost documents are costly to reproduce and can have legal ramifications.
• Missing documents can take up to 10 times the amount of time to retrieve as properly filed documents.
• Once a document is in the system, it can never become lost.
• With proper backup procedures in place, disaster recovery can occur very quickly.

Document Filing - Can take minutes to days.

• Requires manual document filing.
• PC-based input and/or automated filing features dramatically reduce filing time.

Document Collaboration - Impossible unless copies are made.

• The average document get copied 19 times during its life.¹
• Since the documents are digital, multiple users can access the same file at the same time.

Document Output/Delivery - Mailing physical documents can take days while express courier services can be extremely costly.

• Faxing is a better solution but still carries costs and document quality is degraded.
• Instantly print, fax or email document to anyone in the world.
• You can also grant secure, direct access from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Storage Requirements - Roughly 1 file cabinet per 10,000 pages stored.

• Each cabinet will require roughly 8 square feet of office space (enough for the cabinet’s footprint with its drawers open).
• Files reside on electronic media.
• On average, 50KB or electronic storage is required per black & white image. This calculates to roughly 20,000 pages per GB or million pages per 50GB. A 50GB hard drive can be purchased for under $50.

Security - Lock and key security only.

• Either an individual has physical access or they do not. Inability to set multiple security levels for a single file folder.
• Multiple levels of security to access documents.
• Rights-based security levels can be applied so that only specific users can perform specific actions (such as deleting a file).

Disaster Recovery

• Inherently vulnerable to acts of man or nature.
• With proper backup procedures in place, off-site copies of the backup can be used to restore a system on new hardware in a very short time frame.

¹Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

Conclusion – Put Document Management to Work for You
Today’s businesses are continually looking for efficiencies and cost savings. An end-to-end document management system can provide SMBs with a solid business continuity plan, more efficient use of space and time, as well as, enhanced customer support. With little to no disruption to the business and a justifiable cost of entry, an electronic Document Management solution is a highly efficient solution that provides an impressive return on investment and lets businesses focus on what’s important – the bottom line.

About Davis Business Machines, Inc.
Davis Business Machines offers an integrated suite of imaging, document management, and workflow management software. Follow news, photos and video coming from Davis Business Machines by subscribing to our news feed by visiting http://www.dbm.net/articles?rss or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dbmnet. To learn more about our products and services, visit us at http://www.dbm.net or call us at 1-800-287-9326.

Smart System Design: How to Get the Information You Need from Your Document Management System, Every Time

Have you ever planned a lengthy trip to an unfamiliar place? Even if you choose an ideal location, you’ll probably be disappointed unless you define your expectations. Typically, this involves doing thorough research, gathering and organizing the information you need, and creating a detailed itinerary that reflects your expectations. If your trip requires a significant investment, you’ll most likely work hard to ensure that expectations are fulfilled.

Likewise, to get superior results from an electronic document management (EDM) system, smart vendor choice must be matched with detailed planning and intelligent system design. Whether you tackle the challenge alone or hire your vendor’s services team to help, you should start by analyzing, streamlining, and organizing the structured forms that drive your daily business processes. Insurance claims, invoices, applications, and other standardized documents all have unique properties. Each must be understood thoroughly. By asking the right questions about each document initially, you’ll eliminate costly mistakes. You’ll also increase the likelihood your EDM solution will deliver the information everyone needs – swiftly, accurately, and consistently.

EDM brings all of your core business information – unstructured documents (such as email or voice messages) as well as structured documents (such as your core business documents) – into one place where content can be searched, viewed, and managed. To ensure quick and appropriate access, you must know when, where, and by whom the content will be needed. Each document must be:

• Captured correctly
• Indexed thoroughly
• Stored in a useful format

Capture, index, access – it’s actually pretty straightforward – but only if you ask the right questions.

Capture correctly

If you’re capturing core business documents digitally, you need a structured methodology. Choosing the best method for capture – scanning, online forms, bar codes, etc. – ensures your solution will be well-matched to the type of information you need to store, but it’s just the beginning. A smart system design – the set of parameters you establish to ensure the capture process is governed by clear and logical business rules – is equally important to your success. A thorough document inventory and analysis, coupled with an appropriate scanning file for each document type, will ensure consistency and accuracy as each document type is scanned for digital storage and use.

