Document Management – The Benefits

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT – THE BENEFITS

Because documents are essential to the daily functioning of any organization, implementing a document management solution in your office can produce extraordinary benefits:

  • Cost reduction associated with filing and re-locating
  • Space reduction associated with paper storage
  • Reduce staff time devoted to paper handling
  • Ease of use; file single documents under several different references
  • Reduce filing errors
  • Improve customer service with instant access to files
  • Immediate, secure access to information – even remotely.
  • Allow simultaneous access to files by users
  • Streamline document processes
  • Improve control over documents and workflow processes
  • Improve document security
  • Track and monitor user access to files and folders
  • Reduce risk ;  use document management to create a fail-safe disaster recovery plan
     

Use Document Management to adhere to federal regulations and compliances.

Document management systems make it easier for organizations to adhere to complex, and ever-changing regulations in their industries. Document management solutions are designed to be both systematic and logical, thus enabling organizations to manage their documents in way that is flexible enough to adapt to changes in regulations or business practices. Below are some examples of compliance laws and regulations pertinent to record keeping:

General Regulations

FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, 2003) - The act addresses the proper storage and disposal of certain “consumer information”. This act is applicable to nearly any organization. (http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/alerts/facta.html)

Medical

HIPAA – (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996) -- The Privacy Rule regulates how certain (covered) entities, use, transmit, and disclose certain individually identifiable health information. (www.cdc.gov)

Financial

GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 1998) – The Financial Privacy Rule and The Financial Modernization Act of 1999 – these acts protect and regulate the privacy and transmission of consumer information held by “financial institutions”. (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/glbshort.shtm)
Basel II – provides a framework for banking regulations and risk management practices. It outlines regular reporting obligations of risk exposures, and insists that the risk management system be well documented amongst other record keeping requirements. (www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/Basel2)

Government:

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520) - The main purpose of this act is to reduce the recordkeeping and reporting burden imposed by (governmental) agencies on the public. It is designed to improve and increase the information collection and dissemination workflow of the government. It does this by improving the way information is created, maintained, used, shared and disseminated by or for the Federal Government. (www.archives.gov/records-mgmt)

Publicly Traded Companies and Investment Firms

SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) – Increases accountability standards for publicly traded companies; increasing the need to accurately document all financial records for the purposes of financial statement reporting. (www.sarbanes-oxley.com)