Corporate Spring Cleaning

Much like the cluttered basement or the garage that can no longer serve its stated purpose of parking cars, procrastinators seem to always point to spring as a time to restore order in their world. Corporations are no different. Most businesses know instinctively that the concept of a file room is outdated, inefficient, costly and frankly dangerous. Ask yourself this simple question:

If this file cabinet, file shelf or file box were burned or otherwise destroyed, would it negatively impact my business?

If the answer is "yes", you just exposed the dangerous part of this question. But beyond that, what leverage would you have if the information contained in those files was immediately available to all authorized people in your organization?

The example that comes to mind is the attorney that thinks there may be an important point of precedence that was part of an earlier case file. Yes, it's important and might prove pivotal in the current case. But the time and expense to retrieve the file from Iron Mountain or some other paper repository is not justified by the hope that a legal pearl may exist within those archives. Now suppose that the time to check for that nugget of information was seconds instead of days. Being able to make queries like "show me every document that discusses the pipe wrench that killed Colonel Mustard" is quick to the point of trivial. That is how information contained in your document library can be leveraged to the advantage of the business enterprise.

The return on investment (ROI) calculation is simple. If you pay to make the final resting place for your documents be some "safe" off-site warehouse the size of a football field, then by the time you have stored those documents for 3 to 4 years, you would have paid more (even factoring present value of dollars to future) than if you scanned the documents and instituted a life cycle management program of document retention yourself. And if you actually retrieve and then re-file any of those stored boxes of paper, the ROI comes down to much less than 3 years due to the confiscatory fees that are charged for such services.

Now add to the straight ROI calculation the intangible but very real value of having all that information at your finger tips and the decision to clean up your document management garage should be a no brainer.

The number one objection to getting this done is usually the up-front cost. Even though the ROI calculation shows that over time you spend less and get more, there is no way to take away the fact that scanning of documents is a labor intensive process. You have to convert from paper to digital before any benefits can be realized. Many of our customers have said they would "gladly pay us tomorrow for a hamburger today"! PaperHost has listened. We know cash flows are tight, but we want to keep our excellent document production staff busy and employed. That is why PaperHost is actively working deals to allow our customers to get started today and spread the cost over may months or even years.

Of course the best way to get rid of document clutter is to never create it in the first place. PaperHost can work with companies to eliminate the need to print information on paper. That mean's intercepting data before it reaches the printer and allowing paper documents to be delivered as PDF files or go directly to document archives. Call us to learn more. But to the extent that paper will remain a part of your business work flow, we can help engineer the most efficient way to keep active documents available on-line and old documents available on optical media with free software to insure that your entire printed history remains available and retrievable forever.

It is gratifying to see companies embrace document management standards of excellence. Most find that a blend of scanning services with on-line hosting and long term optical retention is all they need to realize the benefits discussed above. But PaperHost enjoys taking next steps with our customers by finding ways to lift data from forms and documents, design workflows, build customer portals for accessing and viewing documents and much more. Once you start down the road to intelligent document management, you find more and more ways to leverage your valuable document assets.

- Jim Coyle

Document Indexing: Adding new dimensions to document management

Document management has indeed come a long way. It’s pretty rare that you see rolodexes, segmented folders and such archaic document management solutions these days. Organizations that have traditionally used these outdated systems for document storage and retrieval have found it to be extremely difficult and unorganized. Organizations that are still using these systems are far behind in the world of technology.

By using our document indexing solution, you will be able to solve many of the storage and retrieval problems inherent in outdated filing systems while simultaneously reducing business costs. We offer the NEWEST technology in scanning and indexing using document preparation and coding, online indexing, and automated data lifting. When the work is done, completed batches are released directly to PaperHost. Within minutes, you can access your documents online, worldwide. Unlike a paper filing cabinet, it’s easy to search for specific information. You are able to search any index field and print the specific report you need. All of this is delivered for a single license per work station with no per click fees.

PaperHost stands ready to shepherd your company through the process of upgrading to this highly beneficial system. Outsourcing will provide the absolute highest quality document scanning and indexing services to be found anywhere and you will receive this high level of accuracy at competitive market rates.

When you start to fully realize the power and flexibility of a digital online document library, we can take you even farther. PaperHost can help you design and implement all manner of data capture, barcode indexing, document workflow and so much more.

No Snow Days for Companies Utilizing PaperHost!

This winter has been a wild one! A couple weeks ago, the entire Southeast was practically snowed in. No work or school, roads closed, icicles hanging from the eaves. After paralyzing the Southeast, the snowstorm moved up the Eastern seaboard through New England, where productivity was impeded as well.

Most people filled their days with movies, Internet, video games and food instead of day-to-day business affairs. However, PaperHost and the companies utilizing our service were able to continue working through the snow. Our clients could convert their homes into a work environment. With our web-based service, we allow companies to remain focused on their own core competencies instead of building complex, capital intensive in-house alternatives. Our clients understand the benefits of outsourcing their document management and document hosting requirements to a company that is driven to deliver a fast, reliable and secure online platform for the management of their most valuable business documents.

With document hosting, your company’s files can be easily and securely accessed online — no matter where you are. As documents, originally electronic or scanned images, are uploaded to your document repository, they become available within seconds to the authorized users that you create and manage. No-doubt PaperHost helped many people not miss a day of work!

Next time wintery weather comes knocking, be prepared with on-demand service delivered quickly by PaperHost!

Join our growing family of companies that now enjoy the savings and the flexibility of web-based document management and document hosting while preserving precious capital needed to grow your business!