1. Conduct a document inventory

Understanding your documents starts with a thorough inventory and analysis of the documents you use in your business. Ask yourself:

• What forms and other structured document types do we use routinely?
• Are there structured documents with similar functions that can be combined?
• What are the logical categories into which each document types should be placed (departments or broad categories such as invoices or legal documents)?

Collect a sample of each document type and analyze it carefully. Determine which content must be discoverable in response to employee needs, regulatory requirements, or third-party demands. Whatever information is critical for locating your core documents – customer name, zip code, document type, account number, amount of sale, balance due, etc. – must be indexed for quick and successful document retrieval. Consider which content needs to be locked down for restricted viewing to satisfy regulations or internal policies. Determine which groups should be authorized to view, edit, or delete specific content (such as social security numbers, medical information, or account balances) so you can assign rights accordingly.

2. Determine appropriate scanning profiles

To ensure consistent, correct, and complete scanning of the document types that are processed routinely by your business, you need to establish scanning profiles for each. This ensures the person scanning the documents will automatically have the right setup for scanning when a document type is selected. Study each document type, asking yourself if each is:

• One-sided or two-sided
• Single or multi-page
• Black and white or color
• Scanned as a single document or in batches

Also ask:

• In which format should each document be stored (PDF, TIFF, etc.)?
• What security needs to be applied to each document type, i.e., which user groups will be permitted to access the document?

Configuring the right scanning profiles for each document type simplifies the scanning process for employees and significantly reduces the incidence of errors.

Index intelligently

1. Establish required metadata

In order for documents to be found by everyone who is authorized to access them, each document must be classified thoroughly using key words, phrases, and document codes that identify the type and content of each file. A robust EDM system allows detailed indexing that goes far beyond the simple sorting most hardware allows. If you follow best practices for indexing and consult the staff who need access to the documents for their work during the information gathering process, there is no reason any document should become irretrievable… ever. Make sure you:

• Assign metadata to important data (for example, “zip code” would be the metadata that describes the data “17406” and “city” would be the metadata for “Dayton”)
• Determine the format for data in each metadata category (i.e., zip codes must be numeric, names must be alpha, customer ID numbers must be alphanumeric with 3 alpha plus 5 numeric, etc.)
• Decide which information on each document is important to ensure thorough indexing – not just to you, but to others within your organization
• Evaluate whether documents that have similar metadata categories (such as ‘ship date’ and ‘shipping date’) can be combined as one metadata object or must be kept separate

Access appropriately

1. Decide who needs access

Security concerns have increasingly taken the spotlight in recent years. All the regulation in the world can’t guarantee honesty or obedience. EDM, however, can – and will – if you choose a robust system and configure it properly. Ask yourself:

• How can our business divide its workers into logical groups and subgroups – e.g., directors, marketing team, HR team, accounting?
• Which users should belong to each group?
• Which document types does each group or subgroup need to access?
• What are the routine business processes for which each document type is used, or the specific processes that should be initiated upon receipt (digital capture) of a specific document type?
• How does each group need to interact with each document type? What user rights does each group require, e.g., viewing, editing, deleting, indexing, re-indexing, annotating, forwarding via email, etc.
• What additional metadata filters need to be put in place to permit appropriate group rights (such as allowing accounting staff to view information about amounts due, vs. blocking the data from view by marketing and HR employees)?

2. Define search parameters

Take advantage of a flexible EDM system by configuring searches that are appropriate for each group’s needs. That way, you’ll make searches more consistent, efficient, and fruitful. How does each group of users need to search for business content in your organization? Do your users need to:

• Search for information by department (accounting files, HR, etc.)?
• Query by document type (invoices, purchase requests, resumes, expense reports, etc.)?
• Locate specific content within documents? (If so, make sure that content is indexed for optimal results.)

By defining the parameters and categories for search, you’ll ensure that your staff’s searches are guided and efficient, and will supply the information workers need to carry out tasks and make appropriate decisions. If you decided carefully during the indexing planning process which information each user type needs to find on each document and created searches to retrieve it, authorized persons should be able to consistently find your documents 100% of the time.

