Documents—both paper and electronic—are essential for effective internal and external communications, and are critical to a company’s success. In this age where the sheer volume of information is growing exponentially, managing all of it can be a challenge.

According to Kevin Craine, author of “Designing a Document Strategy,” document-related tasks take up to 60 percent of the average office worker’s time, and account for almost 45 percent of labour costs. Documents cost both money and labour to create and process. So, it’s important to ask the question: Is your business producing and managing these documents as efficiently as possible?

You have a strategy for almost every other area of your business. It’s imperative to also create a document strategy so you will be prepared for the growing volume of information that your company will have to manage in the future.

In developing your document strategy, it’s important to start by auditing your company’s existing document processes to uncover problems with existing procedures and workflows. This is the time to consider the flow of documents between departments and employees—from start to finish. Once this process is mapped out, you will be prepared to effectively work out any kinks in your document operation.

For example, purchase orders and invoices are notorious for going back and forth between the sales, accounting, and shipping departments. A document strategy will go a long way toward streamlining and securing the transfer of documents among multiple departments.

The most practical and affordable document strategy will include the integration of a document management solution, which will streamline and automate the management, retrieval, and storage of your documents. By utilizing a document management solution, you can maximize collaboration within departments to ensure efficiency and improve the way your company produces and manages its documents. Improving this process will help your business reach its objectives while saving a significant amount of time and money.

A successful document strategy will result in increased productivity by your staff through decreased effort, while reducing your document-related expenses. But remember, since all organizations are different, no two document strategies are the same.

Contact us today to find out more about developing, implementing, and managing a document strategy that best suits your business.