Every year, businesses generate thousands of documents be it for communication, storage of information or for any other purpose. An efficient document management system would ensure the systematic filing, storing, securing and retrieval of important data. A document management system enhances the business prospects of an organization to a great extent. Many organizations still maintain critical data in physical documents thinking it to be the most secured way of storing information. Today’s world of computer science has completely changed the traditional ways of carrying out a business. Online document management system is one such concept that has spread rapidly due to the advent of the internet. With just an internet connection, employees and management of an organization can access, view, modify, share, store and organize data, without having to install an extra software or server. Maintaining records over an online document management system or a web based document management system makes it much more convenient, cheap and secured ways of accessing important data of an organization. One is saved from wastage of productive time over searching for documents and information contained in a physical document. Online document management system also proves beneficial for those companies that are geographically spread or have to communicate to other organizations on a daily basis.
Document management systems are also available in computer software. It has a number of options to manage audio and video files, photographs, graphics, emails, etc. The software makes it convenient for creating, naming, storing, retrieving and controlling the entire process of managing documents of an organization. It can be operated by many users with ease, even with a large number of documents.
Document management software is beneficial for those businesses that incur huge expenditure on the management and storage of physical files and documents. It is also helpful for businesses that require accessing data related to customers, clients, suppliers, vendors, manufacturers and governmental bodies regularly.
Document management software facilitates indexing for future reference and enables the user to find the right document among large volumes of data. Its search feature lets a user retrieve a document with ease and much quicker. What makes document management system most preferred over physical documents is its high security option that can be customized according to the requirement. The management or a group can have control over the access to certain data by others by choosing from the number of security options.
Organizations must not only employ an effective document management system but also hire qualified professionals to monitor the system efficiently. An effective compliance strategy for a business is possible by a good document management system. MAG Studios, one of the leading software development and internet marketing consultancy company has been offering Document Management solutions to the needs of various clients all over the globe. To know more about the company.

In the current economic climate, things are likely and inevitably going to become much worse, as companies respond to cash flow difficulties by delaying payments. Often these tactics are aimed at those least equipped to respond positively and clearly to any delaying tactics from purchase ledger staff briefed to stall legitimate and due payments.

A positive step than any business can take – no matter what the size – is to implement Document Management Technology to deal with all aspects of Purchase Order and Invoice control.

Why? Simply because of the huge benefits in effective and efficient tracking of statements and PODs (proof of delivery) documentation.

Credit control departments which use manual processes are subject to regular problems with lost or misfiled documents, which make them vulnerable to delaying tactics. The costs – even in good times – have a negative effect on the bottom line. In the current climate, the effects of late payments can spell disaster if not kept under close control. This is where electronic document management comes to the rescue.

The frustration to cash flow is obvious, when it can take weeks for a Proof of Delivery document or an invoice to be discovered as missing, and needs to be raised again for sign off. How much simpler it is, to have a system whereby all accounts-related paperwork is scanned and delivered electronically to the customer. Not only is there then absolute proof of delivery, but there are no time delays associated with sending by mail via busy post-rooms. At a stroke, this prevents the age-old refrain that payments cannot be made because the invoice has not been received.

Document Management Software gives credit control staff instant desktop access to all documentation and tracking history – where customers original orders – previously scanned to the system, are linked to the sign-off documentation and the resulting invoice, along with proof of electronic receipt at the other end. Thus, with answers at their fingertips, credit control personnel are in the driving seat when it comes to any negative discussion about money owed.

There is no doubt that Document Management Software will reduce bad debts and improve payment collection – and also – and probably crucial for the overall health of any business – the morale of accounts staff who are always at the “sharp end” in any economic downturn.

WHITE PAPER
Organize-n-Search
State-of-the-art Low-budget Document Management Solutions

“We are living in the information age… The information explosion…” We have heard it so many times that have stopped paying any attention to it. However, information penetrates into every aspect of our lives. We are constantly trying to acquire new knowledge and looking for opportunities to benefit from it.

Users who actively work with documents and information, frequently face the problems related to search, organization and efficient use of documents. Copyeditors, writers, journalists, researchers, analysts, consultants, lawyers, medical workers, students, all run into the same challenges at home and at work.

This paper is intended for a wide range of people, who, for personal or business need, work with a large number of documents and other information. We take a close look at the problems of information management, benefits of using advanced technologies in the low-budget personal information management system, as well as system selection criteria to meet personal and professional needs of information workers.