Onward and upward

Capture, index, access. It sounds easy, and with proper planning, it is. After you have a system design in place that delivers your documents any time and place you need them, you can let your imagination run wild. Capture and storage are just starting points for effective automation of your business, but it’s critical to get it right. Invest time in careful system design so you can turn your first steps of digital efficiency into a groundswell of success.

Davis Business Machines offers an integrated suite of imaging, document management, and workflow software. Follow news, photos and video coming from Davis Business Machines by subscribing to our news feed by visiting www.dbm.net/articles?rss or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dbmnet. To learn more about our products and services, visit us at www.dbm.net or call us at 1-800-287-9326.

Why Businesses Should Utilize an Electronic Document Management System

In today’s business world, the amount of paper a business manages can be endless. With each piece of paper, someone needs to file it, space must be used to store it, and on multiple occasions, someone needs to retrieve it. When you are talking about thousands and even millions of pages of paper, this can be a very time-consuming task, and therefore a very costly task. The costs mount up quickly, in the areas of wages for employees who are responsible for filing and retrieving documents, and the areas of storage space required to house the massive amounts of paper files.

It is also an on-going, never-ending task, requiring the time of countless employees. This is time that could be better used performing the tasks that they have their personal expertise in. The opportunity costs for using a paper filing system include wasted time, delayed customer response time, and wasted floor and storage space. In other words, the efficiency of a business is very much hampered by continuing to utilize a paper filing system.

The benefits of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) are countless. With an EDMS, you will be able to take all of paper files, put them through a scanner, and them throw them away, or if your too skeptical to toss them, you can store them in some off-site storage where you will hopefully never have to look at them again. All of your files will be stored electronically, accessible almost instantly by any computer within your office at anytime. You do not have to worry about misplaced files or somebody else already having a file at their desk.

The initial cost of converting to an EDMS is usually what keeps people from doing it. This cost consists of the time and money it takes to scan all of a company’s existing files into the system. To save time, a company can pay a scanning service bureau to scan all their files for them, and this will sometimes be the cheapest method as opposed to paying an employee, who is likely less efficient, to scan the files. Whatever the method chosen, the first year cost might be heavy, but these costs should be offset within the first couple of years.

Another route that a lot of companies take is not to scan all of their backfiles into the EDMS, but to start scanning files today as they come in, and leaving all previous files as they were. This allows the company to bypass a large part of the initial costs, while still enjoying the benefits of the electronic file storage. As time goes by and the companies appreciation for the system grows, they will slowly convert their older files into electronic images, allowing them spread this cost over many months or even years.

Once a company is completely paperless and utilizing an EDMS, their efficiency is greatly increased, their response time for customer support is drastically reduced, and their overall office clutter is eliminated. These improvements convert directly to more business and higher profits.

If that’s not enough to convince you, then this will. The company is no longer at risk to having their critical business information stolen, lost, or destroyed due to some unforeseen circumstances, such as Hurricane Katrina that destroyed thousands of business’s paper records. The EDMS can backup your files offsite so nothing will ever be lost, plus its security features will prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing the documents that they shouldn’t, a very difficult task with a paper filing system.

Document Management Systems Can Enrich The Bottom Line In A Down Economy

In these undecided economic times, countless companies are faced with the challenge of how to maximize returns on stretched budgets. It's a do-more-with-less strategy that requires business operations be optimized now to meet existing economic realities.

One area to consider for improving the bottom line is to look at how information is managed throughout the organization, particularly document management. This involves all the content, things like documents, invoices, etc.; all the actions, things like reviews, and approvals; and all the processes, these are the repeatable steps that drive the flow of information. Improving how information is managed, the content, actions, and processes, will improve efficiency, reduce risk, and lead to cost savings.

There is another benefit to consider with this as well, and it's a silver lining. With any change comes opportunity, and the right kind of change now can position an organization for even greater success long term.

