The Inevitability of Document Management

The simple phrase, something that is going to happen keeps ringing through my mind. If you are a public company think compliance. If you are an energy company, think environmental audit. If you are a manufacturer, think health and safety. If you are a small business, think contracts, permits, licensing, insurance… something is happening and it’s called ‘the need for Document Management’. And the need is serious, as the consequences of not properly managing your documents include going out of business, criminal records and/or jail time. It is inevitable that all companies will incorporate Document Management technology into their standard desktop.

Currently, the standard desktop – in any company, of any size, in any industry – is comprised of an email program, Internet access and MS Office. All office workers require these basic tools. For many insightful and proactive employers, Document Management is already one of these tools. Here are just a few reasons why.

Corporate compliance and governance depend on the documents to tell the story of adherence. Laws such as The Sarbanes Oxley Act (in the US) and Canada’s Bill 198 (Ontario Securities Commission) speak specifically to processes surrounding document handling. Auditors, commissions and other governing bodies expect companies to go well beyond simply producing documents. The process, security, accessibility, approval cycles, redundancy, retention and oversight of the document must be readily available and auditable. This isn’t only for financial information. Of course, if you’re a public company, you had better have your financial processes straight. However, virtually no company is exempt.

The same motives that brought on the utilization of the fax machine and email technology are driving the need to introduce Document Management into your company. Companies throughout North America are currently experiencing phenomenal growth. Finding, hiring, training and retaining people have become a significant challenge. Document Management tools enable new employees to ramp up faster as well as find the information they need on their own, without attaching them to another employee for weeks of training and orientation. If you’re using Workflow technology, the new employee can visualize your business processes, as well as participate in them from day one. Lastly, as employees move from your organization to another, they don’t take with them your critical business information, or the knowledge of where it is located.

Companies with mobile workforces, remote operations and information gathering sources that are spread around the office, city and country, all benefit from having a central repository. Paper, email, electronic documentation, sound, video, drawings and pictures can all be found in a central repository, using a secure interface. Think of how much time, money and effort your business spends looking for (and transporting) documents. This has become so inefficient, that workers will often re-create documents rather than attempt to find them.

I am occasionally asked whether Document Management will truly become the next pillar of the corporate desktop. To this question, I point out the journey of the fax machine and email. The day before the fax machine sales person walked into every office in North America, businesses were doing business. They mailed couriered and telephoned information around and business was transacted. The fax sales person faced the challenge of convincing businesses they needed a fax machine. Need was difficult to prove, so the product adaptation model rolled on – the early adapters bought, the market matured, and eventually every business had a fax machine. The product simply provided too much business value. Ask yourself, as a business owner or professional, do you expect to see a fax number on every business card you receive? Of course you do. Even though a company can do business without one – it is just too inefficient to do so.

Email adaptation followed the same cycle as the fax machine. It was perhaps a little more challenging in that it required greater behavioral changes, but in the end, the business value was too great to ignore. Productivity was enhanced and money was saved.

Today, without Document Management technology, businesses are doing business. They don’t know where their documents are, who has access to them, what process they went through to create, approve and retain them and they are challenged to keep track of the correct version… but they are doing business. The early adaptors have already bought and had success with their solutions. Now the market place is changing again; compliance, human resource issues, operational efficiency, disaster recovery and business process improvement are all demanding Document Management technology.

Now is the time for Document Management. It is inevitable. In addition to the important benefits listed, the Document Management industry has matured to a point where the products are stable, scalable, affordable and easy to use. So take a good look at your desktop, because if you don’t already, you are about to see a Document Management interface…and you will wonder how you ever did without it.


Article written by:
Sean Halliday

Sean Halliday is the President of Imagine eDoc Solutions Inc., a Calgary based Document Management, Imaging and Workflow solution provider. 

To learn more about Imagine’s solutions, please contact us at 403-245-6625 or visit www.imagineedoc.com for more information.