Are you are searching for Document Management Consulting Services? This means you feel like your business process can be improved.
Evaluating your records management system is something we definitely recommend. That’s where a document management consultant has experience and can really help you with business process automation.
A records management consultant does more than just get your documents scanned. He can help you with the management software and also with practical tips. These include standard document routing or even the record retention schedule.
If you need help with your document management process, let us know by clicking here.
Which companies need document management CONSULTANCY
As a general rule of thumb, the more documents you manage the bigger the need to improve your document management system. A successful company is focused more on customer relevant tasks and less on moving paper around the office.
When internal bureaucracy starts affecting customers, it gets even worse. You don’t want anything to interfere with the quality management of your product or service. Especially your internal business process inefficiency. This leads to unhappy customers.
There are numerous solutions for your business. Depending on the type of company or institution you are, some enterprise file systems work better than others.
Industries where robotic process automation is mandatory
Some of the companies and institutions that require efficient document management workflow are the following:
- Financial Companies and Corporations – Companies with large amounts of documents they have to handle every day. Those records contain important data, which has to be retrieved quickly, for improved efficiency. You might have heard about accounts payable ( AP ) and accounts receivable ( AR ).
- Health and life insurance corporations – Even though these are separate industries, their document management workflows are somewhat similar. It’s a big quantity of paper and data, that needs to be efficiently organized in order to meet current demands. In this industry, the most popular applications are electronic forms processing.
- Construction and Infrastructure – The companies in this sector are usually very interesting customers. The quantities of records are not that big, but each record contains a lot of data. So the big challenge is to quickly retrieve data from those records and try to make sense of it.
- Legal Industry – We think that companies operating in the legal sector are more or less similar to those in the health and insurance industry. They have to handle contract management and reduce processing times every day. Having just a scanner and OCR software is not enough these days.
- Online and Offline retailers – Especially in the case of retailers, invoice processing becomes a huge thing. When you think of Amazon, a paperless office is the only way to keep the operation alive. Some companies are so advanced, they are connecting their ECM systems with their customer portal, reducing processing times even further.
Why and when you should hire a consultant
When you are thinking of hiring a consultant for records management stop for a moment. Always ask yourself why you are doing it and what you are trying to improve.
Do you need the entire business process management evaluated? Are you looking for a specific task such as ap automation? Do you need management software solutions or are you looking just for document storage?
When to hire a document management consultant
There are a lot of reasons why you should be doing this. But we will focus on the most common aspects of why you need such an expert.
- Data retrieval and information management inefficiency – This problem can be systemic, throughout your entire organization. At the same time, it can be isolated, and you can implement specific department solutions.
- Workforce fluctuations – Workforce stability these days is pretty low. People often change their jobs and it’s a reality. For an organization, this is a big problem. Things such as adjusting to specific workflows and data protection have to be addressed. Especially when you are always changing your human resources.
- Developing an enterprise content management system internally is not possible. – An electronic document management solution is quite a complex system. Not all companies have the internal resources to approach the matter and develop a custom solution.
- Moving to a different location or going digital – These situations are different, but you can approach them in a similar way. Going digital is more than just document conversion and optical character recognition. A consultant will definitely widen your perspective on document imaging and different capture solutions. Also, when moving locations, you need a good management process to successfully make the transition.
Why you should hire a consultant
You can probably imagine why you should do it. But we will try to recap a bit the most important aspects.
- Been there done that – A good records management consultant has a rich background of implemented projects. No matter how special your project is, he definitely has the knowledge to help you. Especially considering the large number of capture solutions currently available on the market.
- Another set of eyes – This is one of the most important aspects when hiring a consultant. He will come in and see things much more clearly than you can. Therefore, his suggestions will be a breath of fresh air and can lead to huge improvements.
- Superior market knowledge – Such a consultant brings his knowledge to the table. Most likely, he knows most of the suppliers that you need to hire for your project. Sometimes, he can also get you significant discounts when hiring third-party suppliers.
- Cheaper in the long run – I know this doesn’t make sense now, but trust us, it just is. If your staff is working efficiently, the extra income you will generate is significant. So hiring a consultant is definitely beneficial in the long run.
- He can act as a project manager – Migrating a paper document to an electronic document management system might seem easy. Just scan and upload. But it takes so much more to have access via your computer to the physical archive of your company. The consultant knows what the ideal steps are to migrate from paper to digital.
How to choose a consultant for managing documents
I think this is a very good question. We will try and give you a glimpse of what we would look for in a good consultant.
- Experience and track record – Successful and unsuccessful implementations of a consultant should both be taken into account. If you know that one of his projects did not deliver, analyze it carefully. See what went wrong in his failed consulting project and ask the consultant to give his take on it. Working with documents and document management software is not easy, so expect a proven track record when hiring your consultant.
- Costs – When thinking about the cost of the consultant, go further than just upfront costs. Try and imagine how your document workflow processes will be after the implementation. If you can imagine that, you will understand if your process improves. When your document workflow has not improved, it means you have just wasted money.
- Communication with the consultant – Make sure you are able to communicate well. This is critical to implementing a successful records management project. Understand what your consultant is asking from you and listen to his suggestions. You are not his first customer, so he has some knowledge. Make sure you also let him know what your ideal document workflow should be.
- Feasibility studies – Analyze before starting this process, if it will really make an impact to have a dedicated enterprise content specialist. Sure, ECM consultants may have extensive experience in dealing with document management workflow automation, but do you really need it or is it really worth it.
Summing things up
Managing documents and workflows are highly important in an office environment. Routing documents successfully can be a complicated task. We recommend reading our article on the definitive guide to scanning documents. You can consider it a document scanning faq.
When you can’t implement a document management system by yourself, then it’s time to get a consultant. Also, when you don’t have the time to manage documents, it’s important to outsource the job. Even when you want to outsource your bpm solution, good advice will always come in handy.
When you have the need and budget, then we highly recommend you outsource your document management workflows. It’s a no-brainer from our point of view, and we hope it’s the same for you.