Trends in Paperless Office Technology
With today’s businesses being more competitive than ever, forcing them to look for new ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies, more and more organizations of all sizes are investing in “paperless office” technology, creating an upsurge in demand. “Paperless office” technology, or electronic document management (EDM), has been around since the late 1980s. However until recently, EDM technologies tended to be restricted to stand-alone systems for “imaging” documents using a scanning device. Now - at last - this is changing. The advance of technology has brought about EDM systems for all forms of document handling, making the manual management, delivery, filing and authorization of paper, from invoices through to despatch notes, increasingly unnecessary.
Many EDM solutions company’s existing accounting or ERP system. And although a completely paperless office still remains more of a myth than a reality, the numerous solutions now in the marketplace can help to eliminate the slow and inefficient paper-based processes that still exist in many organizations whilst providing significant savings of time, money and storage space.
What are the Current Trends in “Paperless Office” Technology?
There is a lot more to “paperless office” technology than just electronic filing. Modern document management systems enable documents to be electronically created, delivered and authorized in addition to their electronic storage and retrieval. And since many documents these days are sent and also arrive electronically, such as customer orders as PDF files, delivery schedules in Excel format and bank statements downloaded from a website, electronic storage is no longer just about scanning paper either.
Electronic Document Design
Many of today’s EDM systems have the functionality to produce pixel perfect forms and complex multi part documents directly from the desktop. The electronic design of a range of business forms, which can then be printed onto standard plain paper, liberates an organization from the limitations and expense of pre-printed stationery without impairing quality or business image. The electronic design of documents combined with modules for electronic document delivery also removes the need to printout documents at all!
Electronic Document Delivery
With e-mail being commonplace in most organizations worldwide, the instant receipt of documents such as invoices, statements and quotes is increasingly expected. EDM technology has developed in response to businesses’ needs so that it is now possible to automatically mail, fax and even SMS documents, removing the time and costs associated with manually posting documents. For example, sales invoices can be automatically faxed to some customers, emailed to others, and forwarded as an attached .PDF file depending on customer preferences. All this can be done with a simple click of the mouse, directly from the desktop.
Travel operator, CT2, is one such company that has recently replaced the manual posting of 200,000 invoices a year with an electronic mail system so that now, all invoices are automatically emailed to customers. As well as enhancing its customers’ travel experience and making savings of over $100,000 a year, the implementation of this system has seen a return on investment in just seven weeks!
Nowadays, reminders or simple statements can also be automatically sent as text messages straight to a customer’s mobile phone or PDA such as when a customer’s account becomes overdue or when they are close to their credit limit. This can be very effective in sectors such as professional services and construction when key contacts are rarely in the office or are difficult to get hold of.
Automatic Storage of Outgoing Documents
As well as digitally storing all incoming documents using a scanner system, modern EDM systems have the ability to automatically store images of all outgoing documents, without having to print them and scan them back in again. The digital document is stored instantly when the user presses the “print” or electronic delivery icon.
As today’s EDM systems can tightly integrate into companies’ accounting and ERP systems (e.g. Oracle, SAP and Sage), electronic documents can be quickly and easily stored and retrieved directly from the software system by drilling-down from the ledger into an image of in invoice, for example. This makes it possible for (authorized) staff across an organization to instantly view all types of document from their desktop instead of having to spend time, effort and often money, manually locating paper documents. It also eliminates lost and misfiled papers, and as all documents (and related documents) are linked into the core system, a comprehensive audit trail is created.
Regional newspaper publisher, Johnston Press, is an example of a company that has implemented an electronic archive into its core financial system. As well as improving business efficiency, the company is enjoying $1,000,000 savings per year by automatically processing and storing over 700,000 documents per annum.
Web-Based Document Retrieval
In addition to accessing documents from the core accounting or ERP system, organizations are using advanced EDM technologies to locate electronically stored documents over the web. Using a web interface with password access, authorized users can retrieve both incoming documents that have been scanned-in as well as electronically stored outgoing documents.
By searching on a range of fields such as customer name, invoice date range and document number, users can quickly locate the image of the document they require as well as all related documentation. Some companies are taking this one step further by allowing customers to access certain records over the Internet such as invoices, statements and purchase orders, helping to improve both customer service and cash flow.
Electronic Workflow
Once documents are stored electronically, they can be viewed and processed on screen without the need for the original piece of paper. Electronic workflow software is used to notify people, by email, that they have something to do, look at, review and/or approve. Workflow is also useful for ensuring that all relevant people are kept “in the loop” and that everything is properly recorded.
Workflow is ideal for approving invoices, authorizing purchase orders, setting up new accounts, reviewing credit limits and processing bad debts and write-offs. With workflow systems, documents are electronically forwarded to all relevant staff for approval or simply for information before any action is taken.
They have the option of accepting, rejecting or querying the document, and with various rules being built into the Workflow system, it automatically knows which documents to send to whom and when. Furthermore, as approvals are all done electronically, the administrator can easily track the whereabouts of individual documents so that they can never go “missing”.
Intelligent Data Capture
Intelligent data capture is the latest and most rapidly developing paperless office trend. Data capture technology enables the automated capture of data from incoming documents, thereby replacing the manual data entry of documents, which is inefficient, costly and prone to error.
The latest data capture solutions use
intelligent optical character recognition
(OCR) to recognize the document type
(invoice, purchase order etc.) and
efficiently and accurately capture the
pertinent data from the document.
Integrated EDM systems also have the
functionality to verify this data against the
data in the company’s accounting/ERP
system and highlight any discrepancies.
Organizations that implement data capture technology enjoy increased accuracy in inputted data and time and cost savings. As data entry clerks can be redeployed to areas of the business where they can add value, this can also result in increased staff retention and business performance.
V1 Document Management’s data capture system is currently being implemented into the accounting system of leading optician, Specsavers, and this is expected to dramatically improve financial processes and reduce the data entry effort by up to 80 per cent whilst significantly reducing time and money.
Summary
“Paperless office” technology has now come of age. No longer is it limited to basic scanning systems, it is revolutionizing business processes with its storage, delivery, workflow and data capture capabilities.
This advanced technology, which is part of an ever growing document management industry, is making its mark on businesses throughout the world and will continue to do so for a long time to come! CEOs with businesses still dominated by manual, paper-based processes need to be aware that if they do not implement paperless office systems soon, they will be playing “catch-up” to competitors who have gone the paperless route, and are reaping the rewards of doing so!
