By Bonnie Joy Dewkett
The Joyful Organizer®
Paper is one of the biggest problems we have as a society. Here are ten quick tips to get you organized and keep you that way!
Along with these tips, ask yourself the following questions:
Bonnie Joy Dewkett, CPO® is an organizing expert, author, and motivational speaker. Her company, The Joyful Organizer®, creates and implements organizational systems for the home or office. These changes allow her Customers to create calm from chaos at work and at home. Bonnie has achieved the prestigious designation of Certified Professional Organizer, CPO®, from The Board of Certification for Professional Organizers. She is a member of The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and has published The Joyful Organizer’s Guide to a Joyful Move which is available on her website http://www.thejoyfulorganizer.com.
Phone: 203-731-4651
Email: Bonnie@thejoyfulorganizer.com
Twitter: @thejoyfulorg
Zoos can be a terrific place to visit. Millions of people visit zoos all around the world every year. The range of creatures in captivity is enormous and caring for the animals is top priority. Zoos need a proper filing system, Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management, to help improve efficiency and enable staff to spend more time with the animals.
Zoos have always been popular with tourists as the types of animals kept in each zoo vary from country to country. It also means that the overall care and maintenance of the zoos and their animals has to be different as well.
In 1994, the Born Free Foundation (BFF) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) created what is now called “The Zoo Enquiry.” It was a significant file that recommended certain standards in terms of animal welfare and how zoos were to be involved in conservation.
World-wide legislation was created to cover every aspect of the overall health and well-being of all creatures in captivity. This covered everything including: nutrition and hygiene, condition of the animal accommodations, veterinary care and codes of practice to enable self-regulation of the industry.
There are lots of different records that need to be kept. They include: budgets, food and nutritional orders, other requisitions, rostering of staff, feeding time rosters, maintenance of individual habitats, cleaning of the public areas, veterinary visits and health checks and individual records relating to every single creature in the entire zoo.
Record-keeping is an integral part of running a zoo. Because there are so many different factors to contend with, outdated paper-based document management systems are no longer capable of coping with the amount of information needing to be kept.
Therefore, a more sophisticated system must be put in place that will reduce the amount of time wasted on filing and retrieval of documents. This means that staff will be able to spend more of their valuable time caring for the needs of the creatures in their zoo.
A zoo really needs to use document management software that can be tailor-made to the specific needs of the individual zoo. Different countries would have varying needs. A filing system can be created with titles that are relevant to their unique, yet specific, requirements. These titles would be used by all staff and will make it easier to access the location of files and documents within them at any given time.
If staff can file and retrieve documents fast and efficiently, they are free to focus on their other duties and this means that more work can be done in less time, which is a positive thing when it comes to analyzing the zoo’s budgetary requirements. It also means that if they have a fixed amount of money, more can be used for the animals themselves.
If zoos have better record-keeping methods, it will be easier for them to share knowledge with other zoos pertaining to such matters as diseases, differences in behavior when an animal’s habitat has changed, mating issues, family lineage and numerous other pertinent facts that may need to be accessed quickly. It’s vital that accurate records are kept so that zoos can share this valuable information.
The inhabitants of the zoos are constantly being studied to better understand how to care for them in captivity. The actual habitat is analyzed and altered sometimes. They keep a few animals in the one area, either the same species or sometimes they mix them to see how they cope.
They change the way the animals are fed and some also promote closer animal-keeper interactions by instigating different training exercises to see how the animals react. Complete and accurate files have to be kept on everything that occurs within the zoo.
Zoos need Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management to help improve efficiency because they’re not what you would call a “typical business” and therefore their requirements have to be completely tailor-made. That’s why they need an intelligent, flexible document management software program. Then they can keep up with everything and not spend too much time away from their main job of caring for the animals.
Whether you’re a small business or a huge multinational corporation, you can’t afford not to be using a smart document management system, like Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management, unless you’re happy throwing away your profits. Did you know that experts estimate that people waste 150 hours per year looking for lost information?
Technology is really streamlining the way that business is being conducted. Gone are the antiquated days of dusty basements filled with shelves and wall units crammed full of paper-based files. The days of tediously trawling through mountains of files to find a single document with that vital piece of information for that urgent board meeting are also gone.
What you really need is a document management system that will save you money and time, and increase your profits while decreasing expenditure. The great news is that the solution already exists. Just decide to make the change.
Instead of the archaic filing system you currently tolerate, your new filing system will be easy to learn and implement. It will be user-friendly for everyone from the CEO right down to the staff in the data processing centers.
All files will use a standardized naming system so that duplication is virtually eliminated. Documents in all formats will be easily stored in the same file. This avoids unnecessary duplication of documents. Desks won’t be overflowing with files and papers all the time and staff will be more productive when they can find what they need when they need it.
Information can easily be shared within departments, no matter where they’re located. Documents can be filed easily and files can be retrieved as fast as necessary because your computer software will tell you the location instantly.
Your board members will be ecstatic when you tell them that your ideal system will help staff provide better service to your clientele because information is more readily accessible. A happy customer is a repeat customer and it’s easier to keep customers than to try and get new ones.
When you think about the return on investment for such a filing system software, that will save you and your staff 150 hours each every year, you can’t afford not to be using a smart document management system.
Try Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management today and see how efficient and organized you and your staff can be in no time!
For many years I have struggled with keeping my desk cleaned off. Not only was this a chore that never seemed to go away, but I would often feel overwhelm just by the idea of having to get out the label maker, figure out what to call the file, and then have to thumb through the alphabetical files in order to get the new file where it belonged. Because it was often too great a chore for me to engage in, I often put it off until I couldn’t handle the site of my desk or “organized piles.” Moreover, the old system worked fine for annual bills and such, but miscellaneous papers would forever be filed into a state of “organized lostness” somewhere within the confines of the file cabinets; never to be seen or heard of again.
