What is a Managed Document Service?

Optimising the document infrastructure of your business is one of the best ways to ensure a streamlined workflow and increased efficiency. A Managed Document Service is the application of technology to save paper, speed up communications, and increase the productivity of business processes (1). These services optimise the workflows of both printed and electronic documents, and help businesses cut down on costs, save paper and increase employee productivity. Covering a combination of paper, hybrid and fully digital document services, a well-implemented Managed Document Service should manage the entire lifecycle of your documents, from creation through to distribution. It should also help to streamline your organisation, and facilitate your employees accessing documents in a variety of ways from anywhere. Why does your company need a Managed Document Service? Rising costs, such as property, are making it harder for UK businesses to operate. As recently as April 2019 it was reported that more UK business is now suffering from cashflow issues than those that aren’t (2). As such, businesses are taking a holistic view to consider how they can improve their processes. But it isn’t just cost that drives businesses to review their document management. Businesses are constantly evolving. Increasing levels of automation, accelerated business planning cycles and greater awareness of security and compliance have all led to a period of business infrastructure and processes being redefined. That’s why more and more companies are reconsidering how they manage their documents. Managed Document Services are often implemented alongside your existing organisational infrastructure. The entire ecosystem of a business is taken into account, everything from people and process through to business goals and environmental policies. Existing equipment, such as scanners and multi-functional devices (providing they are the right spec), could act as an access point to company-wide workflows when combined with a range of storage solutions or process software. By introducing scan-to-workflow, archiving, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) amongst other solutions, you can drastically reduce the amount of time and cost taken to manage documents. Learn more about the power of digitisation. MDS isn’t always about ripping up your office environment and starting again. It can equally be about redefining and optimising your current infrastructure to maximise your efficiency. The best route is usually determined by undertaking an audit of your current document landscape, and your workplace environment. How can SCC Managed Print and Document Services help? Before implementation of any solution, we assess your existing print and document infrastructure and determine the most appropriate solution that meets your needs. Whether you remain with paper or migrate to a hybrid or fully digital document service, your solution is bespoke to the needs of your working environment. Our proven IT and cloud connectivity, and vendor independence enable us to specify the most appropriate solutions to integrate with your current environment and minimise disruption. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your company to progress, please visit our solutions page.