High-class document management system (DMS – Document Management Systems) are very useful solutions that can significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s work with documentation.
The huge popularity of this type of software means that there are many tools available on the market for electronic and automated document management.
What is worth paying attention to when choosing a document management system and what features should a good solution of this type have?
Document Management System And Its Role In The Company
Classic methods of document management before the digital age are not without significant disadvantages. Manual handling and paper-based corporate documentation usually involve greater risk and cost.
Each manually handled document is exposed to the risk of disappearance, accidental throwing, or destruction, which can cause many unpleasant consequences for the company, both image and financial.
This risk can be significantly minimized by document management systems whose task is to digitize, collect, classify, organize, and process all documents stored and processed by the company following applicable procedures.
A modern document management system that meets the highest standards provides some benefits that make it worth implementing.
First of all, it allows you to save valuable space in the company and even more valuable time for employees who no longer have to search through piles of documents, hundreds of binders, and folders in physical form to find the document or information they need at the moment.
All documentation is available in digital form, which measurably speeds up the process of finding and accessing a specific document or data, as well as increases the level of security and overall comfort of work.
The document management system allows the company to save time, money, and energy for employees who can focus on activities more important than searching through documentation.
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What To Look For When Selecting A Document Management System?
As you can see, a document management system is a very practical and useful tool that every company working with documentation daily should consider having. This does not mean, however, that every system available for sale will be the perfect answer to the needs of every enterprise.
Before choosing it, it is worth finding out what to pay attention to before we decide to implement a specific system in the daily activities of our company.
A good and future-proof document management system should be based on modern technologies and the best standards for creating IT solutions for business, offer rich functionality, flexibility, and, of course, the highest security standards and the ability to control (audit) the flow of documents in the organization.
It should enable not only the quick creation and handling of new process scenarios but also the efficient introduction of modifications (with virtually immediate effect), which will allow each company to adapt the implemented document workflows to its individual needs, following the dynamics of changes in terms of business expectations and requirements or external regulations.
When choosing a document management system for your company, it is worth checking carefully
Box solutions or solutions coded from scratch (tailor-made) by programmers may in practice be burdened with technical debt and be too difficult and expensive to modify to keep up with the pace of the changing realities of the system’s operation.
In this context, it is worth considering low-code platforms, which on the one hand provide great opportunities and speed in creating “tailor-made”, fully functional solutions, and on the other – do not make us dependent on specific development teams.
A good quality document management system should also be intuitive to use and offer access to its resources and forms via a standardized web, intranet, or mobile interface.
It is also worth paying attention to several other functionalities that have a direct and practical impact on how not only the construction looks but also the subsequent maintenance and development of the implemented system.
These will be, for example, easy scalability and integration with other systems, reporting, posting attachments and instructions for users, reusability of mechanisms, transport between environments (development, testing, and production), self-documentation, audit, or preview of the history of changes.
More demanding users will also appreciate additional functions that will be useful when performing routine, repeated daily activities.
These include ready-made solutions available in the system, such as text recognition (OCR), barcode generation, cooperation with printers, faxes, and scanners, or functions enabling saving electronic correspondence directly in the program.