How Much Are Your Outdated Content Management Processes Costing You?

In 2022, inflation reached a new 40-year high when it exceeded 9%. Between this and the threat of a recession looming over the U.S., businesses are grasping onto ways to cut costs and improve financial stability.

But how can your organization achieve this? That’s the ultimate question.

Gartner found that 78% of chief financial officers are planning to either maintain or increase investments in digital transformation technology through 2023 to become more financially stable amid economic challenges. And since documents and data are at the heart of most – if not all – business processes, your content management process is a great place to start. You might be surprised by just how much your manual, paper-based content management processes are costing your organization and how much digital ones can save you.

Real Estate Costs

Storing paper-based documents in your office is an inefficient (and costly) use of real estate.

Let’s do the math: a standard 4-drawer filing cabinet can take up 17 square feet of office space, which includes the size of the unit plus the amount of space needed to access the files inside. If you’re paying $38 per square foot for office space—the average U.S. office listing rate in 2022—a single filing cabinet costs you nearly $700 a month. That’s roughly $8,000 a year…for one filing cabinet.

This isn’t a good use of the space you’re paying for, especially if you’ve transitioned to a remote work model as so many businesses have over the last few years.

A content management process upgrade could be the strategy your business needs to reduce real estate costs. With a combination of document scanning services and enterprise content management software, you can eliminate the need for any filing cabinets at all. Your employees can access the files they need online. This means if you have transitioned to a fully remote work model and are only paying for your office space because you need to store physical files, you can do away with real estate costs completely.

Labor Costs

In addition to high real estate costs, manual document management processes drive labor costs up.

Consider the amount of time your employees spend searching for the files they need among folders upon folders stored in cabinets upon cabinets. According to an Asana report, employees only spend 40% of their time on skilled and strategic work. That means that for more than half of the work day, your staff is completing mundane, time-consuming tasks like searching for information. This results in the need for more employees to complete projects in the timeframes required.

But fear not – you can free up your staff’s time and reduce labor costs with the right document management software solution. A best-in-class cloud document management system will provide your workers with easy access to documents. They’ll no longer need to sift through folders. They can simply conduct a quick online search and – voila! – the document they need will be provided to them instantaneously. You can give your staff back the time they need to complete more valuable tasks, eliminate the need to hire more employees, and, ultimately, reduce labor expenses.

Turnover Costs

Not only does digitizing your files reduce costly office space and time wasted on manual tasks, but it can also improve employee satisfaction and retention, which reduces turnover expenses.

In today’s business world, the option to work remotely is an important element people take into consideration when finding a new job or deciding whether to stay at a company or not. A recent report found that 70% of respondents prefer flexible remote work options. This means enabling remote work is key for organizations to attract and retain talent – and, as a result, reduce turnover. With the cost of replacing an employee sitting at one and a half to two times the employee’s annual salary, this can result in significant savings.

By leveraging document scanning services and content management software, you can easily enable remote work and reap the financial benefits it offers. Whether team members are working from the office or home, all they need to do is log into your enterprise content management software to obtain the information they need.

Ready to Implement a Document Management Solution?

Going paperless is key to minimizing costs and achieving financial stability in any climate. Before getting started, however, you need to find a trusted document scanning and content management partner who can ensure a smooth transition. With over 30 years of experience, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR compliant facilities, and a dedicated team of experts, MetaSource is that trusted partner.

And you don’t need to just take our word for it. Read the TitleVest success story to learn how MetaSource helped the title insurance agency save $330,000 a year in reclaimed office space, recouped employee productivity, and reduced offsite storage costs.

Ready to get started? Contact us today!