8 Ways Cloud Document Management Improves Business
There are many different types of Document Management available in the cloud. Some are free services that allow users to store their documents in secure servers that they can access via an internet log-in. These free services are generally adequate for individual users who need back-up for their personal files. 
However, if your business organization is looking toward the cloud for document management, then it’s a good idea to consider whether a document management system that enables automated workflow processes and offers additional features might be a good fit for you.
Here are eight features that you might want to look for in a cloud document management system:
- Improved data management - find important business data with fast text-based search of any type of data file
- Elimination of paper – a document scanning service with immediate cloud deployment eliminates storage space costs for paper files
- Automated workflow processes - that can be quickly and easy set up by non-technical employees set up
- Audit trails - provide employee accountability
- Reduced need for expensive IT experts - SaaS/Cloud system resides on outside servers, with outside maintenance and always current software
- Fast management reports - for on-the-go administration of business systems and processes
- Regulatory compliance - if you are an industry that requires any type of compliance to specific regulations, can your document management system ensure that you meet the standards?
- Budget friendly and rapidly scalable - start small and scale while your corporate culture moves to the cloud, and pay only for what you use, as you use it with monthly subscription
Other considerations
Do administrators have the ability to add new users and manage access privileges? Do individual authorized users have access to their data and documents 
with the ability to search, retrieve, print and download their files ? Can authorized upload data and files with a web based upload from their web browse?
Whatever your needs, we can help.
5 Ways that Workflow Automation Can Help Your Business
What is Workflow?
Workflow is the process required to complete a series of tasks. Workflow can be simple – describing a series of steps that one person needs to do in order to complete a task. Or workflow can be a complex series of tasks and processes carried out among multiple people, groups or departments.
Most business process workflow requires documentary evidence of the tasks, i.e., completion of forms, approval of a draft, authorizing signature, etc., and the tasks need to be completed in a prescribed order. For instance, the following diagram shows how one company handles service orders:
In an environment where forms are paper, the tasks of routing and delivering the form are done manually. When a specific procedure is not documented or followed, often a required step or task is not completed or the form is sent to the wrong person. Errors such as these are time consuming and can be costly.
What is Workflow Automation?
Workflow Automation is an area of process improvement in which businesses use computerized programs to automate previously manual processes, thereby benefiting from:
- Greater efficiency
- Better time management
- Higher level of organization
- Elimination of errors in routing, completion, and delivery
- Creation of an environment where processes can be completed in a fraction of the time it would take traditionally
Automating Workflows
Workbaskets within IDEAL-Cloud Powered by Kloudtrack® simplifies the process of workflow automation. IDEAL-Cloud Powered by Kloudtrack® provides a scalable, subscription-based cloud service that offers the ability to manage documents, routes, tasks, electronic signatures, audit trails, collaboration, and much more, all in a hacker-proof, secure system that users pay for based upon usage. Additionally, IDEAL-Cloud Powered by Kloudtrack® can incorporate legacy data, and provides 15 different security and processes certifications. It integrates with existing databases, archiving systems, and portals.
Moving from Document Management to Workflow Management
What is Document Management?
Simply stated, document management is the capture, storage and retrieval of documents. This may include scanning of paper documents, indexing and retrieval methods, database structure, OCR and other physical and electronic methods of managing documents.
What is Workflow Management?
In general, workflow management focuses on business processes rather than documents and is used to describe the tasks, procedural steps, organizations or people involved, information, and tools needed for each step in a business process.
How Do Document Management and Workflow Management Intersect?
Because most workflow involves tasks which require the documentary evidence of the completion, approval, signature or some other action required in the business process, a workflow approach to analyzing and managing business processes can be combined with an object-oriented programming approach, which tends to focus on documents and data.
How Does the Cloud Help?
Because of the ease of implementation and the location-independent accessibility of cloud-based systems, workflow automation combined with document management becomes quite simple in the Cloud. For example, a real estate company could use a workflow automation application to ensure that a transaction was handled consistently from initial offer to final settlement. Because the nature of the real estate transaction requires various paper documents with appropriate signatures, the workflow application would ensure that each document was successfully included in the transaction workbasket before allowing the process to proceed to the next person and procedural step. This might require scanning of various signed paper documents to be included in the process or it might require the inclusion of a digital signature on an online form.
