benefits -...
TRANSCRIPT
If that seems like a stretch, it isn’t: The average employee spends 30-40% of his or her time looking
for information locked in email and filing cabinets (1). Sometimes this information is found, and
sometimes it isn’t. But these are only a few of the reasons companies in accounting, construction,
insurance, healthcare, and manufacturing are going paperless through document management
so�ware (DMS) at unprecedented rates.
Although DMS marketers have become experts at describing the tangible benefits of the so�ware’s
features—features that enable third-party, industry-specific so�ware integration, overthrow
operating costs, reduce lengthy document turnaround times, de-clutter o�ices, and resolve broken
project workflows, many of the so�ware’s intangible benefits remain unexplained. Unlike the
tangible benefits of DMS, the following intangible benefits aren’t adequately measured by the
balance sheet’s bottom line, but they may become the reason DMS saves the world’s paper-dependent workforce.
Storing documents in a physical filing cabinet is like attempting to index and file away the very air we breathe—what we attempt to track will likely be rendered unfindable.
Those who attended the eFileCabinet Edge User Conference in 2015 noted that use of document
management so�ware had one particularly salient yet intangible benefit, and that benefit was
freedom. In a very real and impactful sense, relying on paper to complete the business process
through actions like faxing, storing, and si�ing through information can be likened to manual labor.
Although manual labor and white collar o�ice environments are perceived to be at opposites of the
workplace continuum, paper is what blurs the line between the conveniences of the corporate
world and the physical exertion of blue collar, manual-labor intensive environments. However, we
are only as free at work as the processes we use to conduct business allow us to be, and reliance
on paper impinges this freedom, whereas document management so�ware can enable it.
5 . F R E E D O M
Of all the intangible benefits of document management mentioned in this article, time provides
the most resources. And procrastination is not the thief of time as Edward Young put it—broken
focus is. Although the number of interruptions a worker faces each day hinges upon the industry he
or she works in and where he or she sits in the o�ice, the breaks in concentration caused by relying
on paper impose many setbacks: the time spent walking to the fax machine and printer, the time
spent searching for lost documents, the time that can’t be recaptured.
What’s more, these breaks in concentration are frequently viewed as insurmountable issues that
are ‘just part of work,’ but you needn’t so readily succumb to these interruptions with the right
technology. Even with today’s emphasis on productivity, cutthroat competition, and innovation,
workplace interruptions are as commonplace as they are hindrances to the advancement of the
economy as a whole. In a world flooded by noise, employees are increasingly deprived of the
concentration they need to succeed in the workplace, earn raises, win promotions, and make a
positive di�erence.
Not only can document management so�ware eliminate these interruptions through so�ware
integration (such as integration to digital signature solutions, which eliminate the need to print
anything, and web sharing portal integration, which eliminates the need for the fax machine) the
elimination of these interruptions gives workers the ability to work more productively and with the
unfaltering concentration that’s conducive to employees’ wellness. Compound these factors with
the myriad distractions we face outside the o�ice (advertisements, personal phone calls, bills, and
telemarketers calling at dinner) the interruptions in life, at their most di�icult, can begin to feel as if
they’re distracting you from the very purpose you were born to fulfill inside the o�ice and out.
4 . T I M E
Although convenience has saturated the consumer-tech market, many remain unaware that
enterprise so�ware has reached a parallel level of convenience. However, DMS is positioned to
reshape this understanding of convenience in the enterprise, and for myriad reasons:
Accessing any file from any place there is an internet connection is increasingly important in a
number of occupations (and especially important for traveling salesman, real estate agents, and
constructions workers). DMS facilitates this accessibility and convenience through its mobile,
online, and mac-compatible o�erings, all of which o�er improved customer/client service and the
ability to work responsively.
3 . C O N V E N I E N C E
The demand for peace of mind is on the rise as security breaches, information leaks, and other
information catastrophes made plenty of headlines in 2015. However, most of these breaches were
the result of poor internal information management, and there’s plenty organizations can do to
prevent these breaches.
Although the insurance industry has already (and deservingly) made a lot of money from ensuring
peace of mind, members of the insurance profession are discovering, through document
management so�ware, how they can ensure the same peace of mind in their o�ices that they do
for their customers; all through DMS.
Some of the peace of mind facilitators in DMS are its secure web sharing portals designed to
prevent data breaches, sophisticated data backup, secure servers, 256-AES bank-grade encryption,
and data storage with multiple artificial and physical points of presence, to name just a few. As far
as internal information breaches are concerned, the role-based user permissions of document
management so�ware keep employees from accessing certain information at the account
administrator’s discretion.
2 . P E A C E O F M I N D
A crucial part of professional growth involves encouragement and positive feedback. When
documents are lost, misplaced, and unutilized, it becomes di�icult to praise the good work of the
person who created it. Just as many works of art have been lost throughout history, many works of
art are lost in the muck of paper dependent processes—and we cannot praise a person for his or
her work if we know not where it is placed. The metadata of document management so�ware
makes information far more retrievable and securely stored, too.
Additionally, improved workflow is both a feature and byproduct of document management
so�ware. As a byproduct, workflow ensures quick and accurate task completion; as a feature, it
ensures good work can be traced to the right employees, and, therefore, that praise and blame are
delegated fairly.
1 . P R O F E S S I O N A L G R O W T H
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