document management best practices - elcom

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Although the earliest Document Management Solutions supported

limited file formats it proved highly effective in reducing hundreds of

hours that were wasted in the distribution of paper files. Since then,

the technology has progressed to support image files, video

formats, and many other document types. The proliferation of

internet acted as a catalyst for accelerating this process. Such is

the impact of document management solutions that they have

become an indispensable tool for large and medium sized

organizations.

According to various reputable sources such as Gartner Group and

Laserfiche, 7.5% of all the documents get lost. Furthermore, 90%

of these documents are shuffled, which leads to lost time.

Interestingly, professionals spend 50% of their time looking for

files but only 5% to 15% of their time reading the required

information. Taking into account these statistics, consider a

scenario where 500 hours are consumed in retrieving the

information while only one fifth of that time is spent in reading the

actual content. This scenario does not include 7.5% of the

documents that will never be found again.

The size of a company doesn't really matter when emphasizing the

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need for a reliable document management system. Modern DMS

also act to safeguard the process by providing security, automatic

workflow and auditing tools. Nowadays, governments of Australia,

UK and the United States are implementing policies for paper

reduction, and Document Management Systems are the

cornerstone of such policies.

Consider a simple example: imagine how easier it will be for a

customer if they wanted to open an account with a company that

provides the facility to upload the scanned documents. It may seem

trivial but the implication has far reaching effects both on the

individual and the company. In this case, the customer doesn’t have

to worry about their important papers getting lost, while the

company representatives are assured that they don’t have to

retrieve tons of papers from the fax machines. Moreover, the

personal information of that particular customer is only seen by the

authorized individual, whereas the representatives are assured that

there are no more shuffled papers.

Since the development of document management systems, experts

agree that the rules of managing these systems have remained the

same. Surprisingly, the best practices for document management

implementation in 80’s are still relevant even after the rapid

advancement in technology. Here are a few of the most important

points to remember when implementing document management

systems:

Capture

A good document management system is able to capture a variety


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of file types. Before implementation, decision makers should

realize that their system is able to recognize images from scanned

documents and multifunction printing tools. Additionally, they should

check to see if their vendor provides optical character recognition

capabilities that can identify text in the documents. Nowadays,

vendors may also offer optical mark recognition to capture the

values in check-boxes. Nevertheless, managers should avoid

document management solutions which support limited file types.

When Microsoft introduced the new version of doc files in docx

format, they quickly realized that some well known document

management systems did not offer the capability to recognize such

a basic format. For companies, it quickly became a nuisance that

their latest software had suddenly become limited. Therefore,

decision makers should always trust vendors who are able to

deliver the latest technology whenever it becomes available.

Legal Issues

Although managers may not put emphasis on the legalities of

documents, which are captured by their systems, but such legal

issues can play an important role in a future dispute. Unlike the web

where rulings are often based on International laws making legal

decisions a complicated affair, disputes arising from the use of the

documents by a document management system are regulated

and can result in strict penalties. To avoid making costly mistakes,

every manager should review the rules explained by organizations

such as AIIM (Association for Information & Management) and

ARMA (Association of Records). In Australia, use of such

information is governed by the rules of RMAA (Records

Management Association of Australia). Australian companies can


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also get free legal help from National Archives of Australia. While, it

may be difficult for managers to review the entire set of rulings

therefore the objective of such entities is to provide legal support

wherever possible. Accordingly, managers must play it safe by

reviewing the rules in conflicting situations.

Metadata

Whenever the document management solution captures a file, it

sometimes automatically detects the Metadata of that particular

document. The Metadata is a type of heading or a title that provides

a short description of the captured document. For managers it is

necessary that they prompt their systems to capture the Metadata

because a good system should automatically store such data in its

database. Employees can later retrieve documents by searching for

the keywords specified in the Metadata. Modern systems are

equipped with optical character recognition that can automatically

identify the Metadata in the scanned images. Additionally,

administrators can also prompt the user to provide a descriptive

keyword that allows employees to search the required document.

Trustworthiness

When managing sensitive documents, trust has an important part

to play in providing confidence to employees. Since the

introduction of electronic documents, managers should ensure that

their workers are made aware of legal policies and understand the

procedures on how to handle critical information. The

implementation of such policies will automatically create trust within

the organization by allowing employees to decide where to get


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help, if needed.

