Identifying A Document Management Solution - In-House vs. Hosted Solutions

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Identifying A Document Management Solution - In-House vs. Hosted Solutions
Before we get started, some of you may be asking what is document management?

Document Management is the ability to manage each one of your paper documents in an electronic format. Let's define "paper documents in electronic format".

Generally, there are two types of document management systems, either an in-house solution, or an outsourced hosted solution.

So, which one will best match your needs? Excellent question. Most companies base their decision on readily available staff to keep these systems, and the technical abilities of those staff members. Cost of a solution is also a deciding aspect. While the cost of an in-house solution is higher up front, having the technical staff to support it, it typically pays off in the long run due to the computed Return On Investment (ROI). The lower cost of a hosted solution is appealing to lots of companies due to the fact that this solution puts the technical duties on the solution provider. It's also beneficial because a lot of these solutions are web-based. While some companies can genuinely gain from the hosted solution, lots of can not due to confidentiality of the details consisted of within their organization.

Finding a solution to fit your company's needs can be a time consuming venture. We advise you first determine what solution fits your organization best, then shop for a solution with the features best matched to your business needs.

How much workplace can I save? Excellent question. It relies on the amount of paper files you have taking up your valuable workplace.

In most offices, there are filing cabinets everywhere. We've become attached and dependant on our paper files. Since most companies are mandated to hold their records from 3 to 7 years, that adds up to an exhaustive amount of paper needed to be kept and saved. Where do you save it? In your office? A records storage company? What are those costs? All these questions lead this topic in a new direction. Why are you keeping these records in paper format? Why not an electronic format?

OK, let's look at some data. But before we do that, let's set the conventional office environment so we have a reference point to start from. Now for the breakdown:

A normal filing cabinet drawer holds about 3000 pages when full.
So a full 4 drawer cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

A lateral file drawer holds about twice or 50 % more files.
So a full 2 drawer lateral cabinet holds about 12000 pages.

The Basic Math

Ok, now that we know what we have in the space of our filing cabinets, let's look at space on storage media.

A conventional 8 1/2 x 11 page scanned at 200x200 DPI (dots per inch) meanses 50k in size (average).
There is 1024k in 1 megabyte of space.
There are 700 megabytes of space on a CD.
There are 4,700 megabytes of space on a DVD.

Ok, here's the basic math.

1,024 k (1 megabyte) divided by 50k (conventional scanned document) = 20.48 documents per megabyte.
700 megabytes (1 CD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 14,000 documents per CD.
4,700 megabytes (1 DVD) x 20 (scanned images per megabyte) = 94,000 documents per DVD.

So here are the truths.

1 CD = 1 filing cabinet full of paper documents (12,000 documents).
1 DVD = 7 filing cabinets full of paper documents (84,000 documents).

As soon as these documents are scanned and positioned on a CD or DVD (write as soon as only media) they become legal documents that can be archived and retrieved later in the event you want to print, fax, or email them.


Cost of a solution is also a deciding aspect. While the cost of an in-house solution is higher up front, having the technical staff to support it, it typically pays off in the long run due to the computed Return On Investment (ROI). The lower cost of a hosted solution is appealing to lots of companies due to the fact that this solution puts the technical duties on the solution provider. It's also beneficial in that most of these solutions are web-based. While some companies can genuinely benefit from the hosted solution, lots of can not due to confidentiality of the details consisted of within their organization.