By now, no matter what the size of your organization, you’ve probably heard of the wisdom of minimizing paper throughout your business. Effective management of paper records in today’s business environment is an arduous challenge. Document lifecycle management, compliance, privacy, and information governance initiatives are difficult if not impossible to meet under a system that is paper-based.

A transition to electronic processes can have tremendous benefits to the environment and to your bottom line. No matter what your line of work, you are probably well aware that an enterprise content management (ECM) system can provide your business with significant improvements in efficiency, records management, and security.

It used to be that ECM was cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses. Organizations with less than 100 people often were unable to make the up-front investment that would enable them to take advantage of the ROI that enterprise content management has to offer. Fortunately, this is no longer the case. Organizations of all sizes—even those with fewer than fifteen people—are now able to implement high-performance ECM software and realize considerable payback during the first year of implementation. Scalable ECM software can be used initially in one department, and has the flexibility to grow for implementation throughout an entire enterprise. The technology has never been more accessible.

If your organization is contemplating the purchase of ECM software, or if you want to get more out of an existing system, consider the following guidelines and their relevance to your records management strategy:

Use ECM as more than an electronic filing cabinet

After transitioning from paper processes to electronic, many organizations see immediate benefits in terms of efficiency, retrieval, and reallocation of storage space. Paper documents, images, electronic transactions, faxes, video files, and other records will be available immediately with the click of a mouse, no matter where your workforce is located. It may be tempting at this point to assume you are finished with your transition. It’s true that processes have been simplified; however, if you are simply electronically duplicating your paper processes, there is a lot more that you can do in order to take advantage of all that the technology has to offer.

Ideally, you will have started your transition to electronic processes well before ridding your business of that first piece of paper. You will have assembled a heterogeneous team from different areas of your business, and identified the following:

Specific retention and destruction requirements for records;

Processes that could benefit from automation;

Legacy systems for which information access is cumbersome;

Compliance and privacy requirements; and

Structured data classification recommendations to simplify retrieval.

Electronic storage and retrieval might be an improvement over paper process, but it does not necessarily simplify your records management efforts. Automated workflow is the tool that will transform your business. It will enable you to electronically route documents to the right person at the right time for processing. As a result, you will be able to process significantly more work without increasing your workforce. Prepare for your transition early so that you can make the most of your implementation. Organizations often find that an investment in a business process analysis prior to an ECM implementation pays great dividends, allowing them to identify and overcome existing processing weaknesses.

Know your compliance responsibilities and the value of standardization

No matter what your size, your business is still beholden to the same regulatory requirements as larger organizations. One of the easiest ways to ensure compliance is to standardize your processes. With an ECM system, you can configure who has access to your records, and you can deny access to unauthorized users. Approvals and denials are documented. Audit trails provide indisputable verification of who accesses information, and when that information is accessed. Privacy regulations are met, and operations are executed far more efficiently than they would be using a paper-based system.

Of course, the overriding key to compliance is the presence of a solid policy. Make sure that your compliance initiatives are communicated and well-documented throughout each department. A standardized methodology will ensure consistency in accordance with regulatory requirements. It will eliminate discrepancies and redundancies, and in many cases will improve enhance organizations’ processing abilities.

Automate your records retention and disposition plan

A solid strategy for records retention and disposition is the heart of any management initiative. Any document that is designated as a record should—along with that designation—have specific guidelines for action once it has reached the end of the active stage of its lifecycle.

In general, when a record is no longer active, it should be migrated to a less expensive storage medium than is used for records that are accessed regularly. This helps organizations save money, and also ensures that efficient retrieval is not hindered by storage of older records. An ECM system with the ability to automate this process is available to organizations no matter what their size. Equally as important, the technology to migrate and store older records is affordable as well as scalable.

Typically, industry regulations mandate the length of time that records need to be retained. After the retention period has been exceeded, non-permanent records should be either archived or destroyed.

Historically, smaller organizations have been prone to the potential for human error in their attempts to comply with retention regulations. There was always a danger that records would be lost or destroyed prematurely. On the flip side, there was also the danger that records would be kept well beyond the point where their lifecycle had been exceeded. The ability to automate record retention schedules guarantees that records are being treated in accordance with industry standards. Furthermore, a high-performance ECM system offers both audit trails and security measures. This provides assurance for your company in the event that you may need to demonstrate compliance.

Conclusion

It used to be that the only certainties in life were death and taxes. But if you’ve been tasked with the demanding job of managing records for your organization, you can be sure of another certainty: regulations and requirements will only get more stringent in the future. Talk to ECM vendors to find out whether they offer a solution that will meet your needs in terms of both performance and budgetary constraints. The steps that you take now—eliminating paper, developing a strategy for efficient document retrieval, standardizing procedures, and automating processes—will most surely serve as a foundation for the future health of your organization.