When doing a document workflow analysis, the goal is to: understand what document management equipment is being used, find areas where your company can save money by implementing cost saving measures, and create a plan that accommodates your future needs. To perform a document workflow analysis, you’ll need to know-
- Equipment lease documents
- Cost of maintenance for all equipment
- Outsourcing invoices
- Quantities for all content management equipment
The first step is to set goals and objectives. Next, you can identify key challenges in the document workflow process. To do this, a walkthrough of the office is typically the best way to inventory equipment and talk with the employees who use each machine the most. Once you have a detailed equipment inventory, a content management provider can plug all the data into special software that will determine your total cost of ownership (TOC). Once all the data is in place, you can monitor the statistics over time to get a realistic price tag for your current document workflow. Now that you’ve figured your hard costs, you can move on to totaling soft costs. You’ll need to look at productivity indicators and try to find the most efficient system for your company. This part of the process is the most difficult, so you’ll want to bring in an experienced electronic content management provider to help. After all the data is compiled you can look at the big picture and determine what ECM system is right for you.