Then I discovered Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management! It did not take me long looking over the website before I realized that this was “must have” software. I ordered the desktop version and shortly thereafter discovered that Paper Tiger Online was in Beta, and that I could sign up to test the software for free! This was exactly what I needed as I have computers in multiple locations in the home (my home office, my wife’s desk upstairs, and a laptop that floats throughout the house), and having the ability to access Paper Tiger from anywhere was a huge bonus.
We set up the database with several locations. My wife has her lateral file close to her desk that we called “Mum’s” location. Then I created an “Action” location close to where I work most. I use one location for “admin” documents in another lateral file, and I have a “reference” location that I use to archive anything and everything that comes across my desk. Although the numbering system seems awkward at first, it is actually incredibly useful and fast. Essentially Paper Tiger acts as a powerful index system that tells you what numbered file is empty and available for a document, or it will let you know if there is a match somewhere that would fit the type of document that is being filed. Since the index numbers are set up ahead of time on the hanging folders in the filing cabinets, it becomes a breeze to file papers as they come in.
For the sake of efficiency (or at least what works best for me), is that I take the document, look up the index file location (by utilizing the search feature), or I set up a new index number for item if I need to. Once I know where the document is going, I write the file number on it, and I place it in my Action drawer in a file called “to file.” If my wife has something that needs to go down stairs in one of the files in my office, she “Paper Tigers” it, and she will put a yellow sticky on the page with the file number and put it in my inbox. This too will make it into my little “to file” file. Then once a week or so (or when I’m feeling disengaged from my work), I will take out the “to file” file and in about 10 minutes or less have all the papers in that file put away where they belong!
One last use we have for Paper Tiger at the moment is that we have taken all our DVD’s and put them in a big leather binder and have thrown the cases away. Each slot in the binder that has a DVD has a number assigned to it, and we wrote the corresponding number with an indelible marker on the actual DVD. Once this was done we cataloged all the DVD’s in Paper Tiger. This has been a great tool since our kids will often get out a bunch of movies all at once and we can easily find out where they go by the number. Also, if we want to watch something, all we have to do is search for it in Paper Tiger, find out the reference number and easily turn to it in the DVD binder.
Well, we may not be “singing” Paper Tiger praises, but my wife and I are constantly commenting on how immensely useful and efficient it is. Thanks to Paper Tiger, our desks are cleaner, our work is less stressful, and things don’t get lost in file cabinet. Thank you Paper Tiger! We look forward to many happy years as customers.
Kevin McAllister
Lead Pastor of Family Worship Center (www.afamily.cc)
http://www.namelounge.com
Augusta, ME
Running a home office can be very trying no matter whether you are using it to keep track of the family’s finances or running a small business there. If you don’t keep track of your papers and other items in a manner that makes sense, you will never be able to find things as you need them. Bills may not get paid on time, incurring late charges and other penalties simply because they were buried under other items. There are a number of systems that you can use to make your home office that much more efficient but there are a number of drawbacks to consider with them.
Systems that Require Scanners or Labelers
Some document management systems require that all your paper files be scanned and then formatted to a disk drive for “filing.” There are often many things that cannot be scanned and there are issues with the scanner itself. If you don’t have a scanner, this type filing system would suggest that you buy one. And this document management system may not be ideal because once you have scanned everything and put it on the computer, what if that system crashes or you are not near your computer for that moment?
With a scanning document management system, labeling everything does not always work either, especially since it does nothing to get everything organized. Sure, you know that those are all the home bills sitting there in the nicely labeled file folder, but they get moved from place to place because they have no real designated spot and they end up buried once again.
A Hybrid, Better Solution
The Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management is a hybrid of traditional filing and computer search ingenuity with the ability to help you streamline your filing system and find your items without having to run out and buy expensive equipment. You don’t scan your items so you can use the same filing system software to organize books and other items that would not be able to be scanned. (See our Not Just for Filing Paper webpage) Your files are set up in index numbered, hanging files with labels that you print from the Paper Tiger Software. These file numbers never change, but the information that is stored in them can: It is all taken care of by the filing system itself. After everything is where it needs to be, and item names and keywords relating to the items being indexed entered into the software’s database, the information is converted to searchable files. All you need to do is access a computer and conduct a google-like search to find exactly what you are looking for.
Your home office is now organized like a miniature databank, like your own personal version of the World Wide Web. All of your files are right there to be accessed by a quick search. The computer will generate a search result, showing you exactly which hanging file folder the requested information is in and where to access it. There is no searching through several different files to find an item because of differing thought processes of filing from day to day.
Tame your paper files (and other items) with Paper Tiger and get organized today!
In this article ‘Sharing reference files increases morale and efficiency’ by Sherry Borsheim of Simply Productive and a Paper Tiger Expert, Sherry discusses how sharing files in your filing system will make your office more efficient, plus she recommends Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System to make it happen.
Sometimes filing can seem like an overwhelming job. Many people find it complicated and time consuming to find a home for all their files. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Did you know that in actuality there are only three types of files you’ll ever need?
That’s right, in all effective filing systems, there are only three types of files: action, reference and archive.
Action files are projects that you are currently working on – projects that you access frequently. For many people, the information in these files might be something they would pile on their desk out of a fear of misfiling.
Reference Files are files that you access less frequently. It is information that you want to have on hand and are not ready to archive or toss at this time.
Archive Files are exactly what they sound like – archives! These files include all paper based materials that you are required to keep but do not need on a regular basis.
