Every business, big or small, has to tackle copious amounts of paperwork and digital information. Enterprises with a big stakeholder footprint can only bear with such loads with a proper Document Management System at place or by availing the services of a Records Management System. However, many businesses see a Document Management System as a novelty rather than an investment. Though, this can prove to be a costly error in judgment.
In this post, we will discuss the potential costs a business has to bear if there is no document management system at the place.
Let us get started!
Disastrous Scenario, Disastrous Outcomes
Small, medium and even large enterprises often make the mistake of storing their information on-site without any systematic curation. While a document management system ensures backup copies of crucial records, not having one can not only lead to irreversible damage to the paperwork and digital drives but also tank the company’s name. In case of an uneventful incident like fire, floods, etc., not having a document management system will cost a company in terms of direct information loss, litigation proceedings by the stakeholder, and reputational loss.
Time and Overrunning Costs
It has been observed that the companies not utilizing a Document Management System to sort, store, and retrieve crucial records often face productivity issues. At any stage of any business process, there may arise a need to retrieve a critical piece of information. It can be anything from a pending invoice to tax reports. Though, without a system, the location and retrieval of that critical record become tedious. The negative effects of this ‘block’ are experienced when multiple business processes are queued up for clearance, deadlines come closer, and pressure on the employees increase. Often, such critical records can be lost due to human error, and that implicates a hefty cost to the organization.
Poor Collaboration & Decision-making
For a collaborative effort to be successful, every member of the team must have access to the right records and information at the right time. It can be a collaboration of international taxation teams to file the final tax liability of a company, a collaboration for designing the new app, or simply a joint effort to improve the marketing output. The bottom line is, without a Systematic Document Management, such efforts can be unproductive and only add-up to company overheads.
Moreover, the decision-makers find it difficult to arrive at the right picture without key records in hand. Here, this holds true for digital as well as physical documents. Decision-makers or Management leaders are often bound by time to arrive at a final decision, and any delay in the retrieval of required documents delay the decision ultimately translating into lost time and cost to the company.
Losing out on ‘First Contact Resolution’ Opportunities
Businesses do realize the importance of delivering unparalleled customer/client service. In case any issue arrives, they ought to solve the query in the shortest possible span of time. For this, the personnel must have authorized access to customer/client records. It can be both, digital or physical records, depending upon the industry or domain. The sooner they can retrieve the customer’s records and transactions with the company, the sooner the query can be resolved, keeping the customer’s faith in the company as strong as a bridge. However, if the documents take too long to be retrieved due to lack of a document management system, or in the worst case- are misplaced, then the organization loses a golden opportunity.
Losing a client/customer’s faith or the customer itself is a heavy cost to any business keeping in mind the gargantuan costs associated with acquiring a new customer!
The Legal Pitfall
No enterprise wants to go there, but sometimes, it is not an option. While a document management system can help you maintain all the critical regulatory & legal compliance records, misplacing them can send a business into a serious pitfall. Be it your HR Records, Audits, Legal records, financial records, etc., they ought to be preserved by a document management system.
There can be so many troubles businesses can run into without a Document Management System at place. The above-mentioned are some of the major ones that must be kept in mind. Make your enterprise bulletproof by aiming for Record Management excellence today!
