While the technology that drives document management marches forward (Windows 7, SQL Server, .NET), the business objectives of the clients are essentially unchanged. Clients greatly need solutions for scanning paper documents, applying index information, routing documents through workflow processes, maintaining document retention policies, collaborating around documents, providing for disaster recovery, and easily searching for documents.
Whether companies are large or small, the sheer amount of documents and data that companies must store and manage outpaces their capabilities using paper filing systems or shared file servers. With a modern document management system installed, users index documents as they are saved. This in conjunction with power database tools provides the users with the capability to instantly retrieve or aggregate documents. As an example, Document Locator is commonly deployed in an Accounts Payable process where documents are indexed with Company Name, Invoice Date, Check Number, and Amount. By incorporating these index tags with document management, employees could easily retrieve all of the documents and approval notes for invoices received in the last 3 months that exceeded $20K via a web browser working from home.
In the economic downturn companies are struggling to maintain their business output while searching for ways to reduce costs. Sadly this leads to layoffs and increased burden on those remaining in the organization. While the natural tendency is to pull back spending, strategic investment in software that increase productivity can help maximize the resources you have remaining to drive your core business.