Although all three file types play a crucial role in your business, today I want to focus on the often forgotten reference files.
These files make up the backbone of your company’s resource library. Imagine how much more information would be available if each individual had easily accessible reference files. Files that they could actually share with the entire office! How much more efficient would your office be if everyone shared access to key reference materials?
Sharing reference files not only increases efficiency, but it also unites offices. Suddenly there are no longer individual “camps” within the office, but rather an interconnected office that shares resources in order to benefit every member of the team.
If you are ready to pool your office reference files, there are several ways to get started. Choose a system that works best with your corporate climate and current workspace needs.
For example, since these files are accessed less frequently than action files, one option may be to create a general reference area within the office. This makes it easy for every member of the office to access files, without interrupting the flow of an individual’s workspace. By keeping everything together and indexed with the Paper Tiger filing system software, it is a simple job to find much needed files in only a few seconds.
Better yet, take a team approach to the situation and have a brainstorming session on the best way to access everyone’s reference files within the office. If some people within the group don’t know how to use the Paper Tiger, have a brief training session. Once they see how easy it is to use, they’ll use it constantly and finally make use of important reference files.
To learn more about implementing a filing system that will fast forward your office efficiency, check out my new e-book, “Conquer your Chaos: fast forward to office efficiency” at www.conqueryourchaos.com.
About the Author
Sherry Borsheim, owner of Simply Productive, has been helping people to work smarter, not harder for years. She specializes in resolving paper, time and information management issues. To learn more about eliminating the paper pile-up and in vastly improving your productively, contact Simply Productive at 604-233-7076.
You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.simplyproductive.com. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart).
Also check out Sherry’s Calm Your Choas special that will give you a JUMP-START on ORGANIZING your office, home and life. She will give you her trade secrets and steps to setting up your organizing systems, including recommending Paper Tiger filing system software for document management, to be organized and manage the paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format and other physical stuff in your life.
Published with permission.
Moving offices is a huge undertaking. The larger your organization is, the more complicated it will be to move. It could take you months of planning and involve a lot of people in order to make a smooth transition. Something that you really need is a resource management system or indexing system, like Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System to help you move your office.
By implementing such a system at this point, you’ll save a lot of time and effort by getting rid of unnecessary files and streamlining systems, so your operations will run more smoothly when you complete the big move. This is also a perfect time to reevaluate all of your files and determine one of three actions for every file.
Your choices will be action, archive, or discard. This is a vital component of the move, because the new filing system will be able to tell everyone where files are located as nothing will be the same as it is in the current office. Better to have one upheaval than two.
This document management system will greatly reduce the amount of files needing to be moved. This will be cost effective and give you more space to utilize in other ways. It will also mean less time wasted on filing and retrieval of documents because it will be much more user friendly. In addition, it’s vital that files are packed and transported securely so you don’t breach privacy or confidentiality.
If you’ve been using an archaic filing system up until this point, it’s the ideal chance to upgrade to a more practical document management system. Instead of the old alphabetical or numerical system, use a personalized system for naming files. This will cut out all duplication due to different people using different titles for the same type files. And because everyone has access to the same files, it’s easier to organize.
Note Where Each Box Or Item Should Be Placed In The New Location
Implementing this indexing system prior to your move will not only allow you to index your paper files, but books, training manuals, CDs, DVDs, etc. Another broad category you can list in this indexing system is all office furniture including: desks, chairs, filing cabinets, bookcases and tables. Then you have all the electrical equipment such as: computers (and their accessories), printers, photocopiers, fax machines, shredders, microwaves, refrigerators, etc. There’s also the copious quantity of stationery and office supplies to pack as well.
Don’t forget to index all the moving boxes ensuring all contents in each box are input into the keywords section. You should also note where each box or item should be placed in the new location.
You Need a Detailed Plan
It’s important to create a very detailed plan so that every aspect of the move is carefully coordinated in an efficient manner. You also need to ensure that as little downtime as possible occurs in order to maintain your high standard of customer service. It’s a wise idea to appoint one or more people to act as moving coordinators so there’s less disruption to the regular work.
One major component to consider is transportation. Generally, you hire a moving company that specializes in this sort of work. However, their job is simply loading, moving and unloading trucks. It’s your responsibility to ensure everything is planned perfectly so the move is seamless and everything gets placed in the new location as it should.
To be efficient, you need to create a master plan and be able to have paper and computer based copies, because during the downtime, you’ll still need access to it.
The coordinator(s) can update the moving plans as new things are added. They should be thoroughly familiar with the new premises and design a floor plan of where everyone will sit and where all furniture will be placed so moving day runs like a well-oiled machine. It’s generally recommended to choose either Thursday or Friday for the move so you have the whole weekend as well.
The coordinator(s) can design documents relating to check lists, FAQs about the move and people’s availability to assist with the move itself. It’s important to have enough manpower or the move will take much longer than necessary. The coordinator(s), I.T. people, the PABX supplier and other phone people will be required to ensure phones, cabling, computers and the Internet are all working as quickly as possible.
Obviously not everyone will be set up at workstations and fully functioning at the same time. The coordinator will have to liaise with management to ensure that the minimum number of people are needed to maintain customer service are there and set up, complete with all workstations, and able to work until everything else is settled.
Implement Paper Tiger Today and Save Money!
Unless you want absolute chaos, you really need Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System to help you move your office. You’ll have instant access to where every document and office inventory are located, because you were wise enough to implement the system to prepare for the move. It’s estimated that people waste 150 hours per year just looking for lost information, so you’ll save money too!
Organizations face many tough choices in today’s business world. The struggle to keep up with new advances in technology and reduce carbon emissions is difficult. There is always pressure to cut costs and increase productivity. The positive news is that your document management system can be environmentally friendly whilst still being cost effective.