Challenges of Document Management

Nowadays big part of information is stored in a form of text: books, articles, reports, memo, notes, specifications, descriptions, whitepapers, and manuals, not to mention a huge amount of time sensitive information, such as invoices, bank statements, schedules, contracts, and tax returns.

Yesterday, papers, photo albums, music disks, and video tapes were kept in drawers, boxes, and cabinets. But the development of personal computers and Internet has started the era of digital information.

Development of electronic formats has significantly increased system storage capacity and allowed accumulation of large information volumes. However, recent developments in the fields of computer systems and data storage have led to a new question: how can we effectively manage digital information?

Recent studies by IDC (Susan Feldman, Joshua Duhl, Julie Rahal Marobella, Alison Crawford. The Hidden Costs of Information Work. March 2005) revealed that on average 13 hours of every 40-hour work week are spent on creating documents. 9.5 hours per week are spent on searching for information, while almost 9.6 hours on analyzing the information. 6.5 hours are wasted on searching for information that is never found leading to the need to recreate the content. Formatting of information between different applications takes about 3.8 hours per week, whereas version control related issues take 2.2 hours.

Issues, effects and implications of information management are summarized in the following Figure.

Issues

Slow search
Search without desired results
Redundant search
Recreation of documents
Difficulty of use of the found information

Effects

Employer
Unplanned for wasted time
Work slowdown
Decrease in productivity
Decline in quality

Employee
Increased workload
Negative attitude towards work
Decline in the level of satisfaction from the job

Implications

Missed deadlines
Project failure
Lost revenue
Loss of employee

Figure 1: Issues, effects and implications of information management

* What is the best way to organize the information to find it faster in the future?
* How to easily find information inside of large volume of materials?
* How to find documents that are related?
* How to save the search results and view them in the future?
* How to share found information with colleagues and friends?
* How to effectively use found information?

Importance and significance of those problems are major factors that stimulate the development of new solutions and information management systems. Information Retrieval, Data and Knowledge Bases, Document & Content Management, to name a few, are the branches of information technologies that deal with the problems of information management.

Solutions to Document Management Problems

Solutions to document management problems are tightly linked to the following challenges: improving the efficiency of information access, improving quality and speed of search, improving the efficiency of information processing, improving reliability and safety of storage.

Efficient Access to Information

It is necessary to quickly and easily extract the text documents which meet certain criteria from an array of available information. These requirements are diverse and constantly changing. For example, original sources for articles, data for reports, textbooks to prepare for the exam, patient’s medical records, or precedents for court case – all have high, but temporary value to resolve the pressing challenges.

After finding the required documents, working through them, and creating a number of versions, the user will need to consolidate and store the results. For example, one may need to save a set of documents, or add comments to a set of documents for future use. One possible solution to meet the changing needs is to place a document in several groups. A group could consist of documents on certain topic, papers of the same author, articles of the same journal issue, previous versions of the article, or materials used to write an article.

Searching and organizing information in a meaningful way takes up a lot of time. To shorten the cycle and make a process more enjoyable, a number of solutions have been proposed.

Quality and Speed of Search

In some cases users can find the documents they need by using a query – a word or combination of words that might be in those documents.

In the past, search required scanning of all files on the computer drives and going through their content comparing the key words with words in the document. This called for the sequential scanning of all files for each request. But increased size and number of files have dramatically slowed down the search process. In addition, morphology was neglected and multiple queries were needed to find the document.

Best solutions for effective search of information are based on search engines and information retrieval technologies. The entire collection of files is pre-processed and the information about the documents and key words is stored in the index files. Indexing works for various file formats and takes into account all possible forms of the same word. This “smart” pre-processing mechanism significantly accelerates the search and improves its quality.

Organization

In many cases the user is unaware of the words contained in the document of interest. It’s also possible that the user is not able to generate a query that returns desired outcomes, or the number of documents is too large, or some documents may not contain the right words. In these scenarios the user has no choice but manually look for a desired document. To save the results of manual search, many use the systems designed specifically for organizing the information.

Simplified versions of organization systems use fields and registration cards to link the documents and accompanying information (date, author, title, a brief description, etc.) However, field sets are fixed and limited, and often do not allow grouping of the documents to accommodate changing needs of the users.

