Is Document Management on your ‘must-have’ list?

Is Document Management on your ‘must-have’ list?

Speedy access to critical information separates the winners from the losers in today’s information economy. And just as everyone organises their documents in some way or another – even if it’s a ‘home made’ naming convention of always including the client name or a keyword – then, everyone who is not using document management software spends far too much time looking for “lost” documents or trying to work out which is the most recent version.

We would like to think that DM has finally gained full acceptance in the business world; but the truth is that some businesses still remain stubbornly unconvinced despite the facts and figures that support the business case.

Why Wouldn’t You?

According to Deutsche Bank and Gartner research, no less than 95% of the 30 billion invoices processed across Europe in the year 2010 were still done so in a way that involved manual data entry. Think about that for a minute – that’s over 28 billion invoices still being moved around from person to person, desk to desk, sometimes with as many as 10 steps to complete the whole process. The truth here is that manual processing can push the cost of processing that invoice by a factor of 20 over doing it electronically. That equates to £80,000 for 20,000 invoices at £4 each (done manually) versus the much lower £4,000 if they were done electronically (so at 20p each). And 20,000 invoices isn’t really a lot if you are a multinational.

Another statistic has it that the average office worker in the UK uses 15,000 sheets of paper every year with a cost implication of approximately £170 per person. At roughly 10 million UK office workers, that amounts to nearly £2 billion pounds being spent on possibly unnecessary paper.

A 2012 IDC report (‘The High Cost of Not Finding Information’) found that information workers spent up to 20% of their time filing and searching through paper documents. On top of that, they wasted over 10 hours a week searching for, but not finding, documents, recreating lost documents and other time-consuming tasks. IDC has gone so far as to cost out three scenarios – Time Wasted Search, Cost of Reworking Information and Opportunity Costs To the Enterprise – that can help companies estimate the cost of not finding information and the productivity gains that can be achieved when they do. Using these three scenarios, IDC estimated that an enterprise employing 1,000 knowledge workers wastes at least $2.5 to $3.5 million per year searching for nonexistent information, failing to find existing information, or recreating information that can’t be found. The opportunity cost to the enterprise is even greater, with potential additional revenue exceeding $15 million annually.

Plans, ideas, and thought processes have to be reinvented and recreated because an original document cannot be located and retrieved or – as sometimes happens when people retire or move on – other people are unaware of its existence. These figures, and many more like them, can all be attributed to the problems inherent in hardcopy document management – problems that have been known about for a long time.

This is something that should concern everyone in business, as despite all the cheerful headlines about a recovering UK economy, most businesses are still not increasing their spending – which means that money spent carelessly like this if there really is no need is not really on.

‘Must-Have’ List

There is no room, then, for complacency. Until DM software is on everybody’s ‘must-have’ list, there is still work to be done. The DM market is still a very healthy one and there is great scope for selling more of the sector’s wares. But unless we start working with customers – new and old, frankly – on the need to get the efficiency beyond the Finance office to the rest of the office, making the internal handling of the payment cycle a much slicker process and close out the situation where invoices can spend three quarters of their time in a company doing nothing, then we don’t have time to relax.

Source: Document Manager

Why not consider making the transition from hard copy to electronic storage of documents, and let our intelligent document management solution take care of your important data. 

View our explainer video here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBjh5Y9-zAA

The NHS should be paperless by 2018… Are they going to achieve this?

The NHS should be paperless by 2018… Are they going to achieve this?

Just 29% of NHS Managers believe the 2018 target of a paperless office is realistic.

Going paperless is a challenge for any large organisation, but for the cash-strapped NHS; constantly under public scrutiny, the task looks much less attainable.

Many Health and IT professionals remain deeply sceptical that the NHS can be paperless by 2018, two years after health secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled the ambitious target, exclusive research carried out by Health Service Journal has found.

71% of respondents to the survey, agreed with a statement that the paperless by 2018 goal was “a great ambition, but unrealistic”.

The 573 healthcare leaders, clinicians and IT professionals polled also expressed widespread concern that lack of technological expertise and resources would undermine the NHS’s drive to integrate health and social care.

About 70% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “The integrated care agenda will not be possible because not enough attention and/or resource is being focused on developing technology to underpin integrated records.”

Better use of data and technology has the power to improve health, transforming the quality and reducing the cost of healthcare services. It can give patients more control over their health and wellbeing, empower carers, reduce the administrative burden for care professionals, and support the development of new medicines and treatments. By April 2018, digital information is supposed to be fully available across NHS and social care services.

Established by the Department of Health, the National Information Board (NIB) is a body which brings together national health and care organisations from the NHS, public health, clinical science, social care and local government. It is charged with developing the strategic priorities for data and technology in health and care to deliver the maximum benefit for all citizens and patients and to make appropriate recommendations for investment and action. The urgency of this is increasingly evident: the healthcare system faces unprecedented financial constraint at a time of rising demand for its services.

However, scattered around the country are some success stories:

Pioneer Greater Manchester GP Dr Amir Hannan says that more than 2,400 of his patients – 20 per cent of his practice list – are now equipped and, importantly, trained to view their records online.

At Grove House Practise in Runcorn, GP David Wilson headed up a project to digitise records. Grove House has scanned all its legacy patient records, saving a vast amount of space and time. Receptionists no longer have to search through thousands of folders.

“We’ve not used paper records in consultation since 2000,” Wilson said. “We have 11,000 patients, and the racking space was astronomical, taking up 20 square metres. So we revamped the office space once we went live 18 months ago.”

The first NHS hospital trust to announce it had gone paperless, St Helens and Knowsley, dispensed with its last paper records in 2012.

However, even IT enthusiasts warn that bringing the entire health and social care system up to the levels of these front-runners will be difficult. TechUK, which represents IT suppliers, reported in 2014 that the 2018 paperless target was “achievable”, but that major challenges remain.

Sources: Health Service Journal, Computer Weekly, Local Government Chronicle, Gov.UK, Raconteur

 

Why not discuss the possibility of going paperless for your business? Contact us today…

https://fortressandcastle.com/contact-us/