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Posted by Fergal Burke
8th August, 2023
12 min read
A staggering 45% of US employees would consider leaving their job if there wasn’t an easy or efficient way to access the information they need to get the job done, rising to 57% for those aged 35-44[1]. That’s why a good electronic document management system can make a world of difference.
What is an electronic document management system?
An electronic document management system is a software system that enables organisations to automatically capture, digitise, tag, organise, store and secure business files.
When you have a mixture of paper-based documents (like delivery dockets, PoDs pick lists, contracts) and electronic documents (like PDFs, emailed invoices, certificates etc.), it can be hard to keep track of them all. An electronic document management system enables you to get them all in the same format, by scanning in the paper documents and automatically extracting the others from emails and storing them in a centralised database.
Unlike paper files, which can only be stored and filed in one category (like alphabetically, for example), electronic files can be indexed and retrieved by searching under multiple categories (like client name, job number, PO number, date product name etc.), so they’re easier to find when you need them and you can easily pull up key files and intelligently analyse the data (like find all invoices from a particular client from May 2023).
Employees spend, on average, at least two hours a day (25% of their work week) looking for the documents, information or people they need to do their jobs[2]. A good document management system can dramatically reduce this, saving companies a massive amount of time.
By automating previously manual tasks further time can be saved, freeing employees up to focus on value-adding tasks. This also empowers employees by saving them from these mundane and tedious tasks and enabling them to become more involved in growing the business.
Switching to electronic document management means you’ll immediately see huge savings on paper, ink, printing, postage and storage.
As well as all the obvious savings on physical materials, recouping all the time previously spent manually entering information and searching for documents can potentially save organisations a fortune in staff costs and in some cases can even save them having to hire someone for the role.
“The EIS TraX Foundation and TraX Accounts Payable Solution has easily saved us a few days a week and even saved us having to hire another staff member.”
(Gillian Coakley, Accounts and HR Manager, Beechfield Healthcare)
Automating your document management reduces the risk of “human error”. No more typos or misplaced or misfiled documents – a good document management system will easily spot anomalies and flag them, so there’s no room for error.
One obvious advantage of a document management system is that instead of having one file stored in one location, like a filing cabinet, you now have a digital file in a centralised database that can be accessed by anyone from anywhere.
Organisations that had a system like this in place during the Covid 19 pandemic really started to appreciate this benefit, as it minimised the disruption to their business and employees were able to easily work from home, without the need to go into the office.
This is particularly important for organisations with workers out on the road, like sales teams or construction site workers. With one main head office and 8 regional offices our customer, MJ Flood, really appreciated how our EIS TraX EDMS system saved their sales reps having to go through Head Office every time they needed access to a document.
“The main benefit was accessibility – giving reps ownership and visibility of their contracts so the back office didn’t have to get involved.”
(Mark Phillips – Group CFO, MJ Flood)
The demand for remote working is growing, with a recent LinkedIn poll reporting that more than 1/3 of UK workers are threatening to quit their jobs if their employer demands that they return to the office full time[3], so employers will need to facilitate this if they want to retain staff.
An automated document management system also enables much better collaboration. Employees in different locations can work together on the same document, with all the changes tracked and the versions and changes saved and stored, making it easy to identify the latest version and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
One major disadvantage of paper documents is that they can easily be mislaid or forgotten about under a pile of paper on someone’s desk. Digitising them reduces the risk of data loss due to human error, floods or fire, as they are all safely stored and backed-up.
Documents stored in filing cabinets are at risk of falling into the wrong hands and you owe it to your clients to safeguard their confidential information. While document management systems grant greater access to documents, some documents are more confidential than others, so you can control who can see these.
By freeing employees up from tedious manual tasks, they will be empowered to contribute to the organisation in more meaningful ways. Having fast access to the data they need to do their jobs increases efficiency and productivity and means that they will be able to do a better job. Being able to access the information they need from anywhere supports those working off-site and facilitates remote working.
Smoother, more efficient processing of invoices means suppliers are paid on time, which ensures a better working relationship. Being able to give clients access to key documents increases transparency and improves communication and collaboration and being able to access information quickly and efficiently means that you can respond more quickly to customer queries.
Being able to quickly access key company information and pull up the most up-to-date data and figures means that your staff will be able to make informed decisions and move quickly to take advantage of any market changes.
Would you like to explore the Document Management System benefits we can deliver for your organisation?
If your organisation struggles with a large amount of paperwork or has manual processes that could be automated, an electronic document management system could be a game-changer. At Enterprise Imaging Systems (EIS) we’ve been helping our clients save time, money and a whole lot of hassle for over 20 years. If you’d like to find out more about what our document management solutions can do for your business, talk to one of our experts today.
[1] Hybrid Workplace Habits & Hangups, a survey of more than 1,000 US employees conducted by The Harris Poll. https://www.glean.com/blog/hybrid-workplace-habits-hangups#download-section [2] Hybrid Workplace Habits & Hangups, a survey of more than 1,000 US employees conducted by The Harris Poll. https://www.glean.com/blog/hybrid-workplace-habits-hangups#download-section [3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/15/uk-workers-office-return-linkedin
