Documents play an important role even in this digital age when most organizations are moving towards a paperless culture. Your organization may handle documents when liaising with customers, business partners, and suppliers. The document management system will help you optimise the efficiency of handling different documents in various departments.
It is important to organize these documents so that you can easily access them when needed. At the same time, you must take measures to ensure that the documents are secure and have backup copies in case the original goes missing.
This is where a document management system (DMS) comes in.
What is a DMS?
A Document Management System uses software tools to store, organize, secure, and manage all organizational documents. A robust DMS handles a wide range of document types including PDFs, spreadsheets, and images.
In many cases, a DMS can also capture paper documents with the help of a scanner. All the files stored in a document management system are sorted and prioritized based on data type, file type, source, and security level. Other metrics may also be used for organizing the documents in a customized way.
Using a DMS carries immense benefits for organizations of all sizes. Here is a look at these
Key Benefits of a Document Management System
Some of the most stand-out benefits of a DMS include:
- Workflow Automation: This is the number one reason why many organizations opt for a DMS. A DMS automates document workflows. In other words, your employees no longer have to manually handle, store, secure, or sort the documents. All this is done by DMS without any delays.
- No Redundancies: A DMS effectively removes redundancies and duplicate entries when sorting and storing files. This ensures that no unwanted documents are included in the repository.
- Ease of Access: This one goes without saying. Any employee can access the DMS at any time and from anywhere if they have access rights. Such ease of access ensures that no time is wasted in looking up important documents when communicating with customers, partners, and other stakeholders.
- Document Lookup: Most DMS tools come with robust search functionality. If you want to look up a particular document, you can enter a keyword to quickly find it. Alternatively, you can use date, file type, date type, and other metrics to sort the results.
- Ease of Compliance: During business audits, your organization may be required to provide the full trail for a particular document. A DMS provides this trail all the way from creation to the final version. It also lists the edits that were made and the parties who downloaded the documents.
- Security: Security remains an important concern for organizational documentation. Even a single sensitive document in the right hands can harm organizational interests. A DMS creates a foolproof layer of security around your documents. You can define levels of access for different employees and also keep track of who accessed what.
Getting on board with a document management system can take some time for an organization. However, the upside is that it will eventually help you save hundreds, if not thousands, of work hours by automating several areas. If you are interested to understand further how a customized document management system can help your business, contact us today.