Enhanced systems use a hierarchy of folders (catalogs, or directories). However, in most cases, when a document belongs to multiple topics, the user may end up facing several problems. For example, in the hierarchy of file system folders, a document can not be assigned to several folders without duplication. In this case, duplication may result in an unnecessary increase of information volume as well as inconsistencies in content after one of the documents has been modified.

Top notch tools to organize the information use multiple hierarchical categorizations which came from the domain of knowledge bases and ontologies.

Version Control

Authoring of a complex document is a long process and requires many edits, corrections and rewritings. To avoid confusion, it is necessary to maintain a history of changes in the document. The old-fashion solution was to save the changes in the separate file with a unique name, which often resulted in lost files, more storage space as well as difficulties in finding the right version of the document. These and other problems related to tracking the history of the content, storing different versions of the document, and returning to its previous versions have been addressed by the invention of the versioning systems. These systems are designed to provide access to the previous versions and history of changes.

Figure 2: Authoring a document

Effective Work with Information

Search, organization, and version control, by themselves, significantly simplify the process. But till now, most of these functions were only provided by separate software tools. The first program implements search. The second program organizes information. The third program edits it. The fourth program keeps version history. And so on.

A user has to run multiple applications, toggle between them, import and export documents, and move and copy the files. This process dramatically slows down the work, decreases productivity, increases pressure, and therefore leads to mistakes and reduces work satisfaction.

To eliminate unnecessary labor and reduce the amount of wasted time, one needs an integrated solution that combines search, editing and version control functionality.

Privacy, Security and Reliability of Storage

It goes without saying that information is a valuable resource that is expensive to produce. It is necessary to not only provide a safe storage for the entire set of documents, but also protect valuable information from computer hardware and software failures, as well as human errors. In addition, the confidentiality of information should be preserved – unauthorized users should not have access to the information without the permissions from the owner. However, if necessary, the results of the work have to be publishable to third parties.

Earlier applications stored files on the secure computers in a folder structure. Individual users had access to specific folders, which required a complex access rights management policy. Thus the information was often duplicated on the users’ computers, causing many problems related to information relevance.

To address the above mentioned problems, modern document management systems store information in centralized repositories, which make it easy to store, retrieve, manipulate and modify documents. Advanced repositories support storage and processing of multiple documents and file formats including, but not limited to: text (Word, Acrobat, Open Office, etc.), spreadsheet, fax, e-mail, audio, and images.

Documents, images and other information stored in the electronic repository are easily accessible and retrievable. The losses associated with errors in streamlining, organizing, and placing of the documents are drastically reduced and possibly even eliminated. In addition, each document keeps not only a history of who viewed it, made changes and what changes were made, but also other information about the document, such as title, contents, themes, etc.

Valuable Benefits of Document Management Systems

Thus, state-of-the-art information and document management systems
* reduce information processing time (multi-category systems allow for fast categorization of the incoming information and re-organization of existing information)
* reduce the time required to access the information (full-text search tools and category system, history and version control provide an easy and quick way to find information)
* reduce the time required to create a document (integration of search, organization, modification and version control features in a single platform allow the user to work on new and existing documents in a more effective manner)
* eliminate the cases of lost data (electronic repositories automatically capture all document changes and allow the user to restore the history of changes)

By leveraging a wide range of features provided by information management tools, one may free up the time normally spent on unnecessary tasks and focus on more important activities. As a result, the use of information management systems increases the quality of work.

Criteria for Selecting the Right Document and Information Management System

Flexible categorization: The system must support the categorization of documents to meet specific requirements of the user. To do that, the system should include the following features:
* Flexible categorization (user should be able to create any categories or topics and place the documents there)
* Hierarchical categorization (high level topics that consist of more specific topics)
* Multiple categorization (the same document might be included in several topics, categories or groups of documents)
* Ability to merge related files in a package
Flexible grouping that keeps the history of the results simplifies future access to documents inside of assigned topics, and allows one to see the relationships between documents found in one category.

Powerful search tools: The system should be able to perform a full-text search of information by query which contains individual terms or phrases. The search feature should
* be fast, which implies indexing
* support full-text search for all common formats – pdf, doc, odt, etc.
* take into an account the differences in spelling of various grammatical forms of the words
* work with individual repositories, categories and themes (topics)
The above mentioned features allow the user to effectively query the documents, provide a fast access to desirable documents, and make it possible to work on documents that have not yet been classified.