Whether you believe that global warming is an issue for the planet or not, it’s everyone’s responsibility to do all they can to minimize the impact their business has on the environment. Typical offices waste a lot of paper and power needlessly. This can easily be rectified by making some smart business decisions.
The First Step – Standardization
The first change should be to implement an intelligent document management software system, like The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System, that can eliminate the need for waste, save money, reduce power usage and increase productivity. If such a system is put in place, your current method of filing would change completely. Standardize the way that all files are labeled and that will avoid unnecessary duplication. Once individual documents are finished with, they can be added to the appropriate file.
Reduce Paper Usage
Because millions of documents are in different formats, they can be actioned without first converting them to paper. This immediately reduces the need for such vast quantities of paper to be used. A recent study calculated the additional costs associated with a single sheet of office paper, discovered that you have to multiply it by a factor of 30. This means that a $5 ream of paper would cost around $150. The average office worker uses around 10,000 sheets a year. One company calculated that if each of their workers saved one sheet of paper a week, they would save $700,000 per year.
If people start becoming smarter about their paper usage, the savings would be incalculable just for the paper alone. This means such signs as “think before you print” and “recycle that waste paper” should start appearing all over the office.
Documents can be edited electronically and saved on a CD or DVD for filing instead of printing because the files now have the ability to contain all formats. Paper won’t ever disappear completely, but a heavy reduction is vital.
Save Money and Boost Productivity
All staff will have access to the same filing system software and can instantly locate relevant files and documents at any time. This reduces filing and retrieval times and so decreases your overall costs while increasing productivity.
To decreases your power bill and carbon footprint at the same time, all staff should get into the habit of turning off all printing equipment when not being used. Of course, this is even more important at the end of the work day.
Once your document management system is in place and working smoothly, you won’t need as much room for file storage because everything will have been categorized in one of three ways; action, archive, or destroy. You won’t have desks overflowing with documents and files that haven’t been actioned or are just put in the “too hard” basket. And how to archive is simple with Paper Tiger. You would have a Location named ‘Archives’ in Paper Tiger, then simply conduct a Transfer Move of the file or files being moved to the Archive Location within your database. Paper Tiger will assign a file number in your Archives file to move the file to in the physical location. Files being destroyed or recycled can simply be Tossed in the Paper Tiger database, opening the item slot for another file to be inserted.
Staff will become more productive and office morale will be higher because they are able to work on more productive tasks. Proven statistics say that 20% of the work produces 80% of the revenue and 80% of the work only produces 20% of the revenue. Clumsy filing systems are time and money eaters. Now you can improve the percentages. Because of this increased efficiency and the smarter use of paper and all office equipment, your power bills should decrease as well.
The Impact on the Environment
If you stop to consider the ramifications of utilizing a more efficient document management system on other associated industries, it makes no sense to stick to the old methods. The paper industry uses vast amounts of pulp, energy and water and pump out tons of greenhouse gases. If the need for paper decreases dramatically, thousands of trees can be saved, more water can be conserved and less energy will be needed. If the number of trees being cut down is reduced, the result will be cleaner air and a healthier environment.
The Big Picture
It’s also vital to think of the bigger picture in terms of the next generation. You may not live to see the long-term effects of these necessary changes, but your children will. Should they have to live on a sick planet because their parents and grandparents badly damaged the environment through carelessness?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business owner or the CEO of the largest corporation. If you have filing to do, remember that your document management system can be environmentally friendly while being cost effective.
Large corporations and government bodies deal with thousands of records every day. They come in different formats including paper based, emails, faxes, scanned photos and documents and digital recordings. But where do your records really go? What happens when you finish using them?
Many files are kept in a variety of different, and sometimes confusing, ways. Paper based files are tossed into filing cabinets with no rhyme or reason to a structured document management system, or left on an employee’s desk to be buried in an ever-increasing stack of documents. Emails are filed on someone’s computer or even deleted. CDs and DVDs get tossed in a drawer never to be seen again. Books, binders, training manuals all get shuffled and mixed on a shelf somewhere.
Add to that the fact that different people label files differently. For instance, if you currently use an alphabetical filing system, there’s a good chance that files will be stored differently using the company name, or by a person’s name, or even by the industry. A lot of duplication can occur in this kind of filing system, which can lead to employees only seeing part of a file instead of every document pertaining to the file. These methods can be bad for business, especially if critical information can’t be found because it is in a different file under a different name.
As time passes, and a company grows, these type problems keep escalating. That’s why a major change needs to be implemented to enable your company to streamline the management of all documentation into one single, workable method that can be applied to every file in the company.
A document management software like The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System that uses an indexing system is the smart, logical choice for such a filing system. Basically, anything you can number, you can easily index. With a document indexing system, you can keep every document, binder, CD, DVD, etc. easily accessible for everyone to find. You decide how to name the files using letters, numbers, keywords and contact names to uniquely identify every file for future retrieval. You simply enter the details of the file and its contents into the software database, print off the file title onto a label and attach it to your hanging folder tab or affix to the corresponding item. And the exact same method can then be used by every staff member to locate information needed.
This is an easy to use system because the next file you create goes right behind the last one created and there’s no need to stuff a file drawer just to make something else fit alphabetically.
The computer index can easily be accessible by everyone in the company. This means you reduce the amount of time staff members spend filing and trying to locate needed documents. If anyone needs a particular piece of a file, they simply check its location on the index and then retrieve it for themselves.