In this regard, managers of several large organizations lack

judgment by creating a sole disclaimer, which automatically pop

ups in front of the user before opening the document management

system. Such disclaimers provide information on the legalities of

using private information. Although it is among the best practices of

managing documents, but administrators forget that most

employees never read those policies. Such practices may help with

the legal proceedings but it will also create unnecessary hardships

for employees, in case of future legal proceedings. Therefore, it

may be better to insert two or three lines in plain English reminding

employees to use good judgment when confused. Such a text can

be accompanied by legal disclaimers to prevent the company and

its employees in the court of law. A combination of simple

instruction along with a legal disclaimer can help organizations fulfill

their duties. Similarly, managers should encourage employees to

use their instinct in making decisions while employees should

immediately contact higher authorities to prevent any misuse.

Storage

Of all the characteristics of an efficient document management

system, good storage practices are central to the success of a

company. Due to the vast quantities of data that a document

management system can store, it becomes necessary

to periodically review the storage capacity. Managers should

decide on what is important to store and what information should be

archived. At the time, it may also become necessary to destroy

certain documents. The periodic review will allow the company to


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organize its database.

Modern document management systems allow users to create a

hierarchy by assigning priority parameters to each document.

Actually, hierarchical storage management is used by many

companies to categorize documents. These hierarchical storage

management capabilities allow companies to transfer documents

from the high cost hard-disk drives to low cost optical drives. This

hierarchical process uses artificial intelligence to transfer data from

hard-disk to optical drives, and vice versa. Such a process

guarantees that the main servers of the document management

system only store the relevant data. In fact, the process is very

similar to cleaning the registry of personal computers and deleting

unnecessary files from recycle bin.

Distribution & Security

According to the law, users of document management systems

should understand that the distribution of any document is

regulated by strict laws. For example, the original document should

never be distributed. Instead, validation and quality endorsed

applications should be used to circulate any copy of the original. It

is important because only the original documents are accepted as a

legitimate source of information in the court of law. The certified

copies only ensure that the copy of the document is a reliable

alternate of the original, outside the courtrooms. Administrators can

also provide additional security measures by distributing read-only

content, wherever applicable. Portable document format (PDF) is

the one of the most common methods of digital document

distribution, which allows administrators to set the security


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parameters. Such rights management modules allow limited

access to the other users. The Health Insurance Portability and

Accountability Act is an example of ruling on the distribution and

security of documents.

Training

Often, managers overlook the importance of training their workers

to utilize the several automated functions embedded in a document

management system. Even successful companies sometimes are

reluctant to provide the necessary training to their workers. The end

result is the availability of very efficient platform, but no one to use

it. For example, modern management systems come with various

advanced features such as workflow automation, allowing

management to create a rule for the automatic delivery of the

document to several users in a hierarchy. Such workflow can help

to pass an invoice to different users in a hierarchical chain where

each user needs to review and sign the particular invoice before the

final release of finds by the accounting department. Experts think

that the lack of training is the most crucial factors in the failure to

implement large scale document management systems.

Linking Records to Business Process

The purpose of document management is to streamline the

business process by creating access to the required document

when needed. Before implementing such a solution, managers

should be able to link the types of records to a particular business

process. Without defining these relationships, it will become difficult

for different users to relate a document to a certain task. For


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example, whenever a new customer uploads the scanned

documents to a system, it may be the ‘new accounts’ department

responsible for ensuring the processing of such a document. If

someone else has access to that particular document then the

person from the other department should realize that they cannot

destroy or change the location of the document without prior

consent from the ‘new accounts’ department. Consequently, it may

be the managers of ‘new accounts’ department who is responsible

for deciding which records of applicants are to be destroyed.

Simply, no one else should try to evaluate the eventual outcome of

the documents for new applicants. In this case, the scanned

documents from potential new customers are relegated to ‘new

accounts’ department therefore linking that particular business

process with a designated department. Creating such process will

streamline the work flow.

In their State of the Industry report AIIM, Association for Information

& Image Management revealed many interesting factors that further

emphasize the need to implement a reliable document

management solution. Here are the top three:

Fifty five percent of the companies have little or no confidence

that their emails are recorded and are recoverable.

Despite the fact that 18% of the large companies faced critical

legal challenges in 2009, it usually takes more than a month for

them to provide any document related for evidence.

The efficient use of document management system is severely

lacking as paper documents are still better managed in


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comparison to the digital format.

These statistics can be interpreted to suggest that managers of

large scale organizations are still finding it a challenge to implement

best practices for document management systems.


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document management best practices - elcom

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