Central repository: The system should be able to store information in a centralized repository that allows:
* storing high volumes of documents
* creation of multiple personal repositories
* protection of confidential information
Documents in the system should not be viewable by other applications. Only the owner of the information should be able to grant the access to the repository. Repositories not only eliminate the need to manually create the files and directories, but they also restrict access to information, tighten security and improve reliability by providing backup, recovery and data protection tools.

Composite documents: The system should be able to work with the collection of files as a single unit, allowing the user to make changes to the set of documents. This functionality helps to improve usability and makes it easier to work with documents that consist of multiple files – for example, html documents with pictures.

Figure 3: Composite document

Document registration cards: The system should support the functionality of attaching useful information, such as name, purpose, abstract, comments, author, date of creation and modification, etc. to the document or file. This type of information helps to increase the accessibility of the documents. The information about the document should be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of the user and the information unit type.

Supported file types: The system should be able to support a wide range of common document types and formats, including Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc.), Open Office, as well as the formats of scanned documents and images.

Versioning system: The system should be able to support multiple versions of the document, track history and changes in chronological order – who, when, why modified the document and which changes were made. If needed, this functionality enables the user to work on one of the previous versions of the document.

Navigation history: The system should record the sequence of events describing the steps the user took while working on the documents and have that information available to the user at any given time.

Easy-to-use interface: The system should provide a user-friendly interface that includes intuitive navigation as well as the panels displaying categories, history, versions, and search results. All of these will dramatically enhance user experience and therefore increase user satisfaction.

Modern technology and open architecture: The system should be built using the latest technologies. The architecture should be
* scalable – support an unlimited number of repositories, documents stored in a
* repository, categories and their levels, as well as a fast search through unlimited amount of information
* modular and expandable – provide a foundation for rapid development and fast delivery of new features requested by the users
* cross-platform – compatible with Windows, Linux, and MacOS operating systems
This allows the system to grow organically and reduce the time to deliver the new features to meet growing user needs.

Integrated solution: The user’s objective is an effective execution of her or his work. To accomplish this goal the user has to go through repetitive cycles of work with information and documents. These cycles may include:
* Gathering of the information for a document
* Analyzing information
* Creating the outline and the first draft of the document
* Placing the document to the repository
* Making changes to the document
* Preparing the document for future use
* Searching for other materials that will be used in a new version of the document
These phases are executed repeatedly to improve the quality of the document, bringing it to the desired results. A good system should be able to integrate the above mentioned features so that the user can complete the sequence of document development tasks in a single system. This implements agile document management.

Low cost of the ownership: Adoption of a document management system can save any organization millions of dollars. At the same time, the scale and broad functionality of corporate systems leads to the high cost of ownership unaffordable for personal users. It’s also important to note that a user might not need all the features available in a corporate system and therefore will only get overwhelmed by its complexity. The cost of a personal information management system should be low, but at the same time it has to provide the right set of features to match the needs of individual user. The system should be easy to install and run on any personal computer.

Artifact Manager

Artifact Manager is an advanced document and information management system. This simple, convenient, low-budget solution has all of the features of the enterprise information management system that helps to achieve higher productivity levels through a better management of personal documents and information.

Required Features Artifact Manager
* Flexible categorization Yes
* Powerful search tools Yes
* Centalized repository Yes
* Composite documents Yes
* Document metadata Yes
* Wide range of file types Yes
* Version control Yes
* History Yes
* User-friendly interface Yes
* Modern technology and architecture Yes
* Integrated soluton Yes
* Low-cost ownership Yes

Figure 4: Features of Artifact Manager

Artifact Manager is the first enterprise-class personal platform for document and information management. It combines a powerful search, flexible organization, reliable storage, and convenient interface in a single easy-to-use environment.

Download Artifact Manager now at

http://www.ArtifactManager.com/downloads.html

No obligation of buying, no cumbersome registration, no spam

http://www.artifactmanager.com/papers/ArtifactManager_Organize-n-Search.pdf

Legal firms require document management software or a document management system because proper records mitigate legal risk. Since the implementation of Sarbanes Oxley Act in the United States, effective records management has become an essential requirement for good corporate governance and financial reporting. Also, organizations are required to retain certain documents for predefined periods by the law. Imagine how tedious a task it will be to maintain and search for records maintained in paper files and folders. On the other hand, electronic document management software is capable of storing and retrieving data at the blink of an eye.

