Document Imaging System Benefits

By putting a document imaging and management system on your computer system, the people in your office can find and view any document in seconds. Of course, the search tools need to be powerful enough for the computer to know how to find the document you need. Best of all, the whole process takes only a few seconds from start of search to viewing or printing of the document.

Our documents keep getting lost or misfiled.

Few things in an office environment can get as frustrating as knowing exactly where a document is supposed to be filed, and discovering that it's missing. Of course no one ever recalls having seen it, or knows where it is, and so hunting for that document can get exasperating. Because nobody ever removes a file when they look at a document stored in an imaging system, a document imaging and management system is an ideal central repository for your records. Even if 50 people a day need to refer to a document, they can all view the pages simultaneously, without having to worry about loss or damage to the document.

I'm having trouble managing all my documents.

Many people don't realize the amount of effort that goes into managing a large records repository. In addition to the careful attention to detail required to make sure that documents are categorized and filed correctly, a lot of time and legwork goes into tracking down files, moving storage boxes, making photocopies and destroying documents whose retention period has expired. With huge amounts of documents and a limited staff, it's easy to get overburdened.

Document imaging and management systems help alleviate this burden by allowing many of these tasks to be done easily and quickly while sitting at the computer. Best of all, the sheer number of demands on a file room can be drastically reduced. Since everyone in an office with a computer can view the documents they need, (assuming they have appropriate security rights, of course) they can find and view documents while sitting at their own desks without ever needing to make a single trip to a shelf or filing cabinet.

I'm running out of storage space!

As more paper documents are filed away, additional shelf space or filing cabinets are needed. Eventually, storage space starts running low. Documents can be destroyed or moved off-site, but determining which documents won't be needed again is a difficult task. Knowing Murphy's Law, you can be pretty sure that any documents that are taken away will be needed urgently the next day.

Document imaging systems help to solve storage space problems. With the ability to store millions of pages on a single computer server, very little storage space is required. For example, a single CD can hold roughly 12,000 pages--the same as a filing cabinet! Once the paper copies of a document are scanned, they can be thrown away, moved safely to an off-site warehouse or even placed onto microfilm for long-term storage. If a copy of a document is needed, it can be printed or faxed from the imaging system with the click of a button.