While the task may seem overwhelming, moving from a paper-based system to online document management saves your company time, money, and effort. And best of all, making the switch to digital document management doesn’t have to be difficult! It simply requires some brainstorming about processes and how they can be updated and changed to fit the new digital storage model of business. Here are some ways to begin your transition to an efficient, user-friendly document management platform.
Evaluate Your Current Document Management
Moving your current files is an important step in shifting from paper to online document management. But before you can even move them, you need to take a hard look at where your files currently reside. If all of your company files are in paper format, then you will focus on scanning solutions to integrate them into your new system. But many companies also have a variety of digital documents floating around. They may be saved on computer hard drives, attached to emails, or stored on various web-based document storage platforms. Taking a serious look at the whole of your document system will show you the best way forward. Fortunately, a document management platform like Vasion makes this process easy. The system uses AI technology to extract information from scanned paper documents and uses that information to correctly route and store the document. The software also enables the integration of previously existing document storage systems, like Google Drive and OneDrive. Having all the documents in one place will help employees save a lot of time that could otherwise be wasted having to track down various documents in different systems.
Break the Paper Dependency
One vital step to truly transitioning away from paper is to eliminate the paper processes in your office. In other words, stop creating more paper! When you work hard scanning old documents but continue to create new paper ones, you are simply adding more work to your plate. As an early step in your move, begin automating your current paper processes, such as invoices, forms, memos, and requests. This puts you on the fast-track to efficiency from the very beginning. Some employees at the office will resist this process. There are always the people who love working with paper and complain that everything is going digital. As a company, it is important to be sending down messaging from the top about how important it is to go digital and what the added benefits are to the company. Once everyone realizes how crucial an online document management system is to success, they will be on board and ready to help break the paper dependency.
Consider the Transition a Process
Moving paper to online document management won’t happen overnight. Instead, as you scan in your paper documents, you will also begin to automate and improve your business processes for the long term. With this in mind, try to be patient and keep your eyes open for inefficiencies to tackle. Which papers are still being passed around your office? Where do projects slow down or get lost? Once you have identified key areas to address, create a list and then prioritize them. Every change you make gets you closer to a more seamless, efficient solution. The faster the transition process, the better. This allows the business to be more consistent with everything going digital, instead of some things remaining in the hard-copy paper world.
Creating New Processes
Once your office decides to go paperless, you will need to update your standard processes to fit in with your new digital solution. For example, maybe in the past, patients at your doctor’s office registered using paper and pen when they went to the office for their appointment. Now that you are using an online document management platform, these documents can be emailed to patients before their appointment, so they can fill them out and submit them from home. The documents are securely saved to the cloud, where they can be accessed at any time.
Updating processes will make your office much more organized and efficient. It can take time to figure out new ways of doing things, but in the end, it will be well worth it. As mentioned above, start out by thinking of inefficiencies that exist in your office and how you can use your digital system to get more organized. In addition, have a vertical planning meeting where everyone from top to bottom meets and brainstorms ways to create new processes in order to increase productivity with the new online document management platform. It is always beneficial to seek many different types of input. For example, a secretary and a CEO will have totally different views on which processes need to be transitioned to digital, and it is important that everyone’s thoughts are heard.
Increased Security
Going digital means increasing security. The encryption available in an online document management system far outweighs the security provided by a locked file cabinet. Rest assured that any information and data stored inside the platform will be kept safe. Vasion software not only encrypts store documents, but it also encrypts files in transit. This is why it is important to transition the office to digital as soon as possible.
A paperless office may seem like a dream, but with the right tools and techniques, you can conquer the paper before you know it. An honest evaluation of your current document management platform is a great start. Talk to everyone at the office, from the CEO to the secretary to the new hires, and figure out which processes need to be updated. Follow that with automating every document process you can (start with the most critical) and then slowly work your way through the rest. Each step counts, and online document management reaps benefits from the very beginning. Interested in learning more? Contact Vasion today for more information.