Managing documents for SMEs, organizations and other users

MANILA, Philippines - Most organizations, including small and medium enterprises, lose valuable time searching for lost or archived documents and find difficulty looking for storage space for their valuable documents.

A lot of times, documents are physically preserved in their printed form and are left to the elements until they become useful in an organization’s operation.

Managing documents become even more imperative when it comes to laptops being stolen and networks being hacked, thus rendering the files beyond recovery.

Fortunately for the Philippines, the document management system (DMS) is being introduced to users like small and medium enterprises (SMEs), accountancy and law firms, organizations, schools and other institutions, including publishing businesses, by the E-Chambers Group of Malaysia and its local partner, Magistech Business Solutions Inc. of lawyer Jeremy Parulan, exclusive distributor of the Total Information Management Systems (TIMS).

Lee Hoe Leong and Andrew Clarke, both directors of e-chambers, recently made an audiovisual presentation of how the software works and how it can be customized to the requirements of the users.

More importantly, the software is not as costly as the large enterprise portals being introduced by other software giants in the country and which only multinational companies can afford, Parulan said.

The group combines expertise in software development, implementation and networking as well as business consulting to provide complete end-to-end services for the successful implementation of document management systems.

Leong said his group designed the TIMS so that smaller companies, whose documentary requirements are as bulky as the bigger companies, can have a system of managing their documents without the complicated procedures of the bigger portals.

What makes TIMS more flexible than the bigger portals is that it can store even scanned documents, faxed or e-mailed documents and files in other formats like MPEG, JPEG, PDF and bulk imports.

The DMS is a centralized repository that is employed to manage the storage of any type of information that could be of value to an organization while protecting the organization from loss of invaluable information.

It also assists in managing the creation, storage, retrieval and distribution of information stored as documents.

The DMS came about because: a) executives waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents; b) employees spend 25 to 35 percent of their time looking for information they need to do their job; c) knowledge workers waste 30 to 40 percent of time on document-related non-value added tasks; d) organizations unnecessarily spend significant amounts on physical storage and printing; e) data loss resulting from network security breaches and identity theft has become a regular occurrence; and f) the rampant thefts of laptops and the immeasurable value of lost information stored in the stolen unit.

The immediate and measurable benefits of DMS are: reduced storage space; faster document capture; flexible retrieval through search engine; flexible indexing; improved, faster and more flexible searches; controlled and improved document distribution; improved security and document privacy; disaster recovery; no loss of files; digital archiving; improved regulatory compliance; and improved cash flow and quick return on investments.

The intangible benefits include improved internal operations; competitive edge; improved customer service and satisfaction; and preserved intellectual capital-organizational knowledge.

The one-time cost of TIMS is P35,000 per user and 20 percent a year in support and maintenance cost for DMS.

But Parulan said his company can offer discounts to SMEs and other smaller clients which will use the system for more users in their companies.

Parulan said their first client in the country is Reyes Tacandong and Co., one of the leading accounting firms.

The DMS does not discriminate against document formats and types as it can store word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoint slides, e-mails and media files, video clips and pictures.

For inquiries, visit www.magistech.net or call Magistech Business Solutions Inc. 811-3299 or 813-3921.