What will an Integrated Document Management Systems do for you? The following is an example of what the system might look like and how you may benefit. The example is based on a typical manufacturer, but could apply to most businesses. You might have different names for the input documents and where the data is sent, but this might give you some ideas.
State with an initial document that is starting a process of documents you want to manage together. For a manufacturer, that might be a "Sales Order" that you will be tracking from start to finish meaning the goods have been delivered, the invoice paid and all the accounting records updated.
The document would be scanned and the proper data which will be needed later is extracted from the document. The typical list of documents that will be associated with this sales order from the very beginning until the end are:
The printed documents would be scanned and both the scan of the document, plus the captured data from the document would be stored together with all the other documents associated with the sales order.
Think of the package of information associated with the sales order as flowing down a "data assembly line". Over time, more data or scanned documents are attached to the electronic package and just as importantly, overtime data is sent out of the electronic package to start new processes, update data bases or input information into other systems, such as:
BUILDING BLOCKS: The system can start small and simple. Then as your confidence grows and your people adapt, you can add on the more sophisticated features. Once these systems are installed, they are very difficult to remove. It is sort of like email. No one was sure if email would be used and now, you could never remove email from an institution. Your integrated document management system will be the same.
You can see how this is now becoming a process, rather than a number of independent steps each one subject to the whims, capabilities and availability of various people along the way.
At the end of this process, picture the collector with two screens on his or her desk and being able to see all the documents that were part of this sales order from start to finish. That is extremely productive. All the data is linked together with the original images and can be recalled.
With this system, you start to create scalable processes that are well defined, so that when you bring on human resources, you can put them into a structured environment. They are not being taught what to do by someones "version" of what to do.