Document management systems in front line to prevent accelerating fraud

KPMG’s Annual Forensic’s Fraud Barometer indicated that UK courts heard more than £1.1 billion worth of fraud cases in 2008, the survey’s highest since 1995. the report shows that company managers, employees and customers were tried for fraud relating to £300 million last year – three times the value seen in 2007. Says Version One general manager Lynne Munns: “This escalating trend is only going to get worse as employees undertake desperate measures to solve their own financial problems, potentially bringing an organisation to its knees.” Electronic document management systems, tightly integrated into organisations’ accounting, ERP and HR systems, minimise the risk of fraud, because documents, such as invoices, purchase orders and personnel records, are imaged and then securely stored in an electronic archive, she says. Document management systems also allow strict levels of document access and enable audit trails, so it’s clear who approved what and when. “In the current economic climate, organisations are increasingly susceptible to internal fraud as much as external threats,” comments Munns. “Systems such as document management reduce the risk of fraudulent activity as they prevent documents from being manipulated or shredded in an attempt to cover fraudsters’ tracks.”