Paper is the life blood of an organization. If you want to understand any process you follow the paper. Whenever decisions are made there are paper documents to trigger action and demonstrate approval. Over the past few years organizations of all sizes have been trying to improve processes by cutting out the paper and replacing it with document management solutions. On the surface, one would expect putting in document management to be relatively simple (instead of printing paper you just file it) but the challenge has been to recreate the flow of paper within the electronic system to ensure that key processes continue to operate. If you miss a link then the paper will continue to get printed and support for the document management solution will fade.
At Jonas we are seeing Document Management start to take off. Looking at the implementations that went the smoothest we have noticed three key actions that have helped them achieve success:
Map out the process: As noted above, document management is more than just storing paper electronically. It is about improving process and you cannot do this unless you understand the process. To start, find something that you print and follow it through your organization. Storing is the first step but you must also make sure that information gets transmitted to the right people in the document management solution and that approval processes are set up.
Start Small: Do not try to eliminate all paper in one fell swoop. Pick processes or groups of processes and digitize them one by one. Map a process, implement the system and then move on to the next process. This will help you focus on adoption in smaller bits.
Remain consistent: People do not like to change. When you first implement a document management solution people will tell you that it takes longer to electronically file a document than it does to print it and file it. That is true because they are asked to capture more information but this extra work on the front end will help you save time later in retrieving documents and will speed up your key processes. Explain the benefits clearly and keep on top of people to make sure they follow the new procedure. Starting small will help you do this.
Implementing a document management solution is not easy but the benefits dramatically outweigh the upfront work. The obvious benefit is in information retrieval (instead of digging through boxes or cabinets you can use searches to quickly find something) but the bigger win is in process improvement. Paper is slow. It takes time to get it printed and move it around the office to get approved and trigger action. It also has a habit of disappearing. How many times have you heard that something fell through a crack? With a document management solution documents are automatically transferred to people through the organization to take action or approve an action in real time. The system eliminates the lag time (someone sitting on a few documents waiting until they are up for something else to take them to the next level) and makes processes crisper.