Digital Transformation Without Debt
Business owners have reason to be cautious about expenses now. The move to remote work has underscored the need for a digital strategy for businesses of all sizes. We likely haven’t seen all the fallout from the global shutdown caused by COVID-19. It makes sense to be cautious in considering new purchases. Document management is a key component of digital transformation but it can be costly. How can you be sure you’re putting your money in the areas with the highest return? To help your company determine the best options, we’ve put together this list.
Digital Transformation Without Debt: Document Management On A Budget
Don’t skimp on a document study.
Remember that the payback of these systems is in the retrieval of files. Rapid retrieval is the biggest time saver with a document management system. To determine your starting point, focus on addressing the files with the highest retrieval rate. If you need assistance determining which documents these are, we can assist with the methodology for a document study. A document study will shed light on the files that are frequently retrieved.
Don’t scan it all!
Look at your existing data including paper, shared drives, and often, complex Outlook/email filing structures. During years of digital transformation and document management implementation, we’ve learned many things. Like, many files aren’t retrieved again. It doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of money converting those files you won’t retrieve. For these budget-sensitive customers, there are two ways to approach this:
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- Day forward scanning approach, which means you mark a date and scan everything created after that date.
- Scan on-demand approach, which means that you scan the document once someone retrieves it.
Read more about why you don’t start scanning everything here.
Either approach can be a measured and methodical way to break your data into manageable sets.
Define and communicate your filing structure.
Ensure your employees understand that you expect the return on retrieval. Impress that they should make sure the documents they create are retrievable. Very often, paper documents that are in files are printouts of information that is stored electronically. Educate your workforce and let them know that digital data is as valid as a paper copy. Printing out emails just doesn’t make sense.
Take advantage of subscription or cloud promotions.
These systems include the tools to get you running faster. These flexible systems let you scale up AND down more easily than purchasing a system with several seats. If hardware or security is a concern, cloud systems require nothing but a web browser, a login, and (ideally) a plan. Most on-premise systems scale up nicely, but once you’ve bought software in the form of a seat, or user license, you can’t return it. Paying as you go with these systems is a good way to limit your exposure.
Look at exit and migration strategies.
Our emergency move to telecommuting created a pressing reason to move on digital transformation NOW. Before you commit to a particular solution, make sure you understand the migration strategies out of them. There may be low-cost options that address your needs today but can’t scale to your future needs. Make sure you understand how you can get your data, and indexing values so you can change if you need to. Your needs will continue to evolve as your company embraces a new way of working. As long as you have a plan, you won’t regret a legacy platform as a mistake.
Complex IT purchases are anxiety-producing in any situation. Taking these steps will help you ensure that you can decide on a path forward and even if your needs change, you have the knowledge to move forward with a sound strategy. If you’re interested in looking at Laserfiche’s offer of 6 months of free cloud accounts or need a roadmap for how to evaluate your documents, we remain here to help.