Paper documents came into the office from everywhere - mailroom, typists pool, lawyers offices, government offices, suppliers, customers, and even other departments within the same organization.
Staff worked with the documents transcribing details into registers, routing them to other concerned persons and departments, making notes on the documents, composing replies where needed, and so on.
Once a document was no longer needed, it was sent to the filing department. A clerk sorted all documents into appropriate pigeonholes, and later took out the contents from each hole and inserted them into appropriate folders.
At the end of the session, the folders were put back into relevant filing cabinets. In a large office, a hundred filing cabinets might be needed to accommodate all the paper and a large enough file room was needed to accommodate the filing cabinets.
That was the typical storage scenario in an earlier era (and might still be in some old fashioned offices).
Enter Computers and Document Imaging
With the arrival of computers, the volume of paper could be reduced. Copies of computer created documents can be printed out as and when needed, and there was no need to use several carbon copies while typing a document (and store them until needed).
Networked systems enabled several departments to refer to documents stored in a central server, and reduced the need to print out documents for sending to other departments.
The Internet could reduce paper volumes even further. Correspondence could be through emails and replies could be stored on the computer itself.
Document imaging and enterprise content management systems changed the whole scenario dramatically. Paper documents could be converted into electronic documents, and integrated into the enterprise content.
With the confidence that electronic copies (and backups) are available if needed, much of the original paper documents could be shredded once done with. Only those documents which had to be preserved under some law, or which might be needed for litigation, needed to be preserved in file rooms.
With increasing acceptance of electronic documents as legal evidence, paper could be destroyed to an even greater extent.
The result was that tens or even hundreds of filing cabinets could be scrapped, and the expensive file room space could be used for more productive purposes. The relationship between document imaging and storage requirements was dramatically highlighted.
Lower Storage Requirements Mean Significant Cost Savings
Cost savings resulted not only from eliminating filing cabinets, and expensive file room space (which had to be near the office in prime business districts) but also from savings in labor needed to sort and file the documents, maintain the filing cabinets, and retrieve and put back documents from the cabinets. The document retrieval process alone could involve significant labor time, particularly if the original document was misfiled.
Conclusion
Paper-based document management systems involve large document storage requirements. Document imaging allowed paper to be converted into electronic formats, requiring negligible storage space compared to earlier filing cabinets and file rooms. The results were often dramatic, both from space and cost-savings viewpoints.
About Author: Ademero, Inc. develops document imaging software. Based largely on user experience, the company s flagship product, Content Central , is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form. Access a live preview of this document management solution by visiting the Ademero web site.
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