And documents will no longer get misfiled. Meetings and reports can be handled much more easily because you can locate relevant information by simply pressing a few keys on the computer. Thousands of hours that previously were wasted searching for paperwork can now be used more productively, which means you not only save money, but employees can also tackle more projects in less time. It is estimated that an employee can waste over 150 hours per year, just looking for lost information.
A hard copy printout of the index serves as a backup in case you have a computer crash or power failure. And you can even store a copy of the index offsite as well.
As companies expand their operations, there is a growing need for more space. Usually this means having to uproot furniture, file cabinets and more, possibly even moving to a larger facility. Using a document management system can actually eliminate this need, because so much of a company’s needed space is for documentation. Old files can be archived in boxes and moved without uprooting the employees.
Because every possible keyword associated with each file is entered into the index, you can easily see whether a document you need has been archived or is in the office without searching for untold hours. In some cases, this can mean that you have room to even expand your operations without having to move to bigger offices.
Document indexing saves money and time and increases productivity. These are all huge wins for the company. And they’re all positive factors that can be clearly demonstrated when discussing budgetary issues. In fact, the very files you need to prove the value of this system can be more easily found when the system is installed.
There is no longer a need to keep everything stacked on your desk for fear of losing it. With a document management software system, you can find things at the click of your mouse … oh, what a stress-free way to manage your paperwork!
If you’re wondering where your records really go, that becomes an easy question to answer with a few simple keystrokes when you opt for document indexing software.
You can better control and improve the whole process of document management so your company is more than capable of tackling whatever projects are put on its plate. Document indexing can free your staff to devote time to the really important work of doing their jobs, because all the filing hassles are now under control, both for today and for the future.
Some people have lots of different jobs throughout their working lives. Others stay with the same company for many years. The long-term people see a wide variety of technological changes. Sadly, some find it hard to keep up. To maintain longevity, companies need to find a way to bridge the generation gap, technologically speaking. And the right document management system can help them do that.
In a large company, especially, there are often staff members ranging in age anywhere from 18 to 65 years of age, or older. If you stop to consider what type filing systems older people may have begun using when they began working or joined the business, you can easily understand why it may be difficult for them to manage a newer, computer-based system.
On the other hand, you have the younger people in their late teens and twenties who have literally grown up attached to a cell phone and a laptop. They probably don’t like the older, more tedious style of document filing, so you could even have a higher rate of turnover than you would like to see for this very reason.
No matter the age, people think differently about how documents should be filed. Then it’s a matter if those files can be retrieved later by any employee in the company!
The future of any company depends, in part at least, on how well it changes with the times and how well it handles new technological changes. The younger staff members of today will be tomorrow’s CEOs. The only logical choice to help bridge this technological generation gap, in both age and ability, is to introduce a system that is easy to learn, easy to use, and quickly standardized throughout the company.
That means every single member of the team, from the youngest new start, to the most senior CEO or company director, will work together as a team to initiate the change in document management all at one time.
An indexing system that’s designed to allow you, as a company, to select the criteria for labeling your files is vital. However, merely using an alphabetical or numerical system is too confusing, simply because everyone thinks differently.
You must be able to choose your company’s own style and designate that to be the official way to label and file your business documentation. Then everyone can work together, easily add more documents to existing files without running out of room, have the ability to locate files simply by checking a computer or hard copy index, and be able to clear their desks at the end of the day.
Using an indexing system to maintain your corporate documents offers greater efficiency for your staff because it reduces the amount of time needed to file individual documents, as well as the time required to create new files and retrieve documents or files at a future date. This type system will save thousands of dollars and free up a lot more time for staff to focus on the more important aspects of their jobs. And better productivity typically ensures greater employee longevity for the company—meaning less turnover.
Technology can certainly replace some functions that were previously only carried out manually. However, technology shouldn’t stand in anyone’s way when it comes to work. More people are working to an older age due to the different economic climate in which we live today. Some of the more senior employees have a wealth of experience and are actually the mainstays of the company. It would be sad to see those same valuable employees feeling forced to retire simply because they couldn’t cope with new document management software or a system that was far too complicated for them to understand.
If you take the wealth of experience of those senior employees, and add that to the drive, enthusiasm and familiarity with new technologies afforded your younger team members, you have a powerful team. Add a document indexing system they can all understand will almost guarantee your company can stay strong and have that vital edge over its competitors—in this one area, at least.
How often have you, or one of your staff members, faced the issue of being unable to locate a specific document? Good record management is vital for any organization. Every department can be affected by how well documents are managed. That includes sales, customer service, maintenance, repair, dispatch, inventory management, accounting, and more.
Locating the information you need quickly to provide answers to your clients and customers, as well as to company employees who are handling various issues such as billing or customer care, can result in a happy ending when documents are managed properly. And a document indexing system, like The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System is the best way to do that.
So bridge the generation gap in your company by selecting a computerized file indexing system to manage your documents and paperwork. You’ll be able to offer better service to your customers, improve the productivity of your staff, and increase employee morale and longevity. That’s a win-win situation all around.
It does not matter what country you live in. Your sex and age are both irrelevant. Religion and race cannot alter the one thing everybody has in common. You only get 24 hours in a day. For businesses to increase profit without increasing expenditure, improve your productivity through better time management.
In every business there are jobs that staff enjoy. Then you have other jobs that are just as important, but staff and management do not particularly like doing. It is a proven fact that if you enjoy doing something, you do it well. Conversely, if you would rather not be doing something, you do it as quickly as possible and not usually in the most efficient manner.
The single biggest time waster in any business is record keeping/filing/document management. This is because most businesses use outdated systems that are no longer efficient. Staff generally hate the mundane tasks associated with record keeping and thousands of hours are wasted every year because everyone is too busy to spend time looking for a solution.