Document management software has also facilitated the process required for signing contracts and agreements. Till recently, when contract negotiations occurred between remote parties, the signatories were either required to meet face to face at the signing time or were required to fax contract documents and post the originals. However, the facility of digital signature offered by document management software has made it possible for legally binding electronic signatures to be applied to contracts.

Another important aspect of document management system is the ability to automate scheduled events on documents. Document types (e.g. contracts, email etc) are configured to have time-based actions. As a result when a set period expires, the documents get archived or permanently deleted from the system. This saves you from the trouble of sorting out the useless files and then removing them from your database. Also, you can use the archived data if ever the need arises. But, in case of paper files if they are once destroyed, the data get lost for ever.

Last but certainly not the least, electronic documents saved in the document management software are admissible in a court of law. Two important key features of the document management system that increase the admissibility of electronic documents are its ability to freeze a document so that it cannot be changed and an audit trail so that any changes or actions to a document are recorded in the database.

So, if you want to keep your client’s data safe and secure, you may opt for document management software.

After sales volumes, costs are significant in generating profits. In a competitive market selling prices tend to be inflexible; you have to sell at the market prices.

That means you have to control costs to achieve profitability. By controlling direct costs of sales you increase the margins on each unit sold.
For more details go to: www.software-designers-pro.com by controlling fixed establishment costs, you make it possible to recover these with the margins on a lower volume of sales.

Now let us see whether document management software can help control these costs.

Ready Access to Information Helps Cost Control

Good document management software contains components to capture all kinds of documents and retrieve these in little time. You would thus be able to store, say, spreadsheets for different cost categories and examine the details.

You can review cost trends: compare them with relevant volumes and against budget estimates. Such reviews would focus your attention on problem areas like a sharp increase in costs per unit produced or per time period.

Investigating further, you can identify the factors that contribute to the deviations from standard. In most cases, you can also take remedial action that would bring costs back to desired or at least more-acceptable levels.

It’s systematic use of information like the above that helps achieve control over costs (and other business result areas).

Let us now take a broad look at some major categories of costs and the factors that influence their levels.

Material Cost Is Likely to be the Major Constituent of Merchandise Costs

If you’re a retailer, the costs you incur for buying merchandise and getting it to display racks is your major direct cost. If you are a manufacturer making some product, the costs of materials that go into the product are likely to be the major element of the production cost.

Even a small percentage reduction in these costs is likely to have a significant impact on your profitability. For help visit: www.viral-toolbar-builder.com a good document management system helps you retrieve and review the performance of different suppliers.

Some suppliers have consistently-supplied goods of dependable quality while others might be responsible for frequent rejections on quality grounds leading to cost increases.

You will also find that certain suppliers are able to supply reliable quality materials at lower costs. By cultivating your relationship with these suppliers, you can procure all or most of your supplies from these suppliers, leading to a reduction in costs.

Without document management software that lets you select what you want when you want, you have to depend on scheduled reports that pile up on your table (and probably remain ignored).

Fixed Establishment Costs Might Not Be All That’s Fixed

We tend to view establishment costs like rent, depreciation, etc. as permanently fixed. However, a close review might reveal possibilities for reducing these costs to some extent.

There might be idle facilities like plants for which no profitable use is foreseen. By disposing of these, depreciation costs can be reduced. Other idle facilities like floor space can be rented out or utilized for some profitable activities.

A close review, facilitated by good document management software, can reveal such possibilities to management.

By reducing fixed costs in this manner, it becomes possible to lower the “breakeven point” – the point at which fixed costs are fully recovered through gross margins.

Other Cost Categories Can Also Benefit From Serious Reviews

Marketing costs, payroll costs, costs of power & fuel, etc. might also prove capable of reduction. While scheduled management reports give an overview of trends and deviations, it’s the details available on the documents that provide specific guidance for actions.

And it’s the document management software that really makes reviews of document details a practicable proposition. If you have to visit filing cabinets and search through folders every time, this kind of review is quite likely to be neglected.

Good document management software makes it practical to go into details when management reports reveal adverse trends and deviations. If you use the components provided by the software to focus on major cost elements like materials and marketing costs, it’s quite likely that you’ll find possibilities to reduce costs and improve sales margins to a significant extent.