Introduction to Document Management

The title of this blog is "PaperFree SMB," but that isn't to imply that only organizations generating large volumes of paper need be concerned with document management, nor that it's necessarily possible to become entirely "paper free" or "paperless."

Rather, this blog is about becoming as paper free as possible, an end goal that will be different for different organzations. And, all organizations have methods for managing documents; the defining question for this blog is, are these methods well-defined and well-managed, or are they undefined and mismanaged?

For our purposes, document management includes consideration of the following:

1. Converting paper generated during normal business processes to digital images, and managing those images efficiently and effectively;
2. Efficiently and effectively managing electronic documents that are generated during normal business processes; and,
3. Altering business processes to reduce paper, by eliminating unnecessary steps and/or by utilizing electronic versions of currently paper documents.

Established methods exist for analyzing business processes and document flows to identify the types of documents being produced, their volume, importance and relevance, and changes that can be made to processes to reduce the reliance on documents. Because every organization is different, each organization needs to take some time to conduct this analysis process.

The larger and more complex the organization, the more time and expertise is required. In many cases, outside expertise might be required, and fortunately there are numerous firms that specialise in providing document management services.

The point of this particular post, though, is to avoid the misconception that only paper documents are of concern. In today's litigious and highly regulated environment, every organization, whether large or small, for-profit or not-for-profit, private or public, needs to assess their current document management strategy and ensure that they know which documents are important, where they are, how to find them, and how long each document should be retained.

Without such knowledge, a single lawsuit or regulatory audit could be devastating in terms of the amount of time needed to pour through paper and electronic files to find important documents. Time and money spent prior to such occurrences represent and important investment in an organization's long-term viability.