Stop looking! The answer is literally at your fingertips. The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System can free up hundreds, or even thousands, of hours currently being wasted using archaic filing systems. This is a company’s biggest hidden cost and is often overlooked. The best way for you to improve overall productivity and time management is through the utilization of a standardized indexing system.
No longer will staff make up their own minds about how to file things. Gone are the days of cluttered desks and documents being misplaced because people cannot be bothered taking the time to correctly file your important documents. You will no longer be forced to make uninformed major decisions because you could not locate a particular document at a crucial time.
The Paper Tiger is the right document management system and is easy to learn and implement because it blends in with whatever your current guidelines are. There will be a universal way of storing all documents so that everybody, from the CEO of the largest corporation to the newest girl in administration, can both file and locate any document at any time.
Simply make some decisions as to how you will name your files. They can be names, numbers or whatever combination you choose, then enter keywords and/or additional notes relating to each document.
Current files will be right at your fingertips whenever you need them. They can be kept in a desk drawer or a filing cabinet and the records are input into the software program for everyone to see and add to as required. This saves time if other people need a document from a file from anywhere in the office.
Older, archived files can be stored elsewhere, either on-site or off-site and still indexed in the exact same way. Anything not needed can be deleted or shredded. Gone are the days of cluttered desks, overflowing in-trays and piles of documents sitting wherever there is an empty space. A clean desk gives you more time to focus on the important work.
If you have 100 employees and each one saves one hour a day on filing, that equates to an extra 100 hours every day that can be used more productively. That is the equivalent of having an extra 12 people working for you each day. Productivity will soar without having to increase costs.
Imagine staff coming to work and sitting at clean desks each day. No more sad faces. There will be plenty of extra time to finish important tasks. Some data entry has to be done to manage their record keeping along the way, but not enough to get stressed about. Happier staff means less sick days and higher retention of current staff, which saves countless hours training new people.
An indexing document management software that is easy to learn, simple and quick to operate, and fits in without too much effort, will improve the time management skills of every single person in the company.
Record management is a vital part of any business and has to exist in one form or another. Utilizing the most efficient form of indexing means that you are meeting all the legal requirements of document retention. No more uninformed decisions because you cannot find the document you desperately needed for that last minute meeting. No more chasing receipts at tax time. Everything is fully indexed in your computer.
You can improve your productivity through better time management by changing the way you handle filing and document management. By making a small investment, increased productivity will save you hundreds or thousands of hours and dollars, both now and in the future.
No matter what business you’re running, there’s always the necessity of managing a complex series of documents, paper filing, forms and records over a long period of time. Document indexing is the smart way to manage these records and make the most efficient use of your time.
In a lot of workplaces, managing office documents is often done in a lazy, haphazard way and can become extremely confusing, frustrating and tedious-especially when more than one person is involved in the process! Some people view filing as a chore, and it can be time consuming. In busy offices, it can actually take weeks before some papers are filed properly. Almost everyone gives filing a low priority. We all know there has to be a better way to make document management less time consuming and more manageable … the key is in finding the filing system that works best for the individual or department.
Obviously, different offices keep their records in different ways. Some are filed alphabetical, others numerically. Some offices keep physical, hard copies, others go through the hassle and expense of scanning and storing documents electronically. Such a random variety of document management methods creates problems. One decision to make is how to store the files, and the second is how to know where they’re located once they’ve been stored.
Your document management system must be simple to understand and easy to use by everyone who needs access to office records. This may include the CEO, a project manager, a sales rep, or the daily temp brought in to replace a sick assistant. That’s why document indexing is the only logical solution to meet all these required criteria.
Using document management software to track and manage your office documents will help you organize your office, and the abundance of paperwork that flows through it. The task of handling paper becomes much easier and much less onerous. There’s no need for scanning-or buying the expensive equipment needed for scanning! No need to spend hours searching through files looking for a document you haven’t even seen for five years, but that all of a sudden you must have. You can index your documents and file as you go. This means you and the entire company staff has extra time for the more important tasks of the day. Productivity increases and money is saved when you choose document indexing to manage your filing systems.
The question you’re probably asking now is, “How does this system work?” The answer is simple. The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System is the most logical filing system you’ll find. You don’t use abbreviations or simply numbers to label your files, which takes the guesswork out of locating a needed file down the road. You choose the keywords-all the keywords-that make sense when you actually create a new file. (And you can add new keywords later as they occur to you.) Because a file is placed in the first available open file, there’s no longer a need to cram another file into an already overfilled file drawer. Then you can find a file, any file, with a quick keyword search when you need it.
You choose how to file your documents. Whether by client name or subject, location, contact person, project scope, or anything else you can think. Or better yet… all of these things! Whatever keywords you choose will allow you-and anyone else-to quickly and easily locate any file you need from then on. You can easily add everything associated with that file to the index, even if it’s located in another file folder. Because each file is keyword expandable, you’ll never run out of room and will be able to locate what you want, when you want it. Anytime.
Generally, there are three choices to make for the paper that comes across your desk. Act on it, file it, or throw it out. But some records need to be kept for years, or forever. These files can easily be moved to archived storage by simply changing the location notation in your file index. Even when the location of the file changes, you’ll easily know where every company file is at any time in case something needs to be retrieved or added to later on.
If you’re working on various sections of files on a daily or weekly basis, you can store those files close at hand. That may be in a desk drawer, a filing cabinet or on a nearby shelf, depending on the needs of your business. Current files can then still be accessible without causing huge piles of folders on your desk or office chair, simply because you need them and don’t have time to file and retrieve them often. And others aren’t wasting time looking for an important document they need to meet a 5 o’clock deadline because they can check the index to see where it’s located. Document indexing is a time saver and stress reducer for everyone concerned.
