Tip 5: Taking advantage of new Management features.

A document image system helps you create, handle and store less paper which enables you to become more efficient, find information faster and eliminate exposures to physical security or disaster incidents.  With documents now digitized and organized, a significant opportunity exists to improve how you manage your operation.  Make sure you understand how your image system addresses these key areas:

√ Security enables you to control who (individuals, groups or workstations) can access what (systems, index values or document types) and which functions (annotations, notes or caching for example) are permitted.  

√ Disaster Recovery capabilities are immediately improved.  Daily backup of digital files is now a routine task and High Availability planning can incorporate all of your business content.

√ Tracking Reports.  Audits log actions taken by all individuals for each document in the system.  Statistics provide counts of how many work items are in the system.   

√ Compliance with government regulations or internal mandates consumes an enormous amount of company resources.  Document imaging can simplify these efforts and significantly reduce the labor involved.     

√ Purging automates the process of removing documents past their expiration and retention dates.   

√ Workflow allows rules and logic to be established to define how work is processed.  It can be as simple as routing items between workbaskets for approval or more sophisticated such as package tracking, callback reminders, priority and reason codes, overdue limits, signature stamping, etc. 

An image system provides an opportunity to rethink your current work processes and make changes that can help manage your business more effectively.  While you don’t have to know the details up-front (that will be part of the design review), you should have a good idea of which departments are candidates for some of these advanced capabilities.  There is quite a bit of variability in functionality so understand what is included with the base products you are evaluating and what will cost extra.    

Next week: Tip 6: You are choosing a Partner not just a vendor!