Document management in the digital age: electronic filing systems are no longer only a big-business solution for managing paper documents
Author: OfficeSolutions

This may be the 21st century, but things haven't turned out quite the way some people expected. Commuters don't zoom through the sky in one-person air cars like George Jetson. Humans don't have a base on the moon. And offices are still drowning in paper.

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"The paperless society still hasn't happened," says John Ciulla, vice president of Enterprise Records Management Services, a division of Xerox Global Services. "If anything, the volume of paper records seems to grow every day, forcing employees to deal with information overload in both digital and hard-copy format."

Despite the continued use of paper, and to some degree because of it, digital document management seems to be taking on a new level of acceptance. In fact, electronic filing systems are taking hold in all types of organizations. Whether this means converting paper records to digital form or organizing documents that are created electronically in the first place, systems for storing and referring documents are becoming more common and less costly.

"Document imaging is a growing trend in businesses that are required to save documentation or files indefinitely," says Gordon Bridge, president and CEO of CM IT Solutions, an Austin, Texas, firm offering technology solutions through franchises in 32 states. "Businesses are understanding the power of digital document storage as more companies begin to acquire the method as a standard practice."