Document management systems are an answer to a problem that has only really happened since the rise of the desktop computer and its use in offices and firms around the world. Thirty years ago, the majority of commerce was carried out the old fashioned way: with pens and paper, typewriters and filing cabinets. Documents were physical things that could be held in the hand, read and altered manually, and then left in a filing cabinet. Then along came the PC, and some people preferred to use that, with its versatile word-processing programs and spreadsheets. The issue was that even the most computer literate person would from time to time doodle a note on a piece of paper, and many forms require filling out with a pen. It’s going to be a long time before we see the back of physical documents in offices. Enter document processing, the method by which physical pieces of paper – letters, forms, invoices and other documents essential to the running of a business – are made into e-versions, so that they can be stored in the same file systems as the docs that were written on the computer in the first place. invoice processing does the same for the accounts department, meaning that none of your clients are treated differently – either because you are primarily set up to prioritise physical invoices, or virtual ones.
The fact is that all offices have this problem. It’s a rare business that is literally paperless, although some claim this. Even if they are, their clients may not be – in which case, how do you deal with one of the many bits of paper they send you? Answer: process it and turn it into a computer file. This may be a straightforward scan to pdf, but more sophisticated systems actually use advanced character recognition to turn handwriting into a word-processed file – fantastic for someone who still prefers jotting notes with a pencil, but needs them to be legible to everyone (especially if that ‘everyone’ includes co-workers on the other side of the globe).
So document management systems are a must for significant companies who have to find a way of somehow joining their modern IT systems and online ethos with the realities of pen and paper, and the physical documents customers and suppliers may prefer. Document processing means that everything can be stored the same way, and nothing is left behind just because it happens to be printed, rather than stored electronically. invoice processing applies this to the bills and payments your company has to make – again, invaluable for a modern firm with a reputation to keep.
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