Benefits of Document Management

Overview:

Benefits of Document Management

Documents, whether in paper format, or electronic play a vital part in any business. Managing the information content and the individual document processes can be a difficult task, especially if the business relies on paper documentation. Document and content management can bring many benefits to an organisation. 

Outlined below are 8 key areas which are benefits of installing a document management systems

1. Increased document security
2. Easy access to centrally held documents
3. Improved business efficiency
4. Enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery
5. Centralised location for all documentation
6. Access your documents anytime, anywhere
7. Integration with existing business system and software
8. Reduced storage space and costs

1. Document management will result in increased document security

Our document management systems provide your organisation with complete control of your documents. Enabling your organisation to comply with legislation such as GDPR, BS10008 and the Freedom of information Act 1998.  Access to documents is controlled at every level, (user access can be linked to Microsoft Active Directory for easy management of user permissions) so only those who need access to specific documents get access. Additionally, a full audit trail provides data about who has accessed, changed or even shared a document.

Should documentation be required off site rather than printing out documentation, documents can be accessed via mobile devices. In addition forms can be created to allow your customers to sign “on glass” and capture the document directly into the document management system. This can eliminate the chance of data breaches due to misplaced documents or data as documents are no longer stored locally, they are saved directly to the server, should a laptop or tablet be lost or stolen, the documents are not accessible.

2. Document Management makes document retrieval quick and simple

Searching for and moving paper documents around an organisation can be very time consuming. These days many documents are created or received electronically. A key benefit of document management is that the system will ensure that these documents are captured and routed automatically to the correct team or person within the organisation, saving time and making significant efficiency improvements.

Related documents can be seen at the click of a mouse without the need to manually find and sort the paper, again providing significant savings in time and energy.

As each document is captured and stored into the system it is identified and categorised so that it can be found in the future. This process called indexing. Our document management system can reduce or eliminate the burden of manual indexing as indexing can be automated; emails, system generated documents and scanned documents can all be processed using intelligent indexing ensuring each document is automatically identified both in terms of what the document is and its document contents and stored away with no human intervention. Intelligent indexing saves huge amounts of time and reduced the burden of filing the paper.

As new documents arrive into the system, notifications can be sent to key individuals or teams providing them with a task. The task serves not only as a reminder but provides the current status of the document in the workflow.

3. Increased collaboration with document management

Using our document management systems, information sharing is much simpler than with paper. Documents captured from different locations or different sources such as scanners or system generated forms, can be accessed at anytime from anywhere with an internet connection.

Related documents such as purchase orders and invoices can be viewed together along with any notes and comments thus providing greater visibility to the business process.  By using workflow documents can be processed and move onto the next department or team seamlessly ensuring that shared documents cannot get lost and are always accessible.

By incorporating version control for key documents your staff can be sure that they are always working with the most recent, up to date document, eliminating errors and ensuring compliance.

4. Document management helps with disaster recovery

As an IT service provider, Midshire has implemented a lot of IT data system disaster recovery plans into businesses. By utilising a cloud based document management system it will allow organisations to securely hold a digital archive of all documentation which means that the organisation can continue to operate in the worst case scenarios such as fire or flood.  In the case of an on-premise installation, system backups are the responsibility of the owner organisation. Once the document management system is brought under the scope of the existing IT disaster recovery program the system will have the same degree of resilience as all other systems within the organisation.

5. Centralised Information with document management

The concept of a Document management systems is to centrally hold all documentation in one place. Once trained all authorised employees will know exactly where to go to findthe information they are looking for. There is less pressure on the administration staff to manage company documents, instead, the document management system manages everything and ensure that only the latest version of a document is available. It is so easy to use, that anyone in the business can find the documents they need, as long as they have been granted access.

6. Document management systems can be accessed anywhere

For companies that have remote or field workers, document management can provide a vital link with head office. If for example, a sales representative is at a customer’s office, they can be sure that they have the most up to date price list and are able to sign up a deal with confidence. Once signed and saved the electronic form will generate alerts which can be sent to other teams such as sales order processing. This ensures that customers orders are dealt with quickly and efficiently without the need for the sales representative to travel back to the office with the paper document.

Documents can be authorised remotely, if for example a director is away from the office and a document requires authorisation, this can be done quickly and simply by using an app on a tablet or mobile device. Should related documents be required to confirm the authorisation these can also be viewed on the mobile device

7. Document management systems can be integrated with existing business software

Integration with existing systems is extremely important, our solution will provide not only database integration but a custom screen overlay which will allow users to view a document (such as an order or invoice) at the click of a button from within the current system. For example if a user is processing invoices in the financial system and wants to see an image of the actual document (or related documents) a button is provided in the existing accounts system which will search for the document with a single click. This system does not require any hard coding or API and can work with almost any application.

8. Document management reduces the need for large storage space

Office space is expensive, especially when used to simply store boxes of documents. Wherever possible we would recommend that documents which are received or created electronically are not printed out unless absolutely necessary.  This will not only save money but reduce environmental impact through reduction in print and ensure there is less paper passing throughout the organisation.

Paper documents can be scanned using either the existing MFD or a dedicated scanner directly into the document management software. There are a number of very clever ways to facilitate and speed up this process such as utilising bar codes, header pages or simply extracting data from the documents as index references.

Once your documents have been scanned, the original paperwork can be disposed of, thus reducing the burden of storing and managing the archive of paper documents.

All documents are assigned a retention period and will automatically be removed from the system at the agreed retention data. (Should legislation change retention periods can be amended at any time). No longer will you have to purchase storage boxes, spend time archiving away live documents and destroying legacy documents as this will be managed by the system for you.

As you can see, document management systems can bring many benefits to you and your business. Why not schedule a meeting with our electronic document management experts to see how a tailored solution could improve your business processes and help increase efficiencies.