In many industries, records must be created and maintained to prove that products met certain criteria when they were sold, or they had been properly and regularly tested during their storage, or that the customer was properly advised, or a myriad of other compliance requirements. Government regulatory agencies often mandate that certain data be accessible for a period of time for a product.
Electronic document management and archiving is a perfect methodology for achieving these compliance requirements. The documents can all be stored for as long as necessary in electronic form, all linked together in a time&date-stamped archive that can attest that they were together at the required time. In fact, they can stay filed together for as long as required by the regulations of the industry.
Rental Industry
For example, we have clients in the rental industry, and their paper invoice history files are jammed with associated compliance documents depending on the piece of machinery that was rented. Each invoice folder is just crammed with disclaimers, insurance agreements, waivers of liability, etc.
Agricultural Industries
We have clients in the grass seed industry. Grass seed must be tested periodically for weed and other noxious material content, and the test results must be stored along with the history of the seed "Lot" for several years.
With electronic document compliance, these compliance documents can all be stored electronically linked to their "parent" records and kept in a virtually no-cost, easy to find and retrieve environment for as long as necessary. With electronic document retrieval, they can be retrieved and electronically delivered within minutes.
Plywood Manufacturing
A plywood manufacturer client of ours is required to keep records of the formaldehyde levels in the glue used in each batch of plywood they manufacture, along with a record of every customer to whom these products were sold. They are required to keep these documents for 10 years. Electronic document storage enables these documents to be stored in the archive attached/linked to an archive copy of the work order and each sales order on which the product was sold. In the words of the client, they "need to document formaldehyde levels in the glue, when the plywood was produced, certify where the raw products (mdf, particleboard, veneer, etc.) came from, the name of the buyer, the date, invoice number, and contact information."
This type of compliance data is required by many industries, and the number is growing. Electronic document archiving not only saves enormous storage space, but makes retrieval of the information painless and easy.