In a world of overflowing files and digital chaos, document management (DM) has emerged as a puzzle that begs for a solution. But should CEOs be the ones to crack it? Let's unravel the secrets of document management and uncover why it's a challenge that CEOs can no longer ignore.
Document management is the way you handle your internal documentation. But mostly, it is a problem for companies to solve. A wrong document management system (or DMS) can have dire consequences for your business. In costs, legal repercussions, and effectiveness.
Bad DMS also have a direct impact on the CEO's performance. So what are the three key aspects that can cost you everything and that you should monitor?
Number 1: The cost of mishandled data and security breaches.
Mishandling documents is the action of misplacing or losing files. It also happens when third parties access your files without authorisation.
Security breaches can consist of data leaks, data theft, or accidental misplacing. According to Identity Force, there were 164 million exposed records in 2019 worldwide, while in 2020, data breaches increased by 17%, causing consumers to lose more than USD 56 billion due to identity theft and fraud. Even more worrying figures come from Varonis (another digital security consultancy company), which warns that even serious money is not safe from digital theft and data breaches: confirmed data breaches in the healthcare industry increased by 58% last year (Verizon); web application breaches account for 43% of all security vulnerabilities and have doubled since 2019 (Verizon); 33,000 unemployment applicants were exposed to a data security breach from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in May (NBC); a data breach of the federal disaster loan applications impacted 8,000 small business owners exposing their applications (U.S. PIRG).
Furthermore, the same summary shows clear evidence from IBM that no business and economic sector are safe, and the costs are staggering. For instance, the global average price of a data breach in healthcare is USD 3.86 million. The average cost per lost or stolen record in a data breach is USD 150 (IBM); in 2020, the country with the highest average total price of a data breach was the United States at USD 8.64 million.
At Docmatic, we understand that you want to preserve the value of your work. That's why we ensure safe storage of your data on our servers and cloud and make regular back-ups to prevent loss and alteration.
We also protect your assets and research results from prying eyes, by encrypting all traffic between your company and our servers. Should you choose our cloud solutions, rest assured that all our cloud providers are certified ISO 27001 which enables organisations of any kind to manage the security of your most sensitive information such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted by third parties.
Number 2: The cost of not finding the data you need.
Then, there is the issue of the costs incurred by not finding your files when you need them. There are two types of expenses—direct costs, born by penalties when you cannot document a process or an activity. And indirect costs accumulated because of long times searching for documents not organised in the first place. According to McKinsey,
"employees spend 1.8 hours every day—9.3 hours per week, on average—searching and gathering information. In other words, businesses hire five employees, but only four show up to work; the fifth is off searching for answers, but not contributing any value."
Such studies are hard to conduct, the data is scarce, and these numbers are from 2012. Ten years later, the amount of data treated per organisation has exploded. Assuming a total salary cost of USD 80,000 per year, you're looking at a cumulated loss of USD 20,000 per employee per year. If you multiply this amount by the total number of your employees, you'll get a picture of this total cost. Not finding the correct information at the right time is a massive loss of money.
More accurate data comes from consulting company IDC, which indicates that knowledge workers spend 15% to 35% of their time searching for information. Worse, they are only successful in finding what they seek 50% of the time (according to both Web search engines and the company's surveys). The same company reports that "40% of employees cannot find the information they need to do their jobs."
Our system organises your documents by tags and groups, for you to always find the documentation you're looking for instantly!
Number 3: The cost of not using your data as you should.
Finally, there's the aspect of not getting actionable insights from the information contained in those documents. This aspect is the most subtle, but it is also the most impactful on the CEO's performance. When the bits of information are worth more separated than conjoined, the loss for the company comes from missing opportunities and unexploited insights. There is a higher meaning locked in your data lost on traditional search instruments.
Why is it the CEO's problem?
CEOs are workers with a total and global perspective. There is no one else in a better position to identify the relevant insights. CEOs need to make informed decisions because the responsibility ultimately lies with them.
Let's face it, you're cooler than a cucumber if the costs above are not scary enough to give you goosebumps. Good. Because, as a CEO, your prime concern is to face it all. This is not a problem you can run from. More data brings an increase in volume, sensitivity and complexity. You need to be aware of every new technology to maintain your company's competitiveness. Are you storing your data in the cloud or on-premise, in hard copies? Are you using the most effective tools; A.I. or machine learning? Those decisions are yours and yours only to make because no one else can and should handle them.
But what if, from all that risk, you could gain from document management? What if you could increase profitability and exploit hidden opportunities?
Docmatic's Knowledge Management System is a CEO's best friend.
For effective document management, you need a powerful engine up to the task. Imagine if you had a system that would help you retrieve information. Not any information, but the information you need. And what if this system could get you that information with every research, even approximative ones? What about a plan that would show you the information you need before you need it and process, not data but knowledge. You would save money, time and energy all at once!
Today's advances in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning are making it a reality! And this reality is called Docmatic. If you'd like to inquire about our solutions for your business, send an email to office@docmatic.ai or click here.
