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The advantages of document imaging software system |
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What can you expect from a document imaging software system? First of all, the things you do every day -- tracking employee time to jobs, assessing job progress through reports and checklists, understanding how materials are being used, and responding to partner needs such as change orders and payments on invoices -- should move more quickly, and have a level of accuracy greater, than what you previously experienced. (The previous section of our buyers guide identified several business processes you can investigate to determine if you should buy a document imaging software system.)
A second expected benefit would be faster and more accurate decision making. When documents and data are kept up to date, decisions are based upon the most recent information. Being able to see how others in the decision chain have responded provides a greater depth of understanding to any issue. (Document imaging software systems support keyword searches, so employees can more quickly locate the information they are looking for.)
In the third instance, increased transparency across the enterprise, and beyond, provides a detailed audit trail and, ultimately, leads to fewer disputes. That same transparency also helps corral costs, since there is more knowledge about what everybody is doing, while the impacts of project risks are much more quickly known.
Additionally, as more AEC businesses begin to leverage business intelligence gathering and analysis, having this knowledge available becomes increasingly important. Doing a search on all invoices submitted by a particular subcontractor to create a report that helps you analyze materials cost trends will yield less-than desired results if you can’t access all the invoices when you run the report.
Finally, at the close of the project, the handover of knowledge about the project is practically finished already, since all files have been saved to the document imaging software system. Items such “as-builts” don’t disappear into the wings until people have the time to finish them.
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