Case Study: A national bank

There are many different industries that benefit from our document hosting services every day. Today, we’re profiling a national bank for which we’re managing approximately 35,000 wire transfer agreements per month from over 500 locations.

Currently, each location maintains these agreements on-site. Not only do all these documents take up a great deal of space, it’s a nightmare and a huge liability in terms of risk management. With the current system, it’s nearly impossible to track who authorized the agreement and whether the agreement was actually completed.

The bank decided this paper-based system is simply unacceptable when there are corporate customers transferring large sums of money. On the PaperHost platform, the bank can now validate that the agreement was completed with a confirmation number. Organization is crucial!

We’ve set up 10 fax numbers that we monitor to ensure there’s never a busy signal, so we can process 150 faxes simultaneously.

When the fax of the wire transfer agreement comes in, we receive the image and run it through our Automated Data Capture to lift information from five critical fields. We then load this content onto PaperHost so it is searchable by any authorized member of the bank.

These documents will be housed on the secure PaperHost platform for seven years. With 35,000 agreements at six pages each, that’s 210,000 pages per month for seven years – or 17.6 million pages total, which constitutes half a terabyte. That’s a lot of paper for which these bank locations no longer need to allot storage space!

With all this information loaded and processed by PaperHost, we’re also able to provide analytics on the data. In the case of the bank, the central wire transfer department can download a custom data file in order to perform analytics for the transfers from all their locations.

By having PaperHost manage the flow of these agreements, the loss of a wire transfer agreement is greatly reduced without adding additional personnel. Our mission: Eliminate legal liability while streamlining the organization process.

Learn more about what PaperHost can do for your business at www.PaperHost.com or contact us direct at 800-882-3573.

What makes PaperHost the best choice for business?

Learn more about PaperHost and how we can help your business:

Evidence: Store it, Share it, Keep it

Photos, video, audio recordings — these are crucial pieces of evidence gathered by our Private Investigators. But if the DA or others associated with the case can’t use them, what’s the point?

What if the PI could allow certain parties limited access to certain documents and other components necessary for building a case?

In the past the PI would have to burn a CD consisting of relevant material, and mail it to the interested party. However, this can result in many problems:

• The CD could be damaged in transit.
• It could easily fall into the wrong hands.
• The documents can be difficult and time-consuming to encrypt.
• The CD might not be compatible with everyone’s software.

But with PaperHost, we store all the components on a secure server where the PI can grant special access as needed. The PI can grant full access or allow someone to only access one piece of evidence, their choice.

Don’t create a paper trail. Instead, learn more about all of our capabilities to securely host any sort of document for you. Find out more on our website or give us a call at 800-882-3573.

Say goodbye to file cabinets!

You’ve just sent out a bunch of forms such as contracts or agreements. They get filled out and returned, but what do you do when they are received?

That’s what file cabinets are for, of course! But wait, most businesses have limited space for files so they’re thrown out after so much time. And say you want to actually do something with information in those forms – someone has to manually type it up into a spreadsheet or another application.

No more! Our data capture service will take your received forms and create a database by lifting list-based or repeating data elements from documents. This process saves you time, money and eliminates potential human error.

We even make document submission easy for you. We’ll create a toll-free or local fax number and set up an email address so we can receive both electronic and paper forms.

The technological wow-factor doesn’t end there.

We can send confirmation to the location responsible for that form, letting them know it was received and processed – we can even send them a link to view the submitted document. No more worrying if anything got lost in electronic limbo.

And because these documents are stored through our secure website, there’s no reason for frantic searches of the file room for a specific file. Say an attorney needs to reference a particular contract; you can seamlessly give them access to that file.

We can even easily integrate with your existing applications to “Image Enable” them using our API White Paper. There is no expensive programming or customization required.

Rummaging through stacks of files is a thing of the past. Let us help your business step into the future.

Sound like a pleasant, paper-free solution for your business? Learn more at www.PaperHost.com or give us a call at 800-882-3573 to get started.

Scanning Documents is Only Half the Battle

So you’ve been persuaded to go paperless.

Maybe your office is joining the green movement or taking part in the digital revolution. Whatever your reasoning, you now feel comfortable knowing that all your company documents have been scanned into a digital format.

But did you know that scanning is only half the process?

If your scanned files are gathering dust on a server somewhere, waiting there in case of an emergency, then your digital data is only being used to a fraction of its potential.

Through a well-executed document management system, information retrieval is a breeze. Your document library can also be optimized for comprehensive indexing, allowing for quick keyword searches as well as complex queries.

Use this indexed information to create custom reports and graphs from your digital data. You may even allow clients to access certain documents via password, eliminating the go-between.

For larger more text driven documents such as legal agreements, correspondence or medical studies, your documents can be run through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine. This enables searching by any word, phrase or even word proximity searches across your entire library of documents. Once inside the document, the exact instances can be located and accessed with hyperlinks to quickly navigate to the exact verbiage that needs reviewing.

These features are tailored to fit seamlessly into your business environment, and the entire PaperHost system can be customized to closely match your company’s specific business practices.

Employees easily find the information they need; work gets completed faster, and your whole workflow system becomes streamlined for greater efficiency.

More and more offices are going paperless for a reason—because that digital database provides a valuable resource, which if strategically applied, can enhance business processes on a daily basis.

So if you’ve already made the leap into digital, don’t just let those files sit. PaperHost can help you put them to use for your business! And if your organization hasn’t been through the scanning process, PaperHost can get you started.

Learn more about how PaperHost can manage the entire lifecycle of your digital assets at www.PaperHost.com or contact us direct at 800-882-3573.