The cloud makes it easy to process the movement of documents and information (workflow) throughout an organization in-order to make decisions and complete any required processing of documents. The cloud automates all of the steps and the decision making rules that are applied during a business process. IDEAL-Cloud powered by Kloudtrack®enables both document management and workflow management by automating the processes and by controlling the movement of documents based upon pre-configured rules.
Can Your EDMS Keep Up with Data Growth?
A recent Gartner survey showed data growth as the largest data center infrastructure challenge. “Forty-seven percent of survey respondents ranked data growth in their top three 
challenges, followed by system performance and scalability at 37 percent, and network congestion and connectivity architecture at 36 percent. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported that they will be investing in data archiving…to address the data growth challenge.”
Data Infrastructure and the Economy
Whether your data center consists of one server tucked in a back closet of your small business, or multiple servers, software and IT staff located in the data center of a large organization, you’ve likely postponed upgrading and extending technology due to the slow economy of the past several years. As result, you, like many others are now dealing with aging or obsolete hardware, and outdated software.
While many sources point to signs of a recovering economy, most business managers are still cautious about spending, and continue to defer spending on new data infrastructure while the old continues to work. This may be a “penny-wise and pound foolish” decision. Businesses who want to be ready for this reawakening economy should consider tapping into new data solutions that are high in efficiency and that offer scalability as the demand grows, thus helping their companies to prepare for a return to growth.
EDMS in the Cloud
Since most business information today is stored as electronic documents, an EDMS (electronic document management system) is absolutely necessary. However, with aging hardware infrastructure, a business’s EDMS may become compromised just as business picks up and it becomes absolutely necessary to success.
In addition, efficiency is the watchword for any business in today's marketplace. Even in a recovering economy, your clients are examining all expenses and looking for alternatives or requesting changes. In order to remain competitive, your business must continue providing the same or better level of service with a reduced level of expenses. Simply put, your business must "do more for less."
This is where a cloud solution for EDMS can help. The right cloud solution can:
- Automate the flow of documents to ensure error-free business processes. This is by far one of the largest components of the ROI of a Cloud EDMS.
- Virtually eliminate the need for IT infrastructure
- Increase the ability to comply with appropriate regulations
- Allow your employees to collaborate and work remotely, thereby decreasing the amount of office space necessary (particularly during the heavy seasonal periods in some industries when temporary employees are needed)
Cloud Compliance – What You Need to Know
Cloud computing is big. The U.S. Federal Government has a Cloud Computing Mandate. Many businesses are shifting operations to cloud environments. Despite the push to the Cloud, many highly regulated industries such as banking and healthcare have been slow to adopt the new technology. These heavily regulated industries fear loss of control, because violations of standards imposed by FINRA, HIPAA and other mandates carry heavy penalties. 
Cloud vendors continue to proliferate with varying degrees of success…those with mature security operations at a level where regulated industries can feel comfortable, being the first to break the barriers in these regulated industries. The challenge is finding a cloud vendor that satisfies an organization’s security requirements.
What steps can an organization take to ensure regulatory compliance when data are moved to the cloud?
- Ask what certifications the cloud system has received. Examples include:
- SEC requirements for Secure Online Document Storage of financial records
- FINRA requirements for Financial Data Assurance
- ACH/Check-21 Electronic Banking Standards
- OMB/GSA “Cloud Computing Storefront”
- NIST standards Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
- NIST standards for data platform interoperability
- Basel Accord I & II for Banking Risk Mitigation
- CCHIT certification for access to patient health records
- SAJACC standards for jump-starting government Cloud adoption
- FISMA security and trusted data storage guidelines for federal agencies
- HIPAA guidelines for electronic medical record (EMR) privacy and protection
- Homeland Security SAFETY Act requirements for anti-terrorist protections
- FEDRamp SaaS|Cloud standards for Cabinet-level government agency data protection
- Health and Human Service (HSS) guidelines for Meaningful Use Definitions related to electronic health records
- Ask what industries the vendor serves. Examples of regulated industries include:
- Legal
- Financial/Securities/Banking
- Medical
- Government/DOD
- Ask whether they have redundant co-located servers and backup
- Ask what they do to prevent hacking (something like Cumodo hacker-proof certification)
- Ask for and talk to references
- Finally, before you commit to any cloud vendor, request a trial account and see for yourself how the system behaves.
