Century

Legends About Document Managements!

 

 

 

1. Transition is very hard.
When an invoice arrives, it is sent to related departments by e-mail, and approval e-mail is waited. This process takes generally a couple of days.
Yes, it is possible to automate this process by using document management system. Transition is not hard. What is hard is to have this vision, and show the determination for this transition. In abovementioned example, It is necessary to design approval process well.  For example, what is the approval authorization of persons giving approval? When this authorization is exceeded, who will approve it? What should be approval time in steps? You should spend enough time to find the answers to this, and similar questions. Once system is set up, increase in productivity will be incredible.

For example, when you design invoice approval workflow process over a document management system, your expenses drop down. Your processes can be traced all the time. Problems that you are having during the process of approval of invoices by related departments are eliminated. Everything is realized in time, and as planned. Annoying questions like; Where is the invoice, who is keeping it, it sent to wrong department, why are these invoices waiting on the table, why does everybody see the prices, become history.

2. We can find information, and documents when needed.

When our customers call, we can find, and send requested documents to them. Generally speaking, we cannot make it immediately. Periodically, we call back our customers, and inform them, and we do not think that is a problem.

Of course if you give enough time, your workers generally find, and bring requested document to you. Most of the time, we cannot have so much time because of competition. Do you have any idea of how much it costs to find those documents, and keeping them updated? Similarly, unlabeled electronic documents waiting in file servers are hard to reach. Your documents get lost in tens of, hundreds of folders. Many electronic copy of document are distributed everywhere in system, and it becomes impossible to tell which one is the latest version. For these reasons, your workers spend 35% of their times to reach information. They can work efficiently on this information whether it is right or wrong. How productive is it to work with this method?

Before it is too late, if all your documents are archived into electronic media by labeling with key words, your workers can reach information in shortest time possible. Otherwise, you end up having many folders filled with electronic files you have problem to reach. You have a pile of archive in which you cannot find any document that you are looking for.

3. Our worker are always busy

It is normal for your worker to spend 2,5 hours each day to look for, and find document, arrange their e-mails. These procedures are naturally parts of their jobs.

This supposition is completely wrong. What you expect from your workers is that they make the best decision according to today's situations, and produce new ideas to improve the jobs under their responsibilities. Your workers should stand for you at outmost level against your customers. They spend their full time for this kind of activities. If you do not accept this idea, you are totally in wrong way. Today's market based on competition and time will force you a lot.
There is no problem with your workers being always busy. In fact, almost everybody would like to be busy. Nevertheless, we are talking about "busy being productive". They have to spend their time for jobs to convert to money. It is wrong for them to spend so much time for jobs like finding, and archiving documents, which are not their main target. While technology can do such thing more productively than your workers, resisting against technology means to stay against changing business world. If you do not use this technology increasing your productivity, your competitors using it will always be ahead of you.

4. Nobody has sued for us or punished because we could not find document.

If we have to defend ourselves, we can provide necessary documents.
As a matter of fact, laws regulating electronic documents, and archives are rapidly changing. In the frame of adaptation to European Community, regulations on this issue have sped up. If you already start using document management system from now on, you will be ready for these upcoming regulations. You can send every kind of document to officials in terms of law. These solutions keep records of traces of all documents, and information processed. For this reason, your using document management solutions will eliminate considerably unwanted legal situations.

Especially, in the fields related to insurance, and law, processes performed on documents are very important. In case that you forget to respond to due documents on due date, your company will suffer from financial punishments. Electronic document management systems protect you from this kind of situations.

5. Document, and information is not such a critical issue.

It is very important to manage our financial information for us, for that reason organizational source planning, we make investments on applications such as depot management, accounting, stock control etc. However, management of information and document is not a critical issue in comparison with others.

Who says that information, and document are not important? The only way to come forward, and succeed in competition is to provide information at the right place, and time. Thus, your workers can make their decisions in accordance with current information. To have information is no use unless you take advantage of it in the right direction. Suppose that you are working on an agreement, documents are circulated between lawyers, and your friends by way of mail. Everybody makes corrections. In this chaos, you suddenly realize that you have worked on wrong version and sent it to your customer. Your institutional identity is corrupted at a coup. The same goes for old price list, out of date documents. As a result, similar unwanted situations cause your company to have a bad reputation, and financial punishment.

6. It is not high cost to archive and find document physically. Our electronic documents are in file servers anyway.

Yes, we know very well that archiving, and finding right/misfiled document or recreating a lost document cause some cost. But, we think that this cost is not so high.

Abovementioned costs are very high especially in today's economical conditions. What is the cost to wait until a lost document is created? The cost of waiting for a document from others or reaching a document cannot be underestimated.

When we consider all these time loss in whole company, its effect over productivity is incredible. Service quality given to customer is degraded. All we talk about here costs considerably high. These negative factors take you to failure without your realizing. If you are not taking necessary precautions to correct these problems, either you are too reach or you are not one of the contemporary companies.

7. We do not cause any damage to environment.

If a document is copied averagely 15 times in a whole company, so what? I have more important problems.

Yes, when you realize the cost of unnecessary copying, you will get rid of deficits. Not to take any precautions on this issue will cause you bigger problems in long term.  When you fill your physical archive with these extra copies, you will end up having so many cabinets that you will not be able to find a place to work in.

To prevent trees from unnecessary cutting is a social responsibility. Each organization should be aware of this in order for us to leave a healthy world to next generations. Each project for our world to stay green is a long term. Reduction of paper consumption, and adaptation technology that consumes less toner, and energy to your company, and adapt it as a organizational culture will make you a modern company sensible to environment.  People will prefer product, and services of companies sensible to environment.

8. We can make a meeting with everybody in projects.

When we have to get together with people for a project, we send documents related to project members in advance. After everybody has worked on them, we get together, and discuss details of project.

Of course, you can make meetings in this way. But, when you have members especially coming from different cities, the cost of these meeting is very high because of expenses like fly tickets, accommodation, food etc. Furthermore, agenda of everybody may not be on the same program, and gathering people in one place may not be suitable for everybody. Time loss for your workers because of these meetings is another disadvantage.

Developments in fields of document technologies enable you to make this kind of meetings without annoying your workers. All your workers all over the world can communicate, and share information through tools like Webinar, Goto Meeting, e-mail, Web. Document management systems provide all your workers with document sharing platform. Then, while it is so easy to get together with your workers thanks to this technology, why do you still insist on expensive and unproductive ways?

9. Our physical archive is secure. Nothing happens to it.

We have taken all precautions for the security of our physical archive. We will not have any problem.

No matter how much precautions you take, you can never make guarantee that there will not be earthquake, fire, and flood. Archive is composed of paper, and vulnerable to factors lik water, humidity, fire, and time.

Your physical archive is not necessarily vulnerable to natural disasters. Fire extinguisher system may malfunction; people may throw their cigarette stubs without put out etc. As a result, you may end up losing your archive.

Once your archive is transferred to electronic media, operations lik backing up, and transferring it to a different location become easy. That means you have a "mobile archive" in your hands. You can send a copy of your archive to different cities, even to different countries. When you try the same thing for your physical archive, cost, and time will be incredibly high.