Document management: try cost-per-copy.

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: OFFICE TECHNOLOGY - Brief article

BUSINESS INFORMATION still ends up on lots of paper. Managing the flow of those documents efficiently can make a big difference to a company's bottom line.

That's the message Jim Fall, director of strategic planning at Cannon IV in Indianapolis, shares with business owners. Even with all the advances in online communication, he notes the number of paper documents continues to grow.

Many companies don't track the expense of their total document production because it is often spread out over various departments and included as an expense in different budgets. For example, it's not unusual for a business to have many printers and copiers in different departments and no reporting of how they are being used or what the total document management costs. "It's one of the last bastions of unaudited business expenses," says Fall.

Cannon IV reviews the production and flow of documents in a company and then identifies what is needed to make the process most efficient. For example, an executive may have a high-end printer that gets minimal use while an accounting...