Businesses today struggle with document overload. About 60% of employees spend more time looking for files than answering emails, costing companies nearly $20,000 per worker yearly and cutting productivity by over 21%. As businesses create thousands of documents each week, old-fashioned filing cabinets and computer folders just can’t keep up. This is why record management software has become essential for modern businesses.
The True Purpose of Record Management Systems
Record management software does much more than just store files. It’s a complete solution that handles your data throughout its entire life cycle – from when you create a document to when you eventually delete it.
This software gives you full control over your information, making sure your data stays organized, protected, and follows all the necessary rules and regulations. The biggest advantage is that it works automatically – record management software can sort and organize documents without anyone having to do it manually, which saves a lot of time and effort.
Key Benefits That Drive Business Value
A good record management software offers several clear benefits for your business.
-
Gives you complete control over your digital files, making workflows smoother and helping you stay organized.
-
Helps you follow all the necessary regulations, which helps you avoid heavy fines by keeping documents secure and controlling who can access them.
-
Protects your data from threats like viruses and hackers while also preventing accidental data loss – very important considering that the average data breach costs about $3.35 million.
-
Boosts productivity by automatically organizing data, so employees can find information quickly instead of wasting the 30% of their workday typically spent searching for documents.
-
Saves money by helping you keep only the documents you need and safely get rid of the rest, reducing storage costs.
Physical vs. Electronic Records Management
It’s important to understand the difference between paper and digital record keeping to choose what’s best for your business. Physical records management means storing actual paper documents. Some small businesses with few documents still use paper, and some industries like healthcare and legal often need physical copies.
While having actual paper copies can feel reassuring, it becomes difficult to manage as your documents grow, costs more for storage space, and wastes about four weeks every year searching for misplaced files. Electronic record management – handling digital documents, emails, databases, and images – makes work more efficient through quick access and backup while reducing physical storage costs.
Many businesses now prefer cloud-based record management systems for better security, remote access, and automatic processes. Many also include features like document scanning and SMS archiving solutions to capture and save text messages.
Common Challenges and Practical Solutions
Managing records comes with several challenges that businesses need to solve. Dealing with both paper and digital documents requires balancing physical storage with digital systems. The solution is to import paper records into digital storage using record management software that lets you register physical documents with proper categories and permissions. Keeping up with changing laws is another challenge, with record-keeping violations costing US businesses $1.235 billion in 2022.
The best record management software solutions, including specialized SMS archiving solutions, let you manage records from all your systems in one place without moving data from where it originally lives.
