Document management is the use of a computer system and software to store, manage and track electronic documents and electronic images of paper-based information captured through the use of a document storage solution.
It is how your organization stores, manages and tracks its electronic documents. We can also define document management as the software that controls and organizes documents throughout an organization. It incorporates document and content capture, workflow, document repositories, output systems, information retrieval systems, the processes used to track, store, and control documents.
It refers to the capture, system, and storage of electronic documents such as PDFs, word processing files, and digital photographs of paper-based material.
Document management may help you save both time and money. Document protection, access control, centralized storage, audit trails, and faster search and retrieval are all included.
Why Use Document Management?
Less paper, more functionality: Document management has grown from digitized paper to include security, auditing and lots of various beneficial functionalities.
More storage capacity: The storage capacity of a server is greater than a physical filing cabinet or warehouse.
Common attributes: Systems vary in scope but share attributes such as indexing, version control and lots of more attributes.
Document Management Benefits
Paper storage may need a large amount of physical space. A document management platform may combine diverse records to improve control, access, and process efficiency. It provides benefits in terms of information retrieval, security, governance, and decreased operational costs. Furthermore, efficient document management is becoming a legal requirement.
How Does Document Management Benefit Your Organization?
Documents, whether electronic or paper, are a vital component of nearly any business. Managing company information, which may come from several sources, is often a difficult undertaking, especially with the development of cybersecurity concerns.
So, how can organizations handle the problems of document management while being productive?
- Less storage space: Commercial property prices are rising, as is the cost of storing paper documents. A software-based document management system that can eliminate the need for file cabinets, boxes, and storage bins is a great asset to any organization, freeing up valuable office space. Documents that must be retained in hard copy can typically be housed in less expensive places, such as an offsite warehouse or vault.
- Improved Security: Document security is crucial for enterprises of any size to secure sensitive data. A document management system allows for greater control over sensitive documents, and access to documents may be regulated at the folder level for various groups or people. A document management system also leaves an audit trail of who has read a document, when it was accessed, and how it may have been updated. Managed documents are extremely traceable and may be labeled to enable automatic notifications.
- Increased Regulatory Compliance: Compliance standards for certain documents might be fairly complicated. Noncompliance can result in penalties, license revocation, and, in some situations, criminal prosecution. Document management solutions lower the risk of noncompliance. Records retention schedules, for example, can be automated, and fresh documents can be more quickly categorized and kept.
- Easier Document Retrieval: Searching for and retrieving documents may be time-consuming, and we all know that time is money. The average office worker spends 25 to 35% of their day looking for printed documents, whereas a business spends $20 on labor to file a document, $120 on labor to discover a misfiled document and another $220 on labor to reprint a lost document. These wasteful document management expenditures constrain an organization’s budget, impede productivity, and limit development potential.
A document management system may be a useful and time-saving tool. Depending on the technology used, a document management system can retrieve files based on a word or phrase in a document. Easier connection with corporate apps improves access to crucial information. A document management system also allows for remote access to documents. Documents may be accessed from anywhere, at any time, as long as there is an internet connection.
- Better Collaboration: An advanced document management system makes it much easier to retrieve material and collaborate. Documents acquired from various sources can be accessed from several locations. Documents can be shared across a network via electronic imaging, such as email or the Internet. Document management system improves visibility of corporate operations and allows for improved workflow monitoring. External users with permission can be granted and monitored access.
- Improved Backup and Disaster Recovery: Any document management solution should include a data backup and disaster recovery plan. Paper documents are secured against fire and water, as well as other calamities, with digital archiving as a backup. Documents are extremely traceable and may be traced using a variety of criteria when utilizing a document management system. Document tracking features lessen the possibility of documents being lost or misfiled after reading.
- Increased Productivity: Time is precious, and time saved is a significant benefit of a document management system that frequently translates straight into higher production. Faster and more efficient document retrieval may raise employee morale and increase client satisfaction. Furthermore, document management solutions are adaptable to accommodate the changing demands of any organization. A sophisticated electronic document management system provides firms with several intangible benefits, including:
- Flexibility
- Competitiveness
- Improved client interaction
- Mindfulness
Boost Productivity With a Document Management Solution
Transitioning to an electronic document management system allows firms to automate workflows and reduce content mistakes, freeing up valuable time to focus on other vital areas of the business.
A great document management solution designed specifically for your company can help you simplify content management and streamline business procedures.
The Fundamentals of Document Management
Document management is the process of capturing, storing and retrieving documents. Every day, your company captures, saves, and retrieves documents, with or without documentation management. This procedure is extremely time-intensive for many firms and is much too frequently overlooked.
Document Formats
Documents are available in both print and electronic formats. An invoice received in the mail from a vendor is obviously a paper document that can be read and acted upon. That invoice, on the other hand, most likely began with an order from your company. That order might be a digital record in the accounting system. Now we have two linked documents that must be maintained together for reference, but they are stored in quite different ways. This is a basic illustration.
We might have made the example more involved by including a delivery receipt, acceptance document, or even a contract. Again, these additional documents may be in different forms or systems. Worse, they may work in separate departments. A contract might be kept in a law department filing cabinet. The delivery receipt might be found at a warehouse or on a loading dock. Acceptance might take place at the functional department that got the order in the end. We’ve now included several groupings of individuals who may be at various physical locations.
The question is, what if something went wrong with the order? Where can we locate all of the documents so that we can examine the contract, check the delivery ticket to see that all of the items were delivered, look at an acceptance from the department, and check the invoice to see whether we paid it? It might take a long time to fix a problem if you don’t have all of the necessary documents. Not only does a lack of document control take important time away from various employees in your business, but consider what was not done while your personnel were seeking documents.
What Is the Function of a Document Management System?
All of these documents may be captured and organized into easily accessible electronic documents using a document management system. Paper documents may have been digitized and stored in document management systems. The electronic records might be stored in the system or accessed through another system. A document management system has the ability to connect these documents.
The documents might be indexed by department, vendor, purchase order number or any other business notion that makes sense for your company. Document management systems, unlike file cabinets, store documents in electronic folders that may be indexed by numerous pieces of information. This enables users to search for and retrieve documents based on a variety of parameters.
Lost documents are no longer an issue with an electronic document management system since they are all stored in a single safe central electronic repository. Also gone are the days of wasting time gathering documents from numerous places and file cabinets by several persons. The documents are promptly retrieved for the individual seeking for information while using online document management. This not only increases their productivity for that one activity, but it also moves the attention away from document retrieval and toward resolving the initial problem.