There are least seven ways that improvements in how information is managed can influence the bottom line in terms of efficiency, risk and cost savings, and here they are:

1. Make information findable so people can find information, instantly, every day.
   Studies have shown that among those who are involved with the flow of information, about one-half spend two hours per day looking for what they need to do their jobs. This can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars in unproductive cost per year. The aim is to cut down on the time it takes for people to find information, making them more efficient and able to complete their tasks much faster.
2. Automate business processes
   Manual processes, especially those that involve paper, have a real propensity to breakdown. As information is routed in steps, for example in review or approval cycles, it's often delayed, there are interruptions, and any number of user-influenced errors can occur. These practices are a real challenge to manage for accountability. At any point in the process, it's difficult to identify at which step the process is currently in. And looking back at completed processes, it's very difficult to identify who did what and when. Consequently, business processes tend to be slow, taking days or weeks to run their course. And it's this lack of speed, not mention the errors, that are the real burdens on efficiency. Automating processes using workflow eliminates the need for people to manage processes and allows people to focus their expertise on making decisions and adding knowledge. The flow of information is handled automatically, which not only establishes consistent processing of information, but also shortens cycle times, increases accountability, and leads to greater quality and accuracy of repeatable business process.
3. Improve collaboration
   A large number of companies still use shared file servers to store information, email to share it, and sometimes FTP to exchange files back and forth. But here's the problem: these methods are unstructured and disconnected. Managing information in this way lacks the necessary controls and collaborative tools to make the most efficient use of corporate knowledge. Files are easily duplicated or lost, information has to be re-created, and versioning is ad-hoc at best. Even worse, in some instances files are silo'd into line-of-business applications, for example a project management application that is only accessible to a few in the company. The answer to improving collaboration is creating a unified, enterprise, work environment where people and knowledge are connected company-wide. This allows all employees, no matter what area of the business they are in, to leverage the collective intelligence of an organization.
4. Capture a record of every change.
   Without a system to manage files as they change, it is virtually certain that information will be lost, it will be difficult to reassemble later on, and there will be confusion surrounding which are the correct versions of files. Documents are not static. They change over time. Automated version control offers a standardized way to capture and organize information in what would otherwise be a chaotic and uncontrolled process. People are more productive and the risk of information loss is greatly reduced. Plus, with version control, everyone immediately knows which is the current version, while previous versions are always retrievable. Another plus of version control is that it can reduce risk. Version control eliminates the potential for losing content in prior versions and importantly, it allows for visibility over content history, for example who approved a document and what did the content look like at that time.
5. Reduce the risk of email.
   Email may be fast, cheap, and convenient, but it's a mistake to believe that it's an informal mode of communication. Email is more and more falling under the scope of regulations such as eDiscovery. For this reason alone, it's important to view email as business records. But even beyond regulation, there are other aspects of how we use email today that make it more and more essential to consider when reducing risk factors. In many cases emails are used as a principle means of communication among employees, as well as with people outside the company, like customers or vendors. The content within emails, and files attached to them, are often times the most complete and thorough record of history over time. Your ability to quickly research and retrieve information from an email archive not only improves your chances of successfully complying with regulations and legal requirements, but it also helps with matters like researching and exchanging knowledge in hand-offs between people, say for example in times of employee transition.
6. Maintain compliance with regulations
   As with email records, some companies also face regulatory requirements that affect all types of information. Information itself can be a liability if it is incorrectly managed. Studies vary widely, but some have indicated that as much as 80% of documents reside on user's desktops, beyond the control and management of a structured document management system. Government regulations, quality standards, and legal requirements are an increasing challenge, and programs that manage for compliance by documenting policies and procedures, applying consistent business processes, and securing information are necessary to reduce exposure to risk. Where quality standards and compliance exist, such as ISO, FDA, and Sarbanes-Oxley, regulated content and processes must be managed using records management.
7. Eliminate paper storage costs and go Paperless.
   Long established storage of paper documents in filing cabinets, archive boxes, and off-site warehouses is a no-value solution. The expenditures of all that paper storage - the space and money spent on it - offers no return in value to the company. It's an unnecessary operational cost. Filing cabinets eat up valuable office space that could otherwise be used for meaningful and productive work areas; and money spent on off-site storage in warehouses could be invested in areas of business that actually have a positive return on the bottom line. When documents are stored electronically, however, there's an added value because information can be filed, searched and retrieved instantly. This is a big factor in terms of process efficiency. And there are other areas to consider as well: electronic document storage makes information more accessible, including even outside the office for employees who might be traveling, working at home, at satellite offices, or perhaps even vendors and customers. When documents are accessed, changed, or approved, everything is recorded in an audit log. Electronic document storage also makes it easier to plan for business continuity, so records can be restored quickly and the business can get immediately back up and running. And finally, electronic document storage is a greener, paperless approach that not only reduces storage and its associated costs, but also cuts down on the need for paper and printing.

