The cost of doing nothing

Here at FileHold we talk to many organizations every day who are looking for document management software. These companies are looking at document management for a variety of reasons; sometimes it is compliance, efficiency issues, organizational growth, disaster recovery, remote workers, etc. In many of these cases, FileHold is exactly what they are looking for. Then we do not hear from them again. It is not that they found another solution, or did not like our offering, or even changed their mind on needing FileHold. The truth is many of these organizations become overwhelmed and have decided to put the project on hold. In other words, they kick the can down the road. We can all relate to this in our own lives. It is a daunting task to clean out the garage, organize the closets, create budgets, or even organize our own personal photographs. The fact is many companies simply choose to do nothing.

What does it cost a company or organization to not implement a document management system? Here are just a few things to think about.

Cost of storage

Physical paper takes up a lot of room. Depending on the part of the world you live in, the cost of office space could range from $15 per square foot to well over $100 per square foot. This alone could be costing your organization thousands of dollars per year right in your own office. These numbers could multiply exponentially if you are paying to store files offsite. Record retention policies can lead to massive costs due to storing the lifecycle of these documents.

Printing costs

We all know that printing costs a significant amount of money. From the paper itself, cartridges, expensive multifunction leases, courier fees, staples, binders, folders, etc. Implementing a documents management software application like FileHold can drastically reduce these costs. Although printing never really goes away since paper does have its place. Wasteful and unnecessary printing can be reduced dramatically.

Cost of searching for files

For most of us, time is money. The time we spend chasing documents can be quite expensive when you really think about it. Every day, we hear from executives who took action on the wrong version of a document. We hear about employees saving infinite copies of their work on their desktops creating duplicate files. We see unstructured file shares with no standardization or file name consistency. We hear horror stories about terminated employees removing mission critical files. Even innocent mistakes like accidentally filing in the wrong location can have disastrous consequences.

Cost of losing a file

Let’s face it, paper files get lost. Electronic files can be accidentally deleted or a subfolder gets dragged in to another subfolder – never to be seen or heard from again. Paper can be destroyed in a fire, flood, theft, accidentally. What does it cost in terms of manpower to recreate missing intellectual property? What sort of fines would be levied due to a compliance violation? Even giving the wrong version of a document to an auditor could cost over $10K in some industries.

Operational efficiency

Many successful companies we work with have been in business for decades. Some of those companies have never stopped to look at their own internal processes or question ways to improve efficiency. Often times as a result of a discussion on FileHold’s advanced workflow capabilities, we will uncover several redundancies taking place departmentally. These discussions often expose dramatic opportunities to streamline processes, eliminate steps, provide accountability, and improve the company’s bottom line. Customers often benefit from these changes as well. Being able to recall a file quickly, along with supporting documentation in seconds is a game changer.

These are just a few of the costs of delaying your document management software project or even worse – doing nothing. Deploying a solution like FileHold does not have to be an overwhelming proposition. We highly recommend that those who are considering implementing FileHold begin with a small proof of concept or small deployment in a department like Human Resources or Accounting. Like most projects, tackling a small department or use case is a great way to start this journey and begin to eliminate these costs. As with most necessary projects, the sooner you get started the better!

To learn more about how your organization can start saving time and money visit www.filehold.com or contact [email protected].