OUTSOURCING FOR DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Outsourcing services have been in effect for some time, especially for business operations.
Companies choose to outsource specific tasks for many reasons. Sometimes, they are involved in new projects, which require additional expertise outside of their services or may be dealing with lack of support staff, need additional help for a short period of time, or are working with time constraints.
What ever the reason, outsourcing can bring your company many benefits to your busy schedule. If you are a small firm, outsourcing can bring you some relief in getting the project started and/or completed. The learning curve in acquiring new skills for a specific task may cause inconveniences and encumber business activities at that time. It is important to weight factors prior to deciding if outsourcing is right for your company. The financial commitment versus productivity can be the biggest factor. If efficiency and productivity are a concern, will you consider this option to be worthwhile?
In regards to document management, consultants can be hired to assess your business documents, the classification system required for access and retrieval of documents, analyze the workflow, the existing system for the management of documents, and provide you with a report with recommendations. A plan for the implementation of a management program can be tailored to suit your needs and launched according to the process for delivery of the program.
There is still a significant amount of paper in most offices and some companies choose to become paperless. This requires time and knowledge of working with a software program for scanning and indexing and understanding the implications of adding new documents to the program. Document preparation, inspection and quality checks of scanned documents and post document checks, rejects and the added time involved in starting over are time consuming for the average office to commit to. Indexing documents, which includes data entry, establishing the metadata structure for similar document types and description of documents, is part of the process, depending on the software program. If there is a budget to hire and outsource, the conversion process is less painful. While other companies may decide to work on their own and accomplish this venture over time and train staff, if that option is best for your needs, most vendors will provide training and support with the purchase of their document software program.
The inconvenience caused to the business and to staff can be resolved in working with documents, which are not referred to as often and starting with less important files. This process can be done in batches and depending on the volume, within a reasonable time frame. Also, some companies prefer to continue to work with paper and electronic documents and would require a system, which would handle both formats and create a relationship between these formats. This can be accomplished and many other options are available to them if they prefer to convert over time and work with a hybrid environment of both paper and electronic documents. As a consultant, I understand the need to discuss all of the options available to you in regards to document management.
What are some of the questions, not exclusively, you may want to ask the service provider in regards to an automated document management system? What is the turn around time? What is the process used to ensure quality control of documents being scanned? What are the indexing features and the class or category for identifying business documents being used? What other features are available for searching documents when using the software program? Access and retrieval of documents are key components to document management as well as access rights. Document management requires a good system and program to work effectively and efficiently.
Francine Renaud
Records Management Consultant
http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988 Toll Free: 1-888-763-3988
