Enterprise Document Management for 'Paper-Smart' Offices

Today corporates are realizing the significance of a

'paper-smart' office, where some documents are digitally stored and secured,

while others are smartly printed. Whether the system is an informal, ad-hoc,

paper-based method for one person or if it is a formal, structured, computer

enhanced system for many people across multiple offices are some of the issues

that are involved in managing documents. Methods for managing documents address

areas such as location, filing, retrieval, security, disaster recovery,

retention period, archiving, distribution and more.

For a long time, companies overlooked such aspects of their

IT infrastructure that were perceived to be purely functional and incapable of

helping businesses improve their bottom lines. Printing, used to be one of them.

But with the increased pressure on CIOs and management teams to reduce costs and

inventories, it has become crucial for enterprises; to make printing operations

leaner, greener and competitive enough to have an impact on the company's

profitability. These increasing pressures have established a strong base for the

relevant printing solutions in the current time.

Managing documents



Some of the methods for managing documents address the

following areas:

1. Location: Where will people need to go to access

documents? Physical journeys to filing cabinets and file rooms are analogous to

the onscreen navigation required to use a document management system.

2. Filing: How will documents be filed? What methods will

be used to organize or index the documents to assist in later retrieval?

Document management systems will typically use a database to store metadata

about documents and a File System to store the actual physical files.

3. Retrieval: How will documents be found? Typically,

retrieval encompasses both browsing through documents and searching for specific

information. What kinds of information about documents are indexed for rapid

retrieval?

4. Security: How will documents be kept secure? How will

unauthorized personnel be prevented from reading, modifying or destroying

documents?

In order to be competitive in the current scenario, CIOs of

Indian enterprises have recognized the need to optimize resources and bring down

cost that has led to an increase in demand of outsourcing in document

management. Large enterprises that are driving the growth of this technology are

in BFSI, government, pharmaceuticals and IT. Establishing an ideal printing

environment through an analysis of the enterprise printing needs — number of

printers required overall cost of ownership etc.

Nitin Hiranandani, HP IPG India

If we look at some of the benefits that document management

systems provides, we can mention the following:

1. Controlled printing: This strategy gives role-based

access to color, duplex printing, PIN access, etc and helps reduce the cost of

consumables, including ink and paper.

2. Tracking the enterprise's carbon footprint through

energy efficiency tools

3. Meeting the security and compliance needs of an

enterprise.

4. Digitization of documentation: The concept of managed

print services seeks to transform business processes by optimizing the company's

imaging and printing infrastructure, effectively managing the total imaging and

printing environment and improving and streamlining the document workflow.

According to IDC and Gartner reports, 3-5% of revenue goes to output management.

There is an explosion in digital content due to rapid shift from analog to

digital formats.

The digital content is doubling every 18 months.

Enterprises are incurring lot of cost on documents management in the form of

storage, retrieval, archival, capturing, imaging, etc.

Born in the green and energy-aware age, today's document

management solutions for enterprises seem to have embraced the Olympian ideal:

citius, altius, fortius — as they contribute to customers' goals of growing

swifter, higher, and stronger. Today's technological breakthroughs have

transformed the role of these solutions as being an indispensible component of

any growing or established business looking to improve bottom lines.