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To digitize or not to digitize? this is the question. Perhaps, already, many organizations have been asking themselves the exact same question without finding the right answer; And it is precisely this time-pass that is working against them. Obviously, during this long period of hesitation, the pile of files kept on increasing. Jorge López, Vice President and Accredited Analyst of the Gartner Group, attempted to answer this question at the CIO and IT Executive Summit 2013 in Mexico City in September 2013. He pointed out that “the trick to achieve an effective position in the industry through scientific knowledge would be to be mindful of the reality that digitization is not just something short-lived, but a movement that is modifying the future”.
With this unique approach, the life cycle of the record changes. Today, document phases include: production, capturing, storage, management, and dissemination. Likewise, the complexities, better said benefits, that can be realized when implementing digitization processes, will be summarized below: cost reduction, increased production and safety, and green technologies.
In a company, cost reduction is completely related to the digitization of their business documents. To highlight this announcement, we can take as a reference the “Study about the cost of document digitization and paper preservation” conducted by the European Union, Andersen Consulting and Gartner Group. This particular report shows that the cost of keeping records in a standard paper file is 6.53 Euros; And a company would be saving around 10.53 Euros for each document not physically recorded. In addition, the typical fee for the area required to store the old-fashioned files is 11,000 Euros, compared to 114 Euros in the case of storing documents electronically.
In contrast, a survey conducted by AIIM Europe 2009 (a global community of information professionals) pointed to increasing levels of efficiency, stating that more than 15% of any office room or space is occupied by paper files. Fixed to cabinetry. This space and rather chaotic file organization systems are often the reason why it takes an average of fifty minutes each day for an employee to search and locate paper documents. The details displayed by these statistics can certainly create a terrible corporate image, loss of credibility and even wrong business decisions.
Regarding security, it is generally better not to scan all documents. Each organization should determine which are the most important business documents that should be scanned. Usually these are the newest, active, oldest, and damaged files.
With many document management systems, multiple staff members can view a digitized document simultaneously, but only authorized individuals can view a digitized file. Quite simply, security is assured, both because of specific access permissions and simply because document content can be sent in whole or in part by e-mail or any other electronic mechanism, without the need to send actual physical copies or To receive files without the need to wait.
An office that will save paper is a truly green office that values the natural environment. According to a survey conducted by Telefónica, one of the largest private telecommunications businesses on the planet, each member of staff uses an average of 10,000 sheets of paper each year. If this figure is multiplied by the number of personnel in a company, the result will be astonishing.
legal gap
One of the many aspects limiting the widespread use of electronic documents is actually the legal differences surrounding the process. As an example, the European Union has little clear legislation regarding the legal reliability of electronic documents, although major efforts have been made during the last decade. Do you realize why it is so difficult to implement proper legislation regarding electronic documentation in the European Union? Mainly because each member state of the European Union needs to translate the European Directive into a single nationwide law; And the recent directives are clear about the objective and not the techniques to achieve this objective.
Furthermore, a lack of uniformity exists between the different countries of the European Union. As an example, in Belgium, Spain, France and Holland, there is no separate law regarding the mutilation of basic physical documents, while Germany and Italy have some regulations governing this concern. A definite situation is that of the United Kingdom, where companies are destroying their original paper docs because of the ambiguity of British law. They do not have any specific law governing the concept.
As can be assumed, the document retention period of original papers is not regulated in any general way, and each country specifies the relevant authority which determines the document retention period. Being an interesting fact, in Switzerland, for example, documents related to immovable property are required to be retained for a period of about 20 and 25 years.
Legal differences are strong evidence of insufficient legislative uniformity, both at the international and national levels. After all, it doesn’t make sense if, somewhere, legislation governs electronic digitization and filing, and conversely, destruction of original files is not permitted. This scenario is neither fruitful nor sustainable. To ensure effective electronic trading connections between markets and individuals, the relevant authorities must now act case-by-case and evolve with the technology.
Documentary solutions for every taste and budget
There is no one way that is working for everyone. There are various document systems that include digitizing, storing, retrieving and handling business documents as a broad segment of solutions and there are many other systems that focus on document digitization. Specialized apps may be the ideal choice for businesses that want to digitize sizable docs, but this isn’t Requires a complex document management system, Conversely, if a company wants to merge a document management system into its document creation and manufacturing processes and, because of this, will need more commands, then modular or all-inclusive document management solutions are the best option.
While earlier, comprehensive solutions were priced higher, currently, many document management software vendors have lowered their rates, as document management is ever more common and to offer the many benefits of document management – mainly only the core ones. Within reach of companies – medium and small businesses.
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