Making the right document management technology decision for your business requires a sound assessment of the ROI. Below are five positive changes derived from adopting digital document management, plus a handy guide to calculating the figures for your firm.
1. Freedom from pricey paper
This is a great starting point for ROI calculation as the results can be quite accurate. Paper-related costs can be tallied by analyzing the following expenses:
Woo! We’re about to be irrelevant!
2. Time is on your side
A 2012 IDC report found that information workers spent up to 20% of their time filing and searching through paper documents. On top of that, they wasted over 10 hours a week searching for, but not finding, documents, recreating lost documents and other time-consuming tasks. These figures can be attributed to the problems inherent in hardcopy document management.
By implementing document management in a digital format, companies can allot more time to using information and less time to finding it. Instead of wondering who has a report or combing through archives for hours, employees can instantly retrieve documents within a digital repository through a simple search.
Finding a document is about as easy as finding the animal in this photo.
3. Data safe, bottom line happy
If you think losing one file is frustrating, imagine losing thousands of them in a flood, fire or other disaster. Rather than cutting back on current unnecessary expenses, a disaster recovery plan is all about avoiding future ones. Ask yourself if maintaining rooms full of paper documents is worth millions of dollars in restoration costs.
Digital: The difference between a pro surfer and this person.
4. Bye-bye busy work
What can you do with all the time saved through digital document management? More work, obviously! By spending less time on processing contracts, invoices and customer inquiries, companies increase their work capacity and potential for growth.
First, make sure your team can handle faster workflow.
5. Space, not waste
We’ve just gone over what to do with extra time, but what about all that extra space? Look around your office and imagine what it could look like without all the file cabinets and storage rooms. All of that space could be used more productively. Just remember, a productive environment isn’t solely about rows and rows of workstations.
You could make a ball pit with the crumpled-up documents you no longer use.
ROI Resources
You don’t have to take the advice in this post at face value. Calculate your own ROI and decide if document management software is the right choice by using this helpful calculation guide: Create Your Own Cost-Benefit Analysis
The above resources are for preliminary purposes. If you’re ready to build a case for document management, check out the Document Management Buyer’s Handbook . It will help you evaluate different document management products and system requirements so you can make more informed decisions.