Member Article

V1 software helping NHS efficiency challenge, paper shows

V1 white paper highlights how electronic document management can help with NHS efficiency challenge

16 July 2013 – Document management and imaging software author, V1, has commissioned a white paper which reveals how electronic document management can help the NHS reach its goal of delivering £20 billion ‘in efficiency savings’ by 2015.

Earlier this year Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, said that the NHS will be ‘paperless’ by 2018. V1’s paper revealed significant benefits that the NHS can see, as a direct result of capturing, storing and working with documents electronically. Six of the benefits are highlighted below:

Reduced cost: Document management solutions will reduce spend on stationary, printing, photocopying and administration costs associated with paper documents being created and circulated. In the area of invoicing alone, the move to managing related ‘paperwork’ electronically has been seen to contribute in excess of £100,000 in combined savings per year in mid-sized UK businesses

Removal of the need for physical storage: Storing content digitally means that physical storage is no longer needed, releasing valuable floor space and eliminating the need for third-party archiving either.

Reduced manual intervention: By cutting the manual intervention associated with data entry and staff hunting for mislaid or misfiled documents, time can be put to better use, freeing up staff to carry out more valued added tasks.

Avoidance of late payment penalties: Efficient workflow prevents invoices going astray or bottlenecks building as payments wait for approval. Organisations can avoid late payment penalties and can benefit from potential early settlement discounts.

Traceability: A clear audit trail will help identify anomalies, budget breaches or rogue activity that will save on losses caused by human error or malpractice. UK National Fraud Authority’s latest Annual Fraud Indicator suggests that fraud costs organisations more than £20 billion each year.

Green agenda: The ability to monitor and manage a Trust’s energy consumption and carbon footprint. Printing and distributing paper-based documents is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, and a good document management system will monitor associated savings as content goes digital.

Greg Ford, Managing Director of V1, says, “With the reality of the Nicholson challenge hitting home and with the strict efficiency saving targets that the NHS has to deliver, the pressure is on for the health service to streamline business processes. It is evident from the V1 white paper that electronic document management can play a fundamental part of their saving strategy.

“By investing in document management solutions, organisations can eliminate the cumbersome inefficiency and lack of transparency associated with manual, intensive paper-based processes, and can therefore drive the required performance improvements and deliver more with less.”

V1’s portfolio of document management and imaging solutions enable the electronic creation, storage, retrieval, management, delivery and authorisation of business documents. By implementing V1’s systems, businesses significantly reduce their paper consumption, cutting costs and improving process efficiencies whilst supporting their environmental agendas.

V1 has recently expanded its business automation offer with the addition of professional services automation, project accounting, facilities management, and training & learning management software.

The white paper, ‘Survival of the fittest: Electronic Document Management and the NHS Efficiency Challenge’, can be downloaded here: http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/v1/jul13/544480/survival-fittest-electronic-document-management-and-nhs-efficiency-challenge

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by V1 .