Being able to leverage technology and get rid of paper is exciting and all but when it comes down to it, all you really want to know is, “How will this help me save money?” Let’s talk about what document management is and how you can quickly get a return on your investment.
What is Integrated Document Management (IDM)?
IDM is software integrated with your accounting system and other business applications that replaces traditional paper filing and manual workflow. It gives you the ability to search for any document (that you have the appropriate security rights to view) right from your desktop. You can also structure the document approval process electronically to add automation and save time. Any documents that need to be sent out from your organization can be automatically delivered with supporting documents in recipients’ preferred formats.
How is the return on investment calculated?
Now that you have the quick version of what a paperless solution can do, let’s dive into how you’ll earn your investment back.
Time Saved: One of the biggest cost savings for you will probably come from the amount of time you save. Rather than getting up and walking to a file cabinet to search for your documents, you can find them in a matter of moments from your computer.
To get a quick idea of what that really means, ask your AP clerks how many hours they spend every day filing, searching, copying, printing and moving around paper documents. They also end up duplicating the work whenever someone in another department asks to see a certain document. If they got all that time back in their day, they would have more time for strategic tasks. Also, if the company started to grow, it could still function effectively without adding headcount.
Storage Costs: Now think about the documents you’re storing today. If you use an off-site storage facility, those monthly bills can be pretty steep. We’ve talked to companies who are storing documents locally but had to purchase additional office space to keep it in one place. For some, those storage costs alone justify investing in a paperless solution.
Routing Costs: Then there’s the cost to move documents around internally, to other office locations and externally to customers and vendors. Whether you’re using the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, UPS or courier, those costs can definitely amount to a lot. I challenge you to take a look at those costs for your organization to get a good idea of how much you spend routing documents on a monthly or annual basis. I think you might be pretty shocked.
Additional Costs You May Not Have Considered: There are a lot of other incurred costs that might not be on your radar. Have you been audited recently? If so, you probably know how long it can take to gather all the required documents for review. And if you’ve ever failed to locate the proper documentation, you probably had to deal with some heavy penalties.
Another little fee that can sneak up on you is the late fee when a payment hasn’t been made on time. If efficiency improved and the time to process an invoice were cut down, those late fees would turn into early pay discounts. Vendor relations would improve along with your bottom line.
We’d be happy to help you investigate and put together a sample calculation for your company. Give Altec a call at 800.997.9921 or email doclinksales@altec-inc.com to get started.
For those of you GPUG members, we have a webinar coming up to walk through sample ROI calculations. CLICK HERE for more information.
About Altec
Altec is a leading provider of Integrated Document Management solutions for Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, SL and NAV. For more than 25 years, Altec has provided a wide range of paper to paperless solutions including its flagship product, doc-link™, which allows companies to go paperless to improve productivity. doc-link stores documents electronically where they can be easily accessed, routed through workflow and automatically delivered based on the recipient’s preference. Altec delivers its solutions through a global network of authorized partners in more than 60 countries. For more information visit www.altec-inc.com.
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