Methods Of Document Transfer & Exchange

Companies rely on sending and receiving documents of all types in order to conduct business. Document exchange technology has changed tremendously over time, especially with the advent of the digital age, and now there are several ways in which a company can transfer documents with clients, but not all are equal.

The primary means of transmission of business documents was once through the United States Postal Service. While it is still in use today and many businesses continue to use it, there are some seirous drawbacks to this system. One is cost, and the other is the time needed for mail to be processed, sent and finally received. If documents must be sent in a hurry, this may not be the best way to achieve the speedy result you need.

Another simple way of creating a document for clients is to print up a hard copy. This is convenient if the printer is at your place of business, but for large oversized documents such as blueprints or architectural designs, they often have to be sent out to a professional printing service for processing. This is again rather costly and time consuming.

Document transfer technology picked up speed with the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Everyone can access a free email account, and send and receive all manner of documents and photographs in seconds online as attachments, so it is much more cost-effective than other document exchange methods. However, even with this amazingly powerful system in place, many find that large documents are impossible to send via an email-type format.

After some time passed, FTP, also known as file transfer protocol, was developed. File transfer protocol utilizes a software program that is needed for sending and receiving large digital documents to computers residing on a network. There are some problems with using FTP on a regular basis. One of those is security, or more accurately the lack of security offered by traditional FTP programs, leaving your confidential work documents open to computer hackers. The other is that FTP software programs can also be confusing to use, and require some training in their use, another drawback.

In the end, many companies that must send large documents to clients, such as construction firms, architects and engineers, will find that none of these types of document exchange technology is sufficient for the needs. Instead, they will want to look for a document transfer and document tracking system that is secure, easy to use as well as cost-effective.

Many software companies are stepping up to offer businesses a software package that can meet their needs and counteract the deficiencies of mail, hard copies, email and FTP transmission.