Because The Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System keeps track of every file’s location, and because it’s so easy to use, your entire team will increase their efficiency. They may even leave a clean desk at the end of the day. Nah … that may be asking for too much, even from document indexing software.
Do you waste time searching for documents that you know you have, but that you just can’t seem to find for the life of you? Maybe you filed a report in two different locations and can’t remember where you filed either one. Or maybe your assistant and you both handle your files, but do so differently and now no one can find anything anymore! Think of how many hours you and your employees waste every month searching for such documents; and then having to recreate them when they absolutely cannot be found. Some experts estimate it takes 25 hours or more to recreate every document that is lost! What a waste of time and manpower, not to mention the cost. But you don’t have to operate your office like this anymore. The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software offers a low-cost, efficient solution to alleviate these issues and help you organize your office paper files, once and for all.
If file management—or the lack thereof—is hindering your office productivity, maybe it’s time for a document management solution that really works. The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software empowers you and your staff with the ability to control your company’s paper flow from your very own computer, thereby ending a multitude of wasted hours searching for, and then recreating, lost documents; and alleviating the frustration and confusion associated with that chore.
You can tame your paper files once and for all without adding expensive equipment, scanning every document that crosses your desk, or trying to memorize a complicated new filing system. Simply download a free trial of The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software, install it on your computer, set up a few files, and see how efficient and easy-to-use this filing system really is.
You’ll be free to spend more time actually working and earning a profit than you do searching for documents and files. This revolutionary file management system will save you countless hours of frantic searches for critically important documents. It is estimated that you can waste over 150 hours per year, just looking for lost information.
Imagine how much more work you, and every employee in your company, can accomplish in much less time when you don’t have to play the document search game every day.
For years the alphabetical filing system was the only known, logical method for managing files in both homes and offices. But now, with a computer sitting on every desktop, you can begin immediately to benefit from this revolutionary document management system that is so much easier to use. Don’t you hate trying to stuff one more file folder in between already overloaded file drawers, and then trying to remember how you filed that document later … was it by the company name, or the CEO, or maybe the industry? Oh, the frustration of mismanaged and complicated file systems!
The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software removes that stress from your life by allowing you to customize your document management system to suit your personal and company needs and to work the way your memory functions — as well as others in the company.
For instance, let’s say you have a file on Company XYZ whose owner is Mr. JKL, and who has two locations in Meridian, MS and Alvin, TX. With an alphabetical system, you might have to create four files just to keep the data straight and know where to find the information when you need it! Not so with The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software.
Enter your file information in The Paper Tiger software using keywords for the company name, the owner, and each location the company owns. Then file your information in one location, behind the last file you created, without worrying about stuffing the folder into an already cramped file drawer (and suffering untold paper cuts in the process!)… and voila! Your instant, easy, file management system is in place.
Now, when you need the file again, simply pull up the document index on your computer (or the one you printed so you’d have a paper copy, if you prefer), search for one of your keywords—the company name, owner, or location—get the location of the file, and there you have it. You’ve just found what you needed in a mater of three to five seconds!
Your document management system isn’t limited to just a few keywords, either. You can use any number of keywords or phrases that you might eventually think of when trying to find a document again. Any word or phrase that will help you remember a file, even any words remotely associated with that document, can be entered as a keyword. In fact, the more keywords or phrases you use, the easier it will be to locate your document later, since all entries are cross-referenced for ease of retrieval.
Another nice thing about The Paper Tiger is that anyone can pull up the index and find the files as easily as the person who set up the filing system. So if an employee is out sick one day, or even leaves the company, your document management system won’t suffer while another employee is trained to manage the files. Anyone can find files quickly and easily with this document management system.
The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software is the easiest, most efficient, and most cost-effective method for managing your files and documents. But you don’t have to take our word for it! Download a free trial of the software today and see for yourself. We’re sure if you do that you’ll never want to go back to alphabetical filing again. Cumbersome, expensive document scanning as a “file management system”? Well … we don’t even want to go there.
If you’ve been considering a document management system such as The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software, you may be wondering what kind of return on investment (ROI) you can expect. When you implement The Paper Tiger document management filing system, you can expect to quickly see a reduction in a variety of your company’s costs.
These expenses include specific hard dollar amounts saved by a reduction in the number of lost documents and files that must be recreated, as well as the extended time spent locating them; and reduced labor costs and wages involved in creating, maintaining, managing and retrieving documents and files.
In addition, there are countless soft dollar costs that offer tangible savings. These include such increased efficiency and employee productivity, improved decision making because the tools (files and documents) required to make those decisions are more readily available, and even the ability to get your products to market quicker because of your increased office efficiency.
Add to these benefits, the reduction in stress and frustration associated with lost or misplaced files, and the interruption of the work day when overfilled filing cabinets require unplanned reorganization in order to make room for necessary folders, and you begin to recognize tangible savings almost immediately.
While you’re the only one who can determine the true dollar value associated with accelerating the time to market for your products or services, we can offer some work flow considerations that will assist you in calculating the ROI for your business and individual situation.
Going beyond basic document management or work flow reduction by combining a more efficient document management system with greater flexibility that offers increased employee morale will allow you to raise your ROI even more.
The level of efficiency and stress in the workplace have a dramatic effect on employee productivity, and subsequently on ROI. Be sure to factor them in when comparing the cost of The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software against other solutions.
In addition, you’ll want to include every hard dollar and soft dollar cost, such as the aforementioned employee morale, physical location of files, supplies and equipment needed, labor involved, ease of retrieval, and similar considerations.
