Trailer-Based Document Management & Other Tales of Late Adopters
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
There has been enough written about the “myth of the paperless office” to fill any number of offices with paper. Digital technology, ironically, has turned every computer in the office into an instant printing center. And we all know at least one person who has vowed to hang on to his file folders until they are pried from his cold, paper-filled hands.
Paper has its place. Birthday cards are nice. And who doesn’t love a Post-it Note, other than a teenager on trash day?
We get it. We spend a lot of time in offices all across the Southeast. In some of them, we’re welcomed like heroes, come to save them from soul-killing manual processes like duplicate data entry and file cabinet scavenger hunts. But there are other places that approach the process of digital transformation a little more cautiously.
They want the efficiency and access to data and information that digital processes bring, but they worry about the transition, or the expense, or the security of digital content management. How does a business protect itself from hackers or IT hiccups? How long does it take to retrain a staff?
They’re reasonable concerns, and it’s our job to alleviate them.
Document Management on Wheels
But every once in a while, we come across practices that give the term “late adopter” a whole new meaning. These include offices where information moves at the pace of employees tasked with the retrieval of records from dusty file rooms, or where data entry still takes place one mind-numbing keystroke at a time, decades since the development of software that can scan, populate, recognize, retrieve, sort, route, streamline and integrate any number of documents and processes. When we promise them “transformation” it is no exaggeration.
Not long ago, we came across a local government office practicing a unique system of “trailer-based document management.” When a hurricane approached, workers loaded a tractor-trailer with boxes of paper documents for transportation out of the storm’s range.
Let Us Help Craft a Solution to Your Paper Problem
It’s unlikely that manual paper processes are subjecting you to that level of inefficiency, but if you’re still holding out against the technology you need to reach the full potential of your business, those processes are costing you opportunities. They’re costing you staff time and effort that you could be leveraging to do more, with less effort.
At Image One, we have tailor-made solutions for every budget and every business that starts with document scanning and identifies the right software to manage those documents and integrate with your systems. We will show you how much better you can be with a little less paper and the right products for faster, more effective document management, storage and retrieval. You’ll be glad you did. You might even send us a thank you note.
