(Jim True is VP of Product Management at Cabinet, a documentmanagement and workflow provider.)

Insurance is an extremely document-intensive business. Andnearly all of the myriad forms, letters, and claims are criticallyimportant. It's essential for administrators, agents, andexecutives to be able to quickly access and act upon documentationlike claims, referrals, scans, email, contracts, and messages.

The days of lost documents, poor version control, and spottycompliance are over, thanks to document management software. It canhelp insurers operate in multiple locations, support employees thatwork remotely, meet compliance requirements, reclaim office space,and solve a wide range of business problems.

Many features of a document management system will enableinsurance companies—both small and large—to enhance efficiency,boost productivity, increase profitability, and improve clientsatisfaction, and overall business risks reductions.

There are nine key considerations when determining what documentmanagement system is best suited for a business. We call these the“9 C's” of document management:

Cloud-based/locally installed: For insurersthat have multiple offices in several locations, a cloud-basedproduct unifies satellite locations across one platform, allowingthem to act as effectively as if the company was operating in justone location.

Cabinets (Filing structure): Mimicking aphysical filing structure that includes cabinets, folders, and tabsmakes transitioning to paperless much easier and intuitive. It alsoimproves filing consistency and user access can be easilycontrolled by applying access rights.

Collaboration: Filing documents in the documentmanagement system's central location facilitates collaboration.Users can access documents from the office or while on the road.Workflow and scheduling automate the business process which drivescollaboration and improves efficiency across the entireorganization.

Compliance: Insurers are highly regulated andmust remain compliant. Document retention policy enforcement, audittracking and reporting, and user access controls are the primarytools a document management system needs to offer to help achievecompliance with regulations and internal policies.

Continuity (Disaster Recovery): Wind, water,and fire can take an operation out of business in seconds withoutmuch notice. According to research by the University of Texas, onlysix percent of companies suffering from a catastrophic data losssurvive, while 43 percent never reopen and 51 percent close withintwo years. If it happens, having a document management system couldliterally save the business by allowing it to recover years ofcritical documents from a remote backup facility. Without replacingbusiness document and data, disaster recovery from a catastrophicevent is nearly impossible.

Cost Savings: In today's economy, every pennycounts. Most never consider how much is spent by running apaper-based business. To learn more about potential savings with adocument management system, check out this comprehensive return oninvestment calculator.

Custom User Configurations: If the shoe doesn'tfit, change it. In other words, the document management systemshould accommodate your preferences, not the other way around.Creating a comfortable user experience that delivers theinformation in a view to their liking will drastically improve howefficient the document management system performs.

Consolidation: Robust integration tools support the nativedocument format of many existing applications, consolidating datainto one organized and secure networked accessible system. Inaddition to basic filing, storage and retrieval, documentmanagement provides extended integration with popular applications,including QuickBooks, Outlook, Sage ACT!, Climark AdvisorsAssistant, Laser App, and others.

Custom Business Configurations: The best thingabout document management software is that it can apply tovirtually any business function including managing clients,accounting, and human resources, to name a few. Every newdeployment is configured to replicate a business's existingprocesses and workflows.

Jim True is VP of Product Management at Cabinet, a documentmanagement and workflow provider, based in Madison, Ala. Formore information, visit www.cabinetpaperless.com.Jim can be reached via email at [email protected].