Nearly Paperless Office Solution

e-Advantage Solutions Ltd are looking to see how to bring the eLink Advantage nearly paperless office business management system to other businesses.

The key is in the word "Nearly". Scan in one copy and keep it in the eLink Advantage document management solution. That way everyone can look at it, if they need to, and it’s all done electronically not by passing everyone a photocopy (originally carbon copy) to read and file. Your emails fit in as if they were borne to it.

The main principle of our approach is that we don't change anything, we just keep 'key documents' as we always used to, Key documents being purchase invoices (where delivered in hard copy) plus important letters, signed contracts and bank statements. The main thrust is therefore to capitalise on getting everything electronic and we did this on a case by case basis.

e-Advantage Solutions Ltd started with sales invoices as these are prepared electronically, all that was necessary was to make sure that they were filed logically for everyone's use, secured as ‘read-only’ and to ensure there is a permanent back-up.

The next category was contracts and important letters. So simple, scanned in and filed attached to the relevant companies, contacts and projects. All the original paper documents filed in one file and kept in date order and archived.

Next were the Purchase Invoices and as the vast majority of these arrive electronically it is fairly simple to scan the remainder. All the documents are held in the eLink Advantage business management system, just one integrated system so that the whole team (subject to permissions) can see what they need without going to a filing cupboard or having to keep their own copy.

The final keystone to the system is the permanent copy, well actually the final copy is still available on paper, so we're not paperless we are 'nearly paperless'. This route saves satisfying the full BS standards for document management as those are predicated on the assumption that the documents are actually destroyed, whereas in the eLink Advantage solution we keep the original.

One of our clients uses the document filing facility so that he can work on them in the office (in Kent) or he can work on them at home (in Sussex) or when he's staying in hotels (anywhere). As a result he's got control of everything that needs to be done and has now been able to grow his business with confidence.

The benefits created by the eLink Advantage ‘nearly paperless office’ solution include:

• Security of your corporate knowledge base, indeed the very creation of your knowledge base

• Availability of the corporate information anywhere anytime, subject to authorisation

• Faster access to useful information for all your executives, and therefore

• Improved productivity

• Fewer mistakes

• Improved customer relationships, leading to

• Improved sales turnover

• Improved profitability

If you have an office or admin problem just ask us how we can deal with it.

The system stands on its own as your nearly paperless office administration solution or because of the interconnection with other modules available within the eLink Advantage business management system, it can be used as a starting point for a more comprehensive business management solution.

Your initial solution can be amended and extended by you on-demand, live on your system at any time, it will grow and adapt to match how your organisation grows and adapts to your market needs.