The following information demonstrates why document management software is essential. This is a breakdown of actual costs by a water utility company that was not using document management software. One of the largest issues that this company faced was lost documents needed for regular business operations—a problem that document management software solves. Without document management software, the company struggled with document preservation and retrieval.
Hard Supply Costs:
- Folders and labels—$500
- Paper—$983
- Ink—$6,113
- Maintenance costs:
- For B&W printer/copier—$2,148
- For color printer/copier—$1,880
TOTAL SUPPLY COSTS (not including maintenance)—$7,596.
Implementing document management software and going paperless will eliminate approximately 85% of these costs. Document management software eliminates the need for physical storage, printing, and manual document handling.
TOTAL SUPPLY SAVINGS—Approximately $7,772.50
Third-Party Advisors Costs:
- Attorney charges to find documents—$1,675
- Miles reimbursement to employees for trips to the courthouse—$1,276.50
- Calculated based on 37 trips to the courthouse totaling 2,220 miles, reimbursed at $0.575 per mile.
- Employee wages during the retrieval of courthouse documents—$1,387.50
- Calculated based on an average of 1.5 hours for each trip, totaling 55.5 hours. Average salary is $52,000 or $25 per hour.
- Cost of time spent searching for files—13 employees spend time searching for files with an average salary of $52,000 per year or $25 per hour. Each employee spends an average of 2.5 hours per week on file searching. (This does not include time spent on searching for lost or misfiled documents. If this were included the time spent would be much higher.)
- Cost per employee per week—$62.50
- Cost for all employees per week—$812.50
TOTAL ANNUAL COST OF EMPLOYEE WAGES ON SEARCHING FOR FILES—$42,250
- Opportunity Cost: The opportunity cost is usually difficult for businesses to assess, but easier for them to recognize once the transition to document management software has been made. With document management software in place, organizations can reach more clients, complete more projects quickly, and achieve better employee efficiencies.
- Cost of Damaged Documents from Fire, Flood, and Other Natural Disasters: The majority of businesses whose documents are destroyed are out of business in less than 2 years, with 25% never reopening after the catastrophic event.
- Other Costs to Consider:
- The average filing cabinet costs $25,000 to fill and $2,000 a year to maintain.
- Did you know that 25% of lost paper documents are never found?
- Companies misfile an average of 20% of their files and lose 1 in 20 documents.
- The average office worker uses 10,000 pieces of paper per year.
- The average organization spends $20 per paper to file it, $120 searching for each lost document, and $220 in the recreation of the document.
- Additional costs include the storage space.
TOTAL HARD COST OF PAPER—$54,350
Revver's document management software is able to save you tens of thousands of dollars each year. This document management software replaces manual processes with automated document handling. With document management software like Revver, documents can be retrieved in seconds instead of 15 or more minutes. With document management software, documents are no longer lost or misfiled, as they can be searched for and found through any of the many items of information on the document. This document management software capability ensures that critical information is always accessible.
Documents can be found by document type: Right of Way, Easement, Customer Service Agreement, and Maintenance Service documents. Documents can also be pulled by client name, property address, and date of agreement. This makes finding the applicable documents fast and easy with document management software.
