eBridge Solutions Blog

A matter of distribution

Though more and more documents are arriving electronically, paper is still a large part of most businesses. What are all the ways you share important paper documents with clients, employees and vendors:

• mail
• fax
• inner-office mail
• overnight services
• courier

What if there was a way to eliminate these methods and save some time and money in the process? One way businesses nationwide are changing the way they handle important hard copy documents is by turning them into digital format.

Mail is too slow. Faxes are on the way out and waste paper. Even e-faxes need to be stored. Inner-office mail is slower than traditional mail and rarely makes it to the right person, plus you need to have a mail room.

Let's dig deeper into overnight services. A typical package costs about $25 to ship next day. If you are in a business that relies on signatures, you probably use FedEx or UPS on a regular basis. A scanned copy of a signed document, however, is considered a legal copy. So, you could e-mail documents to a client, have them print and sign those documents and then scan and return to you. In minutes, not hours, days or weeks.

Or, take it a step further. Set up individual file cabinets online for each client and allow them to scan their signed documents right in for indefinite storage. 

Why is that important? Well, how much more cost-effective would it be to e-mail documents instead of overnight them? How much clearer would a scanned copy of a document be than a fax?

Who can afford couriers these days? And isn't e-mail faster than any courier you could hire?

Look at the ways you distribute new and existing paper in your office. Going digital can speed up your way of doing business, making you more profitable and successful. As an added incentive, you won't have give your courier a holiday bonus this year.

Celebrate your independence from paper with document management

I meant to write this yesterday, but the fireworks started going off and I had to run out and watch. There is so much to celebrate this year if you've started your journey toward the paperless office.

First, congratulate yourself (or your office manager) for taking the first step toward getting better organized and going green.

Second, try to remember the last time you had to get up from your desk to find anything -- unless you really wanted to. That's something to celebrate.

Third, be thankful that when your auditor called and said he was coming out, you were able to give him a secure login to your online file cabinet where your tax records are located, and he never had to step into the office.

Fourth, look around your office. Where are the file cabinets? Where are the messy desks? You've 'prettied' things up while making everyone's lives much easier.

Fifth, cheers to you for trimming your monthly expenses. You've cut down to a case of paper every quarter. You've stopped needing as many office supplies. You've canceled your off-site storage facility.

So many things to be thankful for! And, if you haven't started your journey to the paperless office, you should contact eBridge Solutions for a demo today! By next year, you'll be able to celebrate your independence from paper as well!

eBridge for your iPhone? It's closer than you think.

In fact, it's here. We've been testing eBridge Solutions on various phones and hand-held devices at the request of our customers. And in most cases, the devices are able to open up TIFFs and PDFs stored in eBridge Solutions' web-based document management system.

Yes, you'll have to download a TIFF viewer specific to your device.

Yes, you'll have to zoom in real close to read your document.

No, you won't be able to scan or print using your phone... yet.

But, if you are on the road and a client calls up and asks you when their contract renews or what their final invoice amount was, you can use your mobile device to retrieve and view files. Depending on the phone, you may need to wait until you are back in the office to e-mail a copy of the invoice out, but you're still giving first-class customer service on-the-go!

Try it. Let us know what you think!

Document management and radiology

I write today from BEAUTIFUL (but windy) Colorado Springs, Colorado. The site of the 2010 Radiology Summit. When I haven't been hiding in my room trying to stay warm, I've been exhibiting, lunching and speaking with radiology practice managers and the medical billing professionals who support them. One thing is certain, there are plenty of options available to radiology pros when it comes to storing their paper files.

1. They can store documents in files and file folders in their offices.
2. They can store documents they don't access often or merely need to retain for seven years off-site in a storage facility.
3. They can add documents to their electronic health record (EHR) system, if there is a document management module.
4. They can scan and store all of their paper documents in an online document management system (like eBridge Solutions).

After speaking with several folks here, most people agree with me that option FOUR is the best. Why?

Storing paper files anywhere (home, office or off-site) can come at a tremendous cost. The price for lost office space (the files keep growing), running back and forth to find the file you need and putting paper at risk for theft or disaster are ALL real concerns for business owners.

Adding documents to an EHR system can 'trap' a physician in an EHR system they aren't happy with or cannot afford. And, what if that EHR system goes out of business? Then what? Or what if the documents are stored in a proprietary format that doesn't work in other systems? Well, they have a real problem.

Adding paper (and electronic documents) to a document management system like eBridge Solutions makes the most sense for so many reasons. Not only are clients free to work with any EHR or billing system, they can also integrate their documents with accounting, HR and other systems with a hot-key. In addition, they can store more than just medical records in a document management system. Contracts. Invoices. Resumes. Anything can be stored and kept separate from other documents -- but for one low cost.

Make sense? I think so. Now I'm going to grab my windbreaker and see who else I can get to agree with me...

Reason #8 to love document management: eliminate couriers!

eBridge Solutions' web-based document management system is the most efficient way to share documents with your customers. Reason #8 to love eBridge Solutions: Let your customers scan documents into your electronic file cabinet and eliminate couriers.

By putting your trust in eBridge, you know your important documents are in safe hands. Your customer scans in their documents that you can then pull up in your own secure electronic file cabinet. This ensures your documents won't end up in the wrong hands, they won't get lost in the mail or accidently taken from the fax machine.

Even waiting just 24 hours for an important document to be delivered can feel like an eternity, by scanning your documents directly into eBridge you no longer have that down time waiting for the courier, overnight delivery service or snail mail. Once a client scans their document into their file cabinet, it will be available to you in mere seconds.

On top of all of that, eliminating couriers with document management will save you hundreds, if not THOUSANDS, of dollars a year. For one low monthly fee with eBridge Solutions you will reduce the amount of paper products you buy, virtually eliminate all postage, photocopies, fax machine and off-site storage.

It doesn't get much better than that. Visit eBridgeSolutions.com for more information and contact a sales representative today. Say 'Bye Bye!' to your courier and 'Hello!' to savings! 

Reason # 2 to love eBridge Solutions: Access your data 24/7, 365 days a year!

Whether you're hard at work in the office on a Wednesday, catching up on some work at home on a Sunday night or you have to find a certain file when the office is closed for a holiday, with eBridge Solutions, your documents are always accessible no matter where you are or what time it is.   

The web-based feature makes eBridge the perfect solution for the workaholic, the traveler and all those weekend warriors who are "just trying to catch up". It can save employers time (why go to the office if you don't need to?) and money (documents don't need to be mailed or couriered to off-site employees). It can also increase the levels of service your business provides.

Several of the industries eBridge deals with REALLY benefit from this any time, anywhere access - funeral directors and realtors. Think of it (sad as it may be): a funeral director gets a call at 3 a.m. from a family who has lost their loved one. Instead of having to go into the office and find out whether the person wanted to be buried or cremated, the director can log into their online file cabinet and pull up the pre-arrangement paperwork.

Or, in a happier example, a realtor who gets a call at 8 p.m. from a seller who has accepted an offer can open their file cabinet and e-mail the acceptance letter to the buyer instead of running to the office.  

As long as you have access to a computer and the Internet, eBridge Solutions is anywhere you want (or need) to be.