Some do and some don’t, but there are few that would argue against the logic behind archiving documents. It is important that a business archive everything from emails to invoices for accountability, organizational, and legal purposes. By implementing archiving standards in your business you will improve your processes while ensuring they are protected long-term.

Among large groups of organizations it is not uncommon to find difficulties regarding accountability. By creating a system to archive documents your business will be able to answer; who, what, where, and when by following a document trail. Document archiving helps to eliminate or drastically reduce accountability issues within a business.

As much as technology and automation can make our lives easier, sometimes we cannot avoid the need for a human being. No matter how many advancements can assist us in our jobs we still need to oversee and guide the technology in the right direction. ECM and Document Management systems can do a lot to help us but not everything.

As organizations look towards new ways of enhancing their corporate social responsibility, quite often, one of the most obvious areas of improvement is over-looked. Not only does paper scanning and electronic document management help companies achieve their sustainability goals it also helps reduce costs and improve efficiency. It’s common to see companies over-looking the financial and environmental benefits of document management which will offer them a competitive advantage, while decreasing their ecological footprint.

Will the paperless office we were promised back in 1975 happen in our life-time? Probably not. However, the efficiency and environmental benefits of such a concept can be obtained today.

Archiving a business’s documents through document scanning is the most effective way to ensure that your company’s records are secured for the foreseeable future. By archiving all business content, you confirm that all corporate compliance and government regulatory requirements are being met. This helps to eliminate liability issues while improving business processes. But document scanning is only one part of the solution; to effectively archive your documents you need a document management software solution like FileDirector. Some of the most unique and helpful benefits of a document management software solution are;

Retention Periods - Files are deleted once they have reached the mandated time period. This ensures that retention periods are met and a shared network does not become overwhelmed with outdated information.

1. Save money on paper and shipping – and reduce your environmental footprint at the same time. A study of four customers by Oracle Corporation (a sponsor of the AIIM Green ECM site) quantified the direct cost and environmental savings from driving paper out of core processes through deployment of document management technologies.

2. Increase the effectiveness of core processes. Think about the benefits of document management technologies in a single core process – finance. Driving paper from financial processes allows an accounts payable group to pay invoices faster, taking advantage of discounts for early payment. It allows an accounts receivable group to improve cash flows and reduce the days that sales are outstanding. The cost of processing an invoice can typically be cut by a factor of 10, creating savings that drop directly to the bottom line. These kinds of savings can usually be replicated in other paper‐intensive processes, yielding BOTH bottom line AND green benefits.

3. Truly integrate your field operations. The application of distributed capture technologies – using a scanner in a field office to process locally created paper and electronically store it in a central location – is a true no‐brainer for most organizations. Distributed capture solutions often pay for themselves just through savings in courier and shipping costs. But taking courier and overnight services off the road also translates into significant direct environmental benefits.

4. Reduce real estate costs. Less paper means fewer filing cabinets means less real estate ‐‐ which reduces cost, but also significantly reduces your environmental footprint.

5. Improve employee productivity. By digitizing as much information as possible, you set the stage for allowing employees much greater flexibility in their working arrangements and for much more effective collaboration independent of geography. Which also translates into less real estate and less travel and a reduced carbon footprint – and happier employees.

6. Reduce off‐site storage costs. Off‐site storage of paper is expensive, often requiring rental and maintenance fees as well as significant transportation costs to the facility. All of which represent a significant burden on the environment compared to a document management solution.

This article was original written and shared with permission by AIIM.org. For more information on Green ECM, visit http://www.aiim.org/green‐ecm

Whatever the size of your business, implementing a record management solution will bring a host of benefits to it. This can give you a competitive edge. Quality record management software is the future for the administration and distribution of information because it decreases, considerably, the time taken to manage and access all information within an organization. This can be achieved by referencing all information intelligently, which can be accessed faster, securely, at any time (via intranet or the internet) and in the way that best suits your needs. This blog post will discuss specific features of quality record management software.

ScanFile - Version 8 brings a fresh new look together with a host of new features to one of the most popular and easy to use document management solutions available. ScanFile offers a flexible and easy to use platform for the storage, referencing and retrieval of your organizations documents.

FileDirector - One of the most feature-rich and innovative electronic document management systems to be found on the market today, with comprehensive functionality to suit any size of business. It’s up to date and out of the box technology, simple administration and even simpler user interface make it a refreshing alternative to complicated and costly, consultancy driven applications or SharePoint solutions.

Integration – This document management software can be installed into almost any Microsoft Windows network environment. It can be fully integrated with either SQL or Oracle databases and Windows Active Directory or LDAP security. This allows for perfect integration into almost every type of Canadian company's infrastructure.

Formatta, E-Forms software, is a leading provider of eforms-driven business process optimization solutions delivering increased performance and the industry’s most rapid return on investment to businesses and organizations in the government, healthcare, education and financial services markets.

Formatta E-Forms software is easy to use, quick to implement and affordable. This robust and intuitive software captures data electronically from users, verifies it for accuracy and completeness, routes it for approvals and electronic signatures, and moves it directly into the critical business systems that organizations rely on to run their businesses - such as Finance, Human Resources, Customer Service and Sales.