Speed Up Customer Service with Document Management

The fast paced world of business requires you to move with it and keep up with the demands of customers who want everything immediately. This means that everything in your office must (if possible) be automated in order for your staff to act swiftly and efficiently.

One of the aspects of your business that you need to invest in to improve processes is document management. Manual ranking and filing of paper documents is time consuming and many business these days invest in electronic document management to help them efficiently manage their files and in turn act on customer demands speedily.

Electronic document management systems, such as those provided by Davis Business Machines (http://www.dbm.net), is not only about instantly retrieving information but it also allows you to text search the actual body of a document together with the title. And what’s even better about it is that it actually highlights the search terms you need so you can go directly to the information you want-therefore saving time spent searching for documents especially when your in a hurry.

This can tremendously help improve your company’s efficiency-everything will be at your fingertips with just a touch of a button. You can load all your customer records within seconds together with other correspondence, even references and emails about the client which have been sent internally.

The superb features of electronic document management speak for themselves. Customer information is instantly accessible so you can answer customer queries on the spot. And since you’ll have an audit trail of past transactions and communications at your fingertips with each particular customer, no risk of error can occur.

What’s even better is that you don’t even have to ask your customer to wait while you find the relevant information they need, or call them back; you are easily positioned as an efficient company that really values and takes all your customers seriously.

It goes without saying that speed of service is crucial if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Electronic document management can help you do this and more. And as everyone is aware of, keeping your existing customers is way cheaper than acquiring new ones. So investing in electronic document management will help your business save more money and in the long run acquire new customers courtesy of the satisfied ones.

Paper that works?

Did you know, on average companies have to hire an additional employee for every 12 filing cabinets simply to maintain organization. This is just the beginning of what it costs to manage paper documents in an increasingly digital world. Whether you are looking for a way to improve personal or professional productivity, capture and distribute paper-based information among workgroups, departments, and small businesses, or even blend multiple business applications from networked printers/copiers or scanners, Document Management Solutions can securely transform paper documents into business value.

Paperwork is paper that works… Document management solutions turn everyday tasks into routine processes that take less time, involve fewer steps, and allow employees to accomplish more. Enabling document management stops the inefficiency inherent in paper files and achieve greater productivity, better information management, and lower overhead expense - a benefit to any bottom line.

• Increasing operational efficiency.
• Making business applications more productive.
• Delivering financial advantage to the bottom line.

A document management solution accommodates any business environment. Ideally, the amount of storage required for paper documents would be reduced, make any document instantly retrievable, and securely bridge the paper and digital worlds.

Contact us today to take advantage of our document management expertise.

Canon U.S.A. Introduces New imageFORMULA DR-2020U Universal Scanner For Business Environments Of All Sizes