Consider these potential expenses in order to calculate your ROI:
• How many company employees require access to files or documents, or are involved with managing the filing system in your office?
• What is the average annual salary of each of those employees?
• How much estimated time does each of those employees spend searching for files or documents every month?
• How many confidential files and documents are mishandled due to unauthorized access?
It’s estimated that most companies waste over half of every dollar spent handling records due to lack of efficiency and duplication of efforts.
• How much estimated time do each of your employees spend every month duplicating or reprinting files or documents for easier access with colleagues and supervisors rather than storing them in a central office filing location for easy retrieval?
These figures will help you calculate the labor and employee hours associated with managing your company’s document management and filing system.
Now consider the cost of duplication of lost files and documents:
Over seven percent of all documents a company produces are estimated to be lost, and approximately three percent of the remaining documents are typically misfiled. This requires an average company to spend over 25 hours for each file that must be recreated due to lost or misplaced documents!
• How much estimated time does each employee spend recreating or reproducing lost documents every month?
• How much does your company spend every month on paper, file folders, file labels and other materials needed strictly for recreating or reproducing lost documents?
• How much additional money is spent to run copiers, printers and fax machines, as well as the added maintenance, ink and toner on all of this equipment, strictly to recreate or reproduce lost documents?
• How much is spent on telephones and faxes required to replace those lost or misplaced documents?
• What about postage, shipping, envelopes and other mailing supplies, as well as labor associated with handling files specifically duplicated and replaced because of loss or misfiling?
In addition, there are other costs to consider depending on the document management system chosen, such as:
• Additional file cabinets and storage space needed to keep files in alphabetical order, or to store bulky disks along with original documents.
• Labor required to reorganize and redistribute files as file cabinets fill.
In Search of Answers: Enterprise Search and the High Performance Business by Accenture Information Management Services reports that workers can reduce their time spent searching for needed information and recreating lost documents by 15 to 30 percent using a more efficient document management system.
There are many costs associated with traditional document management systems, but thankfully, there is a solution to help alleviate and reduce many of these costs and increase a company’s ROI exponentially.
The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software is one of the most efficient and cost-effective document management systems available; and it can save your company thousands of dollars when you implement this efficient, easy-to-use indexing filing system for your company’s document management needs.
Download your free trial now and see for yourself!
If you’ve researched “document management systems” on the Internet recently, you probably discovered that most people assume that phrase means only the process of scanning your documents, creating electronic files and managing those files on the computer. That simply is not the case.
While scanning and maintaining image files is one way to manage your company’s documents and paperwork, it’s not the only document management system available—nor is it even the best, most efficient, or most cost effective. Currently, it may be the most widely recognized definition of that phrase, but we hope to change that misconception!
A document management system, in the truest and simplest definition of the term, is a system used to manage documents. Whatever form that system takes.
Remember the traditional alphabetical filing system that everyone thought was the only way to file for hundreds of years? It’s a simplified document management system.
Then came the numerical system, which never quite caught on in the general public, but did fit the bill for some companies. That, too, is a document management system.
And then office managers got smart and combined the two, which is very effective for doctor’s offices and such. Guess what it’s called? You got it. A document management system.
Whatever system you use to manage your files is a document management system by the most simplistic definition. Does that mean the way you manage your files is the most effective, most efficient or most cost effective method? Not necessarily.
If you go back to that search engine and research the most economical document management system, you may be surprised. One of the largest hidden costs many businesses face is the cost associated with managing the paper in their offices.
Anyone who has ever dealt with office filing realizes what a chore it is. You must not only to decide how to file a document, but where, and then find a location in the proper sequence for the file. In addition, you must be able to quickly locate the file when it’s needed again. The labor costs alone can add up in a hurry.
For instance, let’s say it takes a $15 per hour employee five minutes to walk to the filing cabinet, search for and locate a needed file, retrieve the information required, replace the file, and return to her desk. If she must take the file with her to gather additional information, she will then need to return to the file cabinet and replace the file as well so the time may be longer, but five minutes is an easy figure to work with.
Assuming she handles a mere five files a day—and many employees handle many more!—that’s a total of over 108 hours every year that one employee spends filing. At $15 an hour, that costs the company over $1,600 a year—for filing! Double that to ten files per day, and those totals jump to 216 hours and $3,200… For one employee’s time filing! (And how many employees do you have?)
With a computerized file index like The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software, that employee could locate the needed file before ever leaving her desk, which would reduce her filing time considerably. Add to that the convenience of being able to place a file in the next open filing slot without the need to rearrange files, or squeeze in “just one more” folder, and you’ve got a much more efficient and cost effective document management system.
Such a document management system would also eliminate the costs associated with lost documents that must be recreated when they can’t be found. Some experts consider this can cost up to $250 per file!
Remember that scanning system that everyone seems to think is the only computerized method for filing available? Not only does it not save time—we’ve all suffered the “What did I call that document on my computer? Blues,” and spent hours trying to locate a file—but that system can run into thousands of dollars to implement.
By the time a quality scanner and additional disk storage space are purchased, added to the cost of employee labor, the price to implement such a system can be prohibitive. Not to mention its sheer bulk and lack of efficiency.
So, what’s a company to do?
Try The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System Software!
Not only will the easy-to-use computerized document index allow you to locate files quickly and easily with a simple keyword search, but the ease of implementation is incredible.
You can start with as few, or as many, of your files as you like by simply creating your index and printing the accompanying labels. Then, as you add new files, simply add them to your index and you’re on your way to a more efficient and cost-effective document management solution.
The Paper Tiger is the most efficient, cost effective, and convenient document management system you can find. Download a free trial today and see if you don’t agree!
