“21.3% of all productivity loss in the workplace is due to the mismanagement of documents.”

1. Misplacing and losing documents can be detrimental to a business’s long-term growth and customer satisfaction. Whether a business is B2C or B2B, having the ability to precisely locate specific documents or data at anytime and anywhere is one of the many advantages of using a document management system (DMS). Whether a long-standing or new customer needs a specific document or spreadsheet, a good DMS gives you the ability to not only know where all of your data is located but also gives users the capability to quickly and efficiently transfer the correct version of the document. Knowing what composes the different versions of a document if version is not specified and when the latest version of a document was last saved is very important when dealing with thousands of documents and multiple versions of each document.

2. Having effective information management can reduce costs through cutting down on billable hours and wasted time in the office. Every document takes roughly $20 in billable hours to file a document and can take upwards of $120 to relocate a misplaced document. Instead of constantly backtracking to find documents that have important information, migrating all of your data into a web-based platform allows you to not only have access to your documents 24/7, but enables all employees to have every necessary document or piece of data in their computer or phone. By having instant accessibility either at home, the office, or a local coffee shop, the business processes for any business can become streamlined to the point where there are minimal wasted hours and therefore fewer wasted dollars.

3. Two things happen when a customer is satisfied with the service or product that a business is selling. The first thing that happens is that they will continue to buy your product and possibly expand into different facets of the brand. The second thing that happens is a happy customer refers that product or service to their friends or family and becomes an advocate. When a business that deals in data has dependable software to electronically store their data, customers know that their information is secure and won’t accidentally get lost or misplaced. If a business manages information with the right software, not only will it benefit current customers, but it will open the floodgates of referrals and new opportunities to help the business grow in the long run.

4. Security is a major concern for all businesses dealing in data. Due to the rise of hackers and cyber criminals, having a secure place to store sensitive information about the company, as well as employee and customer information, is crucial to the long-term growth of a business. Having one platform greatly reduces the risk of loose documents falling through the cracks and centralizes all data to one secure location. One major risk of using an e-mail or other generic storage software to keep sensitive information is that they are easily hackable and offer minimal protection. When using comprehensive information management software, having a specialized firewall and control of security preferences is integral to keeping data in and hackers and cyber criminals out.