How to Choose an Online Document Management System
While the right online document management solution can streamline your document management processes, the wrong one can create more problems than it solves. So, how do you go about choosing the right online document management system?
First of all, determine what you need to do with your online document management system. Here are some of the processes you may need:
- Store organize, access and modify your documents in the cloud, no matter where you are
- Share documents online and collaborate on them with colleagues, customers and partners
- Enable virtual offices and distributed workforces
- Control access to documents, folders or subfolders
- Control document versions
- Automate business processes and workflow
- Provide audit trails
- Google-like text-based document search
- Industry certifications or security requirements
Other Questions to Consider
You should also consider whether you are going to incorporate older legacy paper documents or legacy computer data into your online system. If so, you will want to make certain that the online document management company that you choose allows for these options. Do they provide a document scanning service? Are they able to import legacy data? Do they have file-type or data-type limitations?
Research Your Options
Once you’ve determined your company’s specific online document management requirements, then you can go about researching the various services that provide the features you need. Obviously, you’ll want to consider cost and reliability. Ask for references; or, better yet, ask for a small pilot project and try the solution for yourself before you enter into a contract.
Get Buy-in From Employees
Finally, present the solution to your employees who will be using the online document management system. Get their “stamp of approval” before you make a commitment. After all, no matter how great the online document management system is, if your employees don’t use it, it’s not worth the time or the investment.
Advantages of Online Document Management
Online document management, also called Cloud document management or web-based document managment, is an electronic document management system that can be accessed via the Internet. One of the biggest advantages of online document management is the easy accessibility of the documents. 
While all document management systems are designed to manage and archive documents during all stages of their use, and online system is unique in its ability to provide fast retrieval from any location as long as there is an internet connection. This worldwide accessibility allows for faster document transfer and easier collaboration on documents.
In addition many online document management systems, like IDEAL-Cloud powered by Kloudtrack™ are subscription-based, so there is no need for purchase of software, servers or additional IT expenditures.
The benefits of using an online document management service go beyond simple cost savings. Online document storage services also offer additional advantages, including business process management, efficiency of workflow and accountability through audit trails. IDEAL-Cloud powered by Kloudtrack™ is also scalable and meets fifteen separate certification and security standards, so if you’re looking at web-based document management systems, this one deserves a look.
Some of the advantages that the right online document management system can bring to your company include:
- Lower document storage costs through the elimination of paper file archives
- Documents are easier to find and less likely to be misfiled
- Easier control of documents and all kinds of data
- Easier compliance with audit requirements and industry standards
- Efficient sharing of information between remote offices and workers
- Integration of all corporate information in one central repository
- Ability to capture (via scanning) and store large volumes of information
- Ability to store, search, view and share all types of files in a single system
Who Uses Online Document Management Systems
Online document storage services are useful for all types of businesses in various sectors. Because of the scalability that is inherent in a system like IDEAL-Cloud powered by Kloudtrack™, small businesses as well as large organizations can benefit from the efficiencies of online document management. This type of system can include scanned documents as well as documents that have been produced electronically. It can include video and audio files and all types of business data. It can accommodate all kinds of workflows. According to some statistics, over 400 of the largest companies in the word make use of online document management solutions, and this is one of the fastest growing technology sectors.
Do You Need a Document Scanning Service?
If you are still saving most of your business information on paper or microfilm, then it’s time to consider hiring a document scanning service to convert your data to digital format. There are a number of reasons why this type of document conversion makes good sense:
- Preserving and storing digital documents costs less than storing and preserving paper
- Finding and accessing digital documents is more efficient than dealing with paper
- Transporting and sharing digital documents is less costly and more efficient than paper
Even when you consider the initial costs of hiring a document scanning service to convert your paper documents, most companies find that over the life of a document and the life of the business, it is still more economical and more efficient to work with digital files than it is to work with paper files.
Particularly in an economic climate where businesses are looking to cut costs and improve their financial health, most find that the lessened costs of information processing as well as the lessened costs of personnel required to store, retrieve and re-store documents is ample justification for embarking on a document scanning project.
By hiring a document scanning service, you will reduce your cost of paper information storage. Consider the cost of rent that you pay monthly to sustain your paper information storage, and realize that as your business matures, these costs will increase. Transferring the information into an electronic form can eliminate storage costs completely if you decide to shred the paper versions. Digital storage, whether on your own servers or on a subscription based Cloud document storage system is much lower than rent for a physical storage space.
Document scanning reduces the time it takes to retrieve the information when it is needed again, and it eliminates the cost of the time taken to restock the information. If everything is done right, and you have a person at $10 / hour (example) to do just that, and if it takes them 1/2 hour to find the document and 1/2 hour to re-stock the document, you would be saving $10 by just a single query into your electronic data management system.
By using a document scanning services that provides which includes optical character recognition, (OCR) scanning you can store and search for digital documents by client name, account number, property address, or any combination of search categories applicable to your business. Through advanced indexing of all textual data, and through advanced annotation of image and time series data, searching for documents and document retrieval becomes easy and more natural, as well as ultimately more effective. With some document management systems, you can even search for words embedded in text, much as you would do a Google search. All of this enables you to get more relevant data in a shorter amount of time. This also saves money.
Read more about document scanning services.
The A-B-Cs of Choosing a Document Imaging Service
Document imaging services generally provide scanning services and other document imaging related services such as OCR, document indexing, document hosting, document shredding, to name a few. Both large and small companies can make use of an outsourced document imaging service. Document imaging reduces the clutter of paper at office and improves employee efficiency. Outsourcing generally gets the job done faster than relying on internal resources to find the time away from their regular routine duties. 
There are many document imaging companies, so how do you know which one to choose? Here are a few things that you should consider before hiring a document imaging company:
A. What Type of Services Does the Imaging Company Provide?
Some companies provide only document scanning service, while others offer complete document management services. List your requirements and find a company that meets them.
B. How Long Has the Company Been in Business?
Generally, more experience is better. If you want to use the document hosting service of the company, you should also check how long it’s been available, as well as its uptime. The company's uptime should be at least 99 per cent. That will ensure that your documents are available to you most of the time.
C. Where Will the Company Scan the Documents?
This is a very important question. If your documents are very sensitive and confidential, then you might prefer to hire a company that will scan the documents on-site. Otherwise, a company that offers document imaging facility only at its premises will do. We like a company that offers both options. This usually shows that they have had varied experience.
D. What Does the Company Do To Ensure the Safety and Security of Your Documents?
Security is one of the biggest concerns that organizations have when hiring a document imaging firm. Before hiring the firm, you should check what type of steps the company takes to ensure the security of the documents. For instance, if you have medical documents to scan, you will want to hire a firm that is HIPPA compliant. If you have classified documents, you will want to hire a firm that employees technicians with security clearances.
E. What Will the Document Imaging Cost?
You should compare the rates of several firms, and get written bids. This will help you to know the prevailing rates of the services you need. Often the rates may be different from one geographic location to another. But, remember while you may save on rates by using a company that is further away, you will pay to ship your documents, so often it is less expensive to use a more costly, but closer service. Most importantly, never compromise on quality for price – always choose a service that provides value for the cost.
Follow these A-B-Cs and you should get good results.
Online Document Management and the Virtual Office
It’s National Telework Week this week. This marks the yearly initiative to encourage government and industry to pledge to save money and the environment by cutting the daily work commute. So, get out your slippers, grab your cup of coffee, and let’s telework! 
While the Federal government touts telework as a way to cut costs, reduce office space and promote a healthier work-life balance, a substantial number of feds don’t telework, something that recently prompted a blog on GovLoop titled "Why the Heck Aren’t You Teleworking Yet?”
The good news is that technology is no longer the limiter to increased telework. Today’s technology provides both government agencies and private industry with reliable, responsive and secure ways for remote workers to do their jobs from home.
One of the first steps to a reliable telework system is to establish an online document management system. We recommend starting your online document management system with a Cloud provider who can provide a browser-based virtual office that allows you to share files and collaborate over the internet with clients, vendors and employees through any internet browser. The ideal Cloud provider will also offer the ability to upload, download, browse, search, index, categorize, version, approve, track and discuss documents.
Plan ahead for any additional requirements you may need in the future, like work-flow management, audit trails or certification so that once you get started you can simply scale-up the features that you need. Remember one of the advantages of the Cloud is that there is no document management softwareto buy, download, install, or maintain as the SaaS/Cloud is subscription service that is delivered entirely through a web browser.
So, have another cup of coffee, and let’s telework!