(Lake Success, NY) - Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of advanced digital imaging and software solutions, today unveiled its new digital scanning solution for workgroup document imaging and general office applications – the new imageFORMULA DR-2020U – the latest model in the Company's award-winning DR-Scanner line.
The DR-2020U incorporates the reliable paper handling and high-quality imaging capabilities inherent in Canon's DR-Scanner line to provide robust functionality at an affordable price. Ideal for distributed scanning and general office workloads, the DR-2020U offers versatile three-way scanning – a 50-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for batch scanning, a flatbed to accommodate unconventional-sized documents, and a dedicated business card feeder tray to handle batch business card scanning. The DR-2020U is capable of one-pass duplex scanning at up to 20 pages / 40 images per minute (ppm/imp) in black-and-white and up to 20 ppm/imp in color*. Combined with its user-friendly design and extensive bundled software, the DR-2020U is indispensable to nearly any office environment.
"Canon has a long-standing commitment to answering the digital imaging needs of all segments of the market. With the introduction of the DR-2020U, we are expanding upon our already robust array of digital imaging technologies," said Jim Rosetta, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. "With its user-friendly design, outstanding workflow and increased imaging flexibility, the DR-2020U is a cost-effective addition to help boost office efficiency and productivity."
The DR-2020U features an intuitively designed, copier-like control panel allowing users to quickly navigate through job functions resulting in increased workflow efficiency. Users can easily begin scanning operations through three pre-defined Scan-To-Job buttons for Copy, File and E-mail functions, as well as five programmable Scan-To-Job buttons for assigning up to 50 different imaging tasks. The Scan-To-Job buttons enable multiple users within a workgroup to access frequently performed tasks at the touch of a button, providing for simpler use and greater office efficiency.
Further enhancing user productivity, the DR-2020U includes ISIS/TWAIN drivers, industry standard interfaces which seamlessly link applications and scanners for easy hardware integration with third-party Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software. The new scanner is also bundled with the latest document imaging software packages – including Canon CapturePerfect and CaptureOnTouch, Adobe Acrobat Standard, NewSoft Presto! BizCard, and Nuance PaperPort Standard and OmniPage SE – to deliver a complete end-to-end solution.
Recognizing the need to capture original documents with precision, the Canon DR-2020U features a 1200 dots-per-inch (dpi) optical resolution, and includes a multitude of advanced image processing capabilities such as Advanced Text Enhancement, Color Dropout, Deskew and Border Removal to help optimize electronic document creation.
In addition, the DR-2020U employs efficiency-boosting features such as Double Feed Detection, Auto Page Size Detection, and Skip Blank Page to reduce tedious preparation and presorting of documents prior to scanning, helping to streamline workflows.
To ease integration with customer infrastructures, the DR-2020U universal workgroup scanner has been tested and is compatible with solutions from the following software vendors**:

• Accusoft Pegasus
• Computhink, Inc.
• Datacap, Inc.
• Digitech Systems, Inc.
• DocuLex, Inc.
• Therefore Corporation

The new imageFORMULA DR-2020U universal scanner, which meets ENERGY STAR Program guidelines for energy efficiency and complies with the RoHS and WEEE directives for reduction of hazardous substances and waste products, is available immediately through Davis Business Machines and other authorized Canon resellers for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $695.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number four in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2009 list, and is on the 2009 BusinessWeek list of "100 Best Global Brands." Canon is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all products. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.
About Davis Business Machines, Inc.
Davis Business Machines, Inc. (www.dbm.net) has been an innovative leader in providing strategic business solutions and services to organizations since 1963. Davis integrates and applies industry-leading expertise and innovative technology to help companies meet today's complex information lifecycle management demands and prepare them for tomorrow's challenges. Their mission is to provide total customer satisfaction by helping customers efficiently manage the document lifecycle through superior products, solutions and services. Today, Davis is among the most successful business solutions providers in the Lehigh Valley, with a satellite office in Pottstown, PA to better serve their Montgomery and Bucks County customers. Follow news, photos and video coming from Davis Business Machines by subscribing to our news feed by visiting http://www.dbm.net/articles?rss or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dbmnet.
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† Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office
All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.
* Examples based on typical settings, rated in pages/images per minute with letter-sized documents at 200dpi, portrait-feeding direction via ADF. Actual processing speeds may vary based on PC performance and application.
** Please check www.usa.canon.com regularly for updates on software vendors who have tested the imageFORMULA DR-2020U universal workgroup scanner.

Countering The Content Conundrum

Have you ever spent hours poring over a document to ensure accuracy and inclusion of all edits made to earlier versions? Have you — or has your company — ever suffered consequences from taking content written for an internal audience and using it for sales or marketing — without thoroughly vetting it for external use?

No matter the department — HR, sales, marketing, legal, administration, etc. — many of you find that kind of content pain to be an unavoidable fact of work life, standard operating procedure. Unaware of a better way to create and manage content, you suck it up. Well, you can stop sucking because there is a better way, and that way is structured content — documents that have been chunked into meaningful component parts and tagged in a systematic fashion.

While it remains one of the best-kept enterprise secrets, structured content has long proven its value in technical communications where it mitigates risks, reduces costs, and increases revenues. Better still, the road to mature, standards-based structured content has been paved by organizations such as IBM and OASIS and standards such as DITA. Now, it’s time for other enterprise functions to realize the same benefits associated with structured content.

In brief, structured content brings organization and automation to content. Structured content lets content creators efficiently create, collaborate, manage and reuse high volumes of information, which can be repurposed into the languages and formats your customers demand. The result? Organizations accelerate the cost-effective delivery of accurate information products — whether those products are for internal or external consumption, e.g., sales RFPs, marketing brochures, HR forms, legal contracts or any other department’s content.

So, what does structured content look like in the enterprise? It depends where you look.

In research & development, you can use structured content to create and manage engineering documents, technical publications, and strategy and planning documents. Here, structured content can help increase revenues by improving the ability of key employees, partners and vendors to share and discover documents, resulting in faster time to market for new products. Meanwhile, costs can be reduced through content repurposing and reuse, which eliminates the duplication and re-creation of existing content. And structured content can mitigate R&D risk, for instance, helping companies avoid noncompliance, and improve customer satisfaction by ensuring the consistent use of authoritative content in product documentation.

In manufacturing, contracts, manufacturing operations, standard operating procedures and regulated documents all benefit from structured content. Revenue growth can come from streamlined creation of contracts and agreements, ultimately accelerating time to revenue. Cost reductions may be seen in reduced rework, recall and aftermarket service costs otherwise caused by inaccurate information in manufacturing documents. Risk can be mitigated by reducing the risk of inaccurate or inconsistent contracts, and by reducing the risk of human error associated with reviewing one-of-a-kind, complex legal documents.

In sales and marketing, structured content can be applied to sales and marketing collateral as well as contact center documents. The revenue opportunities in the sales and marketing department include developing a reusable library of proven RFPs and content to improve win rates. That reusable library also helps to reduce the costs of goods sold by reducing the time and costs associated with developing proposals and business correspondence. Predefined, reusable content components with approved language and standard terms and conditions mitigate risks by ensuring the accuracy of contracts and legally binding agreements.

In service and support, you can use structured content for maintenance and repair, technical support and training documents. To increase revenues, you could increase aftermarket sales through maintenance and repair operations supported with structured content. Cost reductions may be realized through content reuse, which reduces editorial and publishing costs. Structured content helps mitigate the risk of noncompliance and potentially catastrophic equipment failure by ensuring personnel have consistent, up-to-date maintenance and repair information.

In corporate administration, structured content can benefit legal and regulatory, human resources, and finance and operations documents. Revenue growth can come from improving the ability to discover patents and IP documentation for ongoing growth and protection of revenue streams. Cost savings may be realized by reducing redundant editorial and publishing costs, which lowers the cost of publishing and maintaining standard documents. Finally, structured content can help reduce the risks of errors during the review process and through regulatory filings, demonstrating that you have compliance policies in place.

Clearly, these are just a few of many examples in which structured content can benefit the organization. The important takeaway is that you don’t have to live with your current content conundrums. You can relieve the pain and realize significant advantages by embracing structured content, in whatever department you happen to work.

Orginally authored by Dr. Bruce Sharpe, JustSystems

What is Document Management?

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Are you scanning your electronic documents?

I know of a lot of people that have a need to create a document as an image. They first print the document then put the document into their scanner so they have an image. I don’t get it.

There are plenty of tools that can be used to create an image of your documents. You could use Adobe Acrobat, eCopy PaperWorks and a myriad of other tools. You could even use the Microsoft Document Image Writer that comes free with your computer. All you have to do is go to file and select print. Select the Microsoft Document Image Writer as your printer and then choose to save the file as an image that can be converted into a tiff image.

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, one choice may be better than another. If you need help, let us know what you want to accomplish and we can give you a solution. You may already have all the technology you need to get it done and all we'll have to do is teach you how to do it.