There is no denying how crucial documents are to running a company. We use documents for sundry use cases—contracts, agreements, expense reports, accounting records, and so on. Accordingly, the way a business manages its documents will have a direct effect on the success of the organization. That’s why tools like document management software come in very handy in organizational operations.
What Is Document Management Software?
Document management systems, also known as DMS, refer to any computer software that keeps, handles, maintains, and manages electronic documents. These are acquired through the use of a scanner or any app that you can use to convert files and documents to the format that you need.
You can think of it as online or electronic boxes or cabinets where you keep your organization’s valuable data. Using a document management software makes files secure and accessible for the employees. Having clear document workflow solutions and effective file management workflow help make a significant portion of operations more seamless, bringing all kinds of advantages to the organization.
Why Use Document Management Software?
The document management software market could reach $6.78 billion by 2023, reflecting its central role in keeping businesses and organizations humming. Its benefits are well known.
When shifting to paperless operations, employing the help of document management software is the only way to go through the process. The pandemic has taught organizations to be ready for worst-case scenarios. While there are many factors to consider in making companies and organizations pandemic-proof, using document management software is one of them. Here are some of the reasons you should use document management software.
Saves the company