How Document Scanning Can Benefit Remote Workers

Content provided by Didlake Document Imaging.

The novel Coronavirus forced many businesses across America to extend their operations from the office into the homes of employees. The rise of remote workers showed a huge disruption in the flow of information across organizations.

Before COVID-19, information was easily exchanged in the office, face to face. Today, work from home strategies demand ways to keep information flowing. Here are a few ways that document scanning can benefit remote workers when used with an electronic document management system.

Eliminates Paper Processes
In today’s business world, organizations must digitize paper-based information. Fully developed digital workflows involve more than scanning paper documents into digital files. Integrating captured data from scanned images and documents with a document management system (DMS) can free up valuable business resources and reduce manual paper processes.

Businesses should investigate pain points from paper processes and work to enable workflow automation. Working with an experienced document capturing and scanning company can help advance the integration of a DMS.

Maximized Accountability
When document scanning is combined with a document management system your employees are more accountable for the work they produce. A DMS can help you track what workers did, the time spent on a project, and keep track of progress. Scanned documents integrated into a DMS logs changes over time and creates a customized digital workflow. Creating a personalized workflow can help processes between departments and personnel flowing.

With information being the backbone of every business, improving its management can make your company more efficient. Document scanning and a DMS allows managers and employees to measure the volume of their workload and understand where projects stand in regards to completion. Another option to consider is the automated digital mailroom. Outsourcing your business mail operations yields benefits for document management.

Research shows that organizations who use technology to automate, digitize, and optimize their workflows reduce the time workers spend on document-related tasks by over 17%. Document management technology also increased productivity and helped to cut errors in half.

Advantages of Cloud Storage Archiving
As employees work remotely, they access company networks through potentially vulnerable internet connections. You never know when devastating natural disasters or common hardware damage will put your documents and data at risk. When your organization scans documents on a recurring basis, automatic backups keep you protected. You’ll never have to worry about unavailable files, even if your server crashes.

Easier Document Retrieval
With all your scanned documents stored in a secure cloud, you can integrate with a document management software (DMS). A DMS can help remote workers access their documents from anywhere, without the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Scanned digital documents are stored in a DMS with the objective of later retrieval for transactional, research, or legal reasons.

Large volumes of business documents can be difficult or even impossible to retrieval unless a sound document management strategy is in place. Not to mention you must keep documents compliant with common document retention policies and schedules. Efficient tracking of signature and approval processes prevents your team from searching the office all day, chasing one piece of paper. Convenient and fast retrieval of vital business records keeps your business flowing.

Centralized Data & Access Control
Customizable administrative controls give managers the ability to restrict access to sensitive information and share documents selectively. Scanning your organization’s records gives anyone with internet access and the right permissions instant access to centralized data.

Powerful document capture software with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allows employees to easily search PDFs and share important documents to the cloud, giving remote workers access to documents. You’ll also eliminate confusion and error for when everyone works off the same group of files.

Eliminates Email for Document Sharing
How much time do you spend looking for one particular document in your email’s inbox? Sharing documents through email runs the risk of losing important records. Customers do not have time to wait around for your employees to recreate lost documents.

Using built-in email and sharing tools after you’ve imported your scanned records into a DMS can help you manage sending documents outside of your organization. Remote workers are relying more on email than ever, so why not make their processes more efficient?

While keeping you organized and tidy, document imaging can help create higher customer satisfaction for you as well.

Didlake Document Imaging offers a second pair of eyes to assist your organization in mapping out and prioritizing document scanning workflow processes. With the rise of COVID-19, we’ve seen more businesses optimizing their business processes for remote work. We want to give you a fresh pair of eyes to help review how your information is created, controlled, and distributed throughout your organization.

If there’s a way to automate it, we can help! Contact us today for a free quote and consultation to see how document scanning can dramatically improve your process efficiency in the workplace.