Electronic Document Management: Taming the Virtual Flood

In an old Warner Bros. cartoon or 1930s screwball comedy, we could see a company drown in a flood of its own documents. They would burst open the file cabinets, spraying out like water from a failing dam. The tidal wave of white sheets would rise over desks and surge down hallways as desperate staff scrambled for high ground.

Electronic documents are invisible, insidious. No one can see the rising tide spill out of the servers or rain down from the cloud until it is too late. By the time firms realize they need an electronic document management strategy, it can be too late.

Invisible Torrent

Electronic documents are insidious because they are so easy to create. Computers have not yet brought us the Paperless Office of Tomorrow. But they have brought us plenty of paperless documents. No need to send them to the printer. No need even to type them. A few keystrokes of cut and paste and voila! repurposed text becomes a brand new document.

It may convey a brilliant new idea that disrupts business as usual in the best way. Or it may get lost in the database, forgotten except for its contribution to wasted storage space and slower database query responses. Or an electronic document may linger, long after it could lawfully have been deleted, only to surface in an eDiscovery proceeding and trigger its own flood of needless headaches.

Flood Control and More

Electronic document management is, at the most basic level, about taking control of the flood of electronic documents before it overwhelms a firm. But that is not all there is to managing electronic documents.

A well-crafted documents management strategy can help guide firms through the transition from traditional (and cumbersome) paper documents to a more streamlined electronic documents system. It can guide documents through their life cycle from creation to timely destruction, and can arm firms in advance to deal with litigation issues. It can ensure that critical documents are safely preserved and readily available when needed.

A robust documents management strategy involves specialized skills. This can pose a challenge to firms whose staff skill sets are focused on the company's core business not managing the electronic paperwork to keep things going.

The good news is that firms don't need to divert their staff to handle electronic documents. They can call on expert specialists to manage the flood, allowing staff to continue their work undrenched.

LINK:	http://blog.ironmountain.com/2013/records-management-and-storage/elect...
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