What is document management?
Document management system (DMS) is a computer system (or a set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents. It is usually also capable of keeping track of the different versions modified by different users (history tracking). The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management systems. It is often viewed as a component of enterprise content management (ECM) systems and related to digital asset management, document imaging, workflow systems and records management systems.
Butler Group, a London-based IT research and analysis organization, in its report entitled “Enterprise Search and Retrieval,” concluded that “ineffective search and discovery strategies are hampering business competitiveness, impairing service delivery and putting companies at risk.” Specifically, they contended that as much as 10% of a company’s salary costs are “frittered away” as employees scramble to find adequate and accurate information to perform their overall jobs and complete assigned tasks.
Current problem customers face with documents
- Information overload – Knowledge workers spend more than 27 hours a week searching, gathering and analyzing information. (Source: Ibid.) Fixed content is often left out because it is not well organized
- Inefficient business processes – Just one example: it costs more than $50 on average to process and manage a paper invoice.(Source: Institute of Management and Information (Source: IOMA, Dec. 2005;)
- Compliance issues – Organizations are under more pressure than ever before to manage fixed content for compliance and risk reduction purposes
- Lack of integration with other applications CRM, ERP, HR, ECM, claims processing, health information systems, etc. all these applications need fast and accurate access to archived content but it is rarely accessible
- Costly real estate being used for hard copies storage.
How can Document Management solution help in overcoming these?
- Increases productivity by speeding up document retrieval and finding lost information
- Saves money by reducing the need for paper supplies, paper delivery and storage
- Streamlines business processes by eliminating paper. Helps with compliance by creating a secure archive with audit trails, electronic discovery support and options to store data on non-erasable storage media
- Connects the archived content to other applications that need it Hard copies can be stored off site saving on costly real estate.
What is Document Workflow?
What are the benefits of document workflow?
Document Workflow helps you improve your processes, streamline your workflow, and align your team.
Let’s take a look at these benefits in more detail.
Align your team
When you have a clear process, it’s easy for everyone to follow it. There’s less room for error, and team members won’t be confused about what actions they need to take.
In other words, everyone knows what they need to do and when they need to do it.
And that’s one of the great things about a documented workflow. It makes business processes clear for your team, especially if you use a work management system to document your workflows.
With the right platform, everyone in your team can easily review all the process documentation processes in one place. Which helps keep everyone on the same page.
Improve your processes
Document Workflow helps teams improve their business processes.
Think about it. If you’re tracking and documenting your workflow, it’s much easier to identify room for improvement. Without document workflow, you simply won’t have this level of clarity.
You need standardized processes to see how things can be better.
And that’s where document workflow can help.
It allows you to spot what’s going well and what can be improved. As a result, you can continually refine your processes to make them as useful and efficient as possible.
Work more efficiently
Using digital documentation allows you to speed up your day-to-day processes and focus on tasks that matter.
How?
Because users don’t have to trawl through paper documents to find what they need. They can access the relevant information in a matter of clicks.
With a digital document management system, team members spend less time trying to find information and more time focused on being productive.
While you can certainly have an organized paper-based system, it simply won’t be as efficient as a digital system.
document management Product we have to offer
FileDirector document management software solution shortens the time required to organise and handle documents within an enterprise significantly. This noticeably improves productivity and efficiency thereby reducing costs significantly.
FileDirector covers all the stages that a document undergoes in a modern enterprise right from recording paper documents or handling documents already in digital format to search and retrieval to secure archiving of data. Moreover, FileDirector is not limited to a single location: up to 128 servers can work together on a network, enabling enterprises to gain the benefits of FileDirector even when operating in a globally distributed environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
DMS is a computer system (or a set of computer programs) used to track and store electronic documents. While DMS has been around for years, the penetration is now increasing with every passing day. With the exponential increase in the generation of documents electronically, the need for a DMS cannot be understated.
There are a number of advantages of using these systems and some of the biggest ones are listed below:
Easy Access: John Bustrum, CEO and founder of My403bCoach.com, said having such software in place means he’s no longer forced to stockpile loads of files on his desk. Instead, when clients call, they can instantly find the documents they need on their computers.
Easy To Search: Being able to easily search through her company’s documents is a huge benefit, said Karen Walker, founder of One Team Consulting. She said the ability to quickly search for and retrieve presentations and notes is invaluable.
Better Collaboration: Getting rid of hard copies of documents makes it easy for employees to work with each other, said Gary Tuch, founder of the Professor Egghead Science Academy. When multiple employees are working off of one document and editing is constantly happening, document management systems ensure workers always have the most up-to-date copy, he said. Employees waste no time on printing revisions or double-checking to make sure they have the current version, Tuch added.
Added Security: Increased security is a huge advantage of using document management solutions, said Andrew Southard, general manager of the Indiana-based Data Management Shredding, Inc. The technology has given his company the option to track who is viewing and editing each document and designate which employees have access to which files, he said.
Saves Space: Exchanging paper documents for digital versions can save a tremendous amount of physical space, said Randy Jourgensen, owner of Digital Office Solutions. Since transforming his office to a paperless environment more than 15 years ago, Jourgensen has been able to convert space that was formerly used only for file storage into space that can generate revenue, he said.
Disaster Recovery: Businesses that have all of their documents stored in physical filing cabinets face the risk that these papers might be destroyed, or that the business may lose access to them should a disaster occur, said Alan Baker, president and chief consultant at Spitfire Innovations. If a water pipe bursts or there is a fire, business owners can still operate with little impact, since their critical documents are stored online and spared from any destruction.
- Any electronic document such as .doc, .xlsx, .ppt etc. can be stored
- Physical documents can be scanned from a multifunction device or a stand-alone scanner and digitised by uploading the relevant .tiff / .pdf files into DMS
- E-mails can also be imported into the system
Any DMS worth its salt offers a workflow solution. The idea of a DMS is to capture the information in a structured form whereas the whole purpose of the workflow is to process this structured information as per business rules. Once the information is processed, the information then can be released into other systems such as an ERP or HRMS etc.
DMS systems have role-based access control so users can only access the relevant information. A simple example would be a person from the HR team who will not be able to view the data from the accounts folder. The opposite also holds true. Certain users can only have viewing rights while others can have editing rights. There is multiple such combinations possible which enables the administrator to have complete control over the information.