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Some people may ask why most businesses are beginning to implement an electronic document management system when hard copy documents have driven businesses for years? 

These electronic systems provide searchable access to scanned information, create a disaster recovery plan and ensure government regulatory compliance.  All these things enable better business decisions and smoother customer service interactions. 

Many businesses are under the incorrect assumption that paper documents are somehow free.  The fact is that the cost of managing paper documents may be more expensive than digital management alternatives.

The Cost of Paper Filing

Consider an average three-drawer filing cabinet.  You have the cost of the actual cabinet, the cost of the folders, the cost of the paper prints and copies, and the cost of renting a space to keep the cabinet.  Then you have to take in consideration the time it takes to copy, categorize and file documents in paper folders.  Every time you need information you’ll have to physically search for the documents that could easily have been misfiled or misplaced.

Since the 1960’s, barcode technology has been used in business industries including the identification of railroad cars.  Today you can use the same barcode technology grocery stores and inventory systems do to streamline your business processes like invoicing and collection.

Barcodes allow critical business information to be processed quickly and accurately. 

For an example consider invoices.  Convert the invoice number to a barcode and printed onto the payment remittance stub.  When payment is received, the check and the remittance stub are scanned in to the system.  The payment is thus recorded and a digital copy of the check is stored.

The most expensive liquid in the world may be the ink located in the cartridges used for ink jet printers.  Did you realize that it costs around $2,800.00 a gallon for this ink?  With expenses like this, it’s not surprising that many new computers now include a color ink jet printer for free—the computer company will probably make more of a profit on replacement cartridges than they did on the original computer.

So how does this affect you?

Ink jet printers may make sense for casual use at home but they can be a huge burden to office budgets. More and more businesses are realizing that a color multifunction system is a smart part of a cost reduction strategy. 

Has your business upgraded electronic invoices yet?  Send your invoices by email instead of mailing them and get faster delivery, shorter collection times and reduced printing and postage costs.  Best yet, technology exists where you won’t have to change your existing accounting software to send your invoices by email.

Automatically Generate Your Invoices

As the system prints invoices it will automatically look for customers who have provided an email address in their customer record.  The subject and body of the email are preconfigured to let the customer know about the invoice. 

Scan to email is one of the most convenient forms of scanning today and can provide the greatest efficiency improvement in any organization.  Your customers are progressively expecting to receive documentation via email. You can effectively meet this critical business requirement through the use of devices like multifunction systems (MFPs).

MFPs feature high speed scanning that allows documents to be converted to common digital formats like PDF, .jpeg or .tiff formats.  These files can be sent to email addresses  or directed to a network folder.

There has been a movement to incorporate new document capture technologies into businesses worldwide.  Why would you spend hours patiently keying in information from delivery tickets, sales orders and remittance stubs when you could automatically extract information from scanned documents?

How Data Capture Works 
Documents are scanned using a scanner or multifunction system and then utilizes the following technologies to read data from the document:

Zone OCR: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned text into text that can be edited in common word applications and imported into a database.  Zone OCR reads text from a specific area of a document. 

Barcode Recognition:  Information can be read from barcodes on documents.  For example, the invoice number on your proof of delivery slips can be embedded in a barcode. When these slips are scanned, the capture software reads the barcode.

When one thinks about threats to organizational security, the words hackers and computer viruses come to mind. In this world of network attacks, printers, copiers and fax machines are easy to overlook. These systems can store trade secrets, financial and medical information, and valuable information like customer lists or pricing schedules. Loss of this information could be devastating.

The good news is that there are practical steps you can take to improve the security of your printers and copiers.

1. Track Printing Access

Output tracking technologies can keep a record of which documents are printed. You can access the printing logs to see what documents an employee has printed. Your staff will know that the company is monitoring information security thus creating an environment where employees are hesitant to steal information through the printer.

2. Encrypt Hard Drives on Multifunction Systems

When you scan a document on a multifunction system the scanned image is stored on the device’s hard drive before it is sent off to an email address or network folder location. New security technologies can encrypt documents on the multifunction system’s hard drive and make sure files are erased after they have been transmitted.

Are you looking for ways to improve and streamline your business processes? A great place to start is to evaluate your current business practices.

A business process is a structured series of steps that produces a repeated outcome. Accounts receivable—what happens from the time you generate an invoice until you get paid—is the most common business process. These paper and digital documents are the vehicles by which information flows through your business regardless of what industry you are in.

Technology will improve your business and streamline the flow of information to:

• Increase Profits
• Enhance Competitive Advantage
• Improve Customer Service
• Ensure Regulatory Compliance

For over thirty years we’ve been moving towards the lofty goal of the paperless office. But as the volume of computer data grows, so too does our paper usage.

Fortunately there seems to be a valid movement toward cutting back on our paper usage with Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS). This system allows you to scan all your paper documents to create a searchable and secure filing system.

There are several trends are driving the rapid adoption of this technology:

· Low Costs of Electronic Storage. It is now possible to store 10 filing cabinets full of paper in one gigabyte of electronic storage.

· Familiarity with Computer Applications. Today, everyone is trained to be familiar with common computer applications. This means adoption time and training for new applications is minimal.

· High Speed Scanners and Multifunction Copiers. Documents can be scanned quickly and conveniently with sheet-fed scanners, available on most new digital office copiers.

Digital cameras have become a necessity for businesses. They’re inexpensive, easy to use and create a message that cannot be expressed with words. Of course getting the pictures onto a marketing statement or proposal is another step that needs to be addressed. Businesses are now using color multifunction systems to print color digital photos at blazing speeds at a fraction of the cost of slow photo printers.

Personal Photo Printers vs. Color Multifunction Systems (MFPs)

· Personal photo printers are slower than MFPs taking multiple minutes to print a photo compared to an MFP’s speeds of up to 45 photos per minute.

· Most personal printers do not allow you to print on letter-sized paper, limiting you to a 4 X 6 size. MFPs conveniently let you print high-resolution photos on normal 8.5 X 11 size paper.

· Photo printer paper is expensive and cost per photo can be from 25 to 80 cents per page. MFPs can reduce that cost.