Time, space, lost business… Conventional filing may cost more than you think.

Despite the "information age", most small to medium sized businesses still depend on archaic methods of document storage. Certainly, a large proportion of information is now stored electronically, but many documents still end up in conventional filing cabinets.

Neither is ideal. Especially when you're trying to compete in a faster, ever more demanding market. And of course, you can never predict when a document has been misfiled or completely lost, or anticipate disasters like flood, fire, malicious damage or power cuts. All of which, without adequate backup, could seriously affect your business.

Statistics show that, on average, staff spend 10% of their time looking for information*. That equates to nearly four hours a week - half a day's work wasted on hunting for information just to allow people to do their jobs properly. If you were to cut this down to just seconds rather than hours - across every area of your business, and for every member of staff - the savings could mount into tens of thousands of pounds per annum.

Electronic Document Management

Electronic document management (EDM) assists in the archiving, organisation, management and retrieval of knowledge. An EDM implementation involves the use of dedicated document scanner(s) or multi-functional devices to convert current/batches of hardcopy files into an electronic state. Once digitised these documents can be combined with other electronic files (including email) and indexed and stored in the required format. Most organisations will have a different set of needs to be met by an EDM system, interfaces and back-office systems can be tailored to suit their business needs.

The implementation of an EDM system will give the following benefits:

• Making information available to the right people at the right time in the right way to improve productivity
• Cutting document production and distribution costs
• Using office equipment more effectively and reducing waste
• Reducing valuable office space taken up by filing cabinets
• Improve levels of customer service and retention
• Meet and exceed regulatory and compliance requirements
• Ultimately reduce costs