Face document challenges head-on with on-site management

In this information age, making the statement that every organisation has vast amounts of documentation is stating the obvious while understating the reality.

Organisations are well aware of how flooded they are with their documentation, most floundering in a sea of paper with no sight of the shore. However, every organisation relies on its documents and the information contained within to make business decisions or to maintain customer service.

Organisations are acutely aware of the importance of this information to their operations, and therefore the need to properly manage their document environment. As documents are so critical to organisations, and are embedded in the way organisations work, they simply cannot afford to manage their documentation and document processes poorly.

Obviously, shuffling mountains of paper around is not the core competency of the majority of organisations. Implementing the needed infrastructure, and designing the appropriate procedures for sound document management can become very costly and time-consuming.

Despite most organisations` best efforts, they are simply not geared to tackle the implementation, measurement and ongoing management of their document management strategies and systems.

Success breeds challenges. The more successful an organisation is, the more documentation it must manage. This brings with it many challenges.

Appropriate use of physical space is an important concern. An ill-managed document environment would, by its very nature, misuse space. Most filing systems allow empty spaces to open up on the shelves or in the cabinets and this wastes valuable, often expensive space.

Time to locate and retrieve a file is challenging, as poorly managed document environments increase the time it takes to locate files, and the potential for errors in filing placement is significant. Lost and withheld files also impact on file location and retrieval times. If organisations cannot find the information when they need it, they are unable to service their customers effectively, and they cannot protect themselves against liabilities.

Managing the combination of active and inactive information in files is another significant challenge. In any given document repository, there are many inactive files or documents. They consume space and waste resources, with employees spending precious time shuffling through the "dead" information to find the documents required.

The lack of internal skills to manage the document environment effectively is yet another challenge. As document management is not a priority or core focus, the responsibility is often arbitrarily assigned to an employee. This immediately negates any efforts to effectively manage the document environment.

Often organisations only try to manage their document environment because they realise they have to, but little thought and minimal effort is put into it. Document management needs are not clearly understood by the organisation, and little attempt is made to develop an appropriate strategy for improvement. As a result, resources are poured into document management projects to little effect and at increasing cost.

The result is that the organisation`s document environment remains poorly managed, and customer service and internal processes are negatively affected.

Some organisations do invest great amounts of time and effort into managing their information as effectively as possible, but the function essentially remains non-core, resulting in all the effort, time and money being expended on nothing more than paper shuffling.

Other organisations have gone the document imaging software route and tried to make the problem go away by making it electronic. In some cases this can be effective, but more often than not, going this route merely turns one type of problem into another.

Removing paper from the operation by making everything electronic does not mean the organisation has taken the time to explore and understand all the issues surrounding its document environment. It may be that an electronic document system improves the management of documents; but does the size of the organisation justify the cost of implementing such software and how appropriate is the software for that organisation?

Organisations must match their requirements to the solution and technology they choose to implement; and would benefit from outsourcing their document management needs to experts who can manage the document environment on-site for them. Such experts have the experience and knowledge to assess an organisation`s document management needs, and to implement solutions that match the business requirements.

In most instances, a combination of live file tracking, document management software and off-site storage of inactive files is the best way to effectively reduce costs and improve document-centric processes. If this solution is managed and maintained on-site by document management specialists, with inactive files automatically moved off-site at the appropriate time, the benefits are increased.

With a well-managed document environment, organisations benefit from being able to access documents, files and information immediately; they can track the movement of documents through the organisation; and they can file the documents in a space-saving way. They can also ensure that once documents have expired, they get moved into archives, either stored on-site or off-site.

Easily accessible documents provide organisations with the means to maintain high levels of customer service and internal communication, potential liability issues are reduced, and decision-making processes can be improved. A well-managed document environment breeds healthier business processes.