Rieva Lesonsky examines what document management is, and how it can help businesses.
“Document management” sounds like something only a company the size of, say, McDonald’s or Amazon has to worry about, doesn’t it?
In reality, every business deals with document management–although you may not think of printing, filing, copying, storing and scanning that way.
Poor document management negatively affects even the smallest company, costing the business time, money, and possibly even customers.
Think I’m exaggerating? Consider the consequences to your customer service and client satisfaction when:
* You can’t find an important document you need for an urgent client meeting.
* A document you need to share with customers or team members exists only in paper format.
* You need to access a document on the road or at home, but the only copy is sitting in a manila folder in your office.
There are also cost issues involved with poor document management. Some companies have so many documents that they need to rent space in an off-site facility to store them. Even if you’re storing documents and file cabinets, that takes up square footage in your office.
The costs of paper, printer ink, and toner add up quickly, too. If your employees are printing or copying personal documents, printing out too many copies or using color printing when they don’t need to, you’re wasting paper and printer supplies.
Poor document management can affect your business in other ways. What if someone from outside the company sees a sensitive document lying on the printer? Or perhaps someone from accounting forgets to pick up that document they printed with the entire company’s salaries on it. That’s more than just an oops.
Document management: room for improvement
Despite talk of the “paperless office,” some 40% of all business processes are still document driven, according to a survey by Xerox. That means chances are you have plenty of places where you could improve your document management. Beyond the cost savings on printer supplies, the Xerox survey discovered that the biggest benefit from better document management is improved workflow.
In fact, the primary reason small and midsize businesses in the survey were improving their document management processes was to grow their businesses; the secondary reason was to boost productivity.
The first step toward better document management is to track your printing costs. You may not realize how much you’re spending on printing. A whopping 97% of the businesses in the Xerox survey do know their print costs–which may be why 81% of them plan to implement better document management in the coming year.
Get into the cloud
Scanning paper documents into the cloud is super simple when you use printers and multifunction printers (MFPs) enabled with Xerox ConnectKey technology. Just download ConnectKey apps to the printer, and you can scan to popular cloud-based services including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and Office 365. You can easily print and share directly from the cloud, too. There are also ConnectKey Apps you can use to simplify scanning and sharing documents to and from email accounts, DocuShare or Office tools.
You can streamline your document workflow even more with the Xerox CapturePoint Transformer App. CapturePoint lets your Xerox MFPs securely scan documents and import them directly into the proper apps, transforming paper into editable, actionable information. You can even create customized workflows such as scanning to email, FTP, shared network folders, USB and multiple destinations.
Mobility is part of business life today, and the Xerox Mobile Link App makes it simple to scan, fax, and send data to cloud storage when you connect with Xerox MFPs. Just download it to your iOS or Android device.
Set printing restrictions
Putting controls on printer use can not only save money but also improve your document management. Your Xerox ConnectKey-enabled MFP can be set to require a PIN before a document prints. No more sensitive documents left lying on the printer tray for hours! Plus, you’ll always know who printed what, so you’ll be able to talk to employees who are printing too much.
You can also restrict colour printing so employees aren’t wasting printer ink. You shouldn’t allow everyone to print everything in colour all the time. With Xerox multifunction printers you can limit colour printing to specific departments, individuals, types of documents or times of the day.
Finally, you might be wasting money buying too many toner cartridges, or running into trouble when you run out of toner at the worst possible time. You can have Xerox printers automatically notify you or your office manager via email when toner is running low, ensuring you always have the printer supplies you need.
Make 2018 the year you take charge of your document management.
Rieva Lesonsky is the CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. This piece was first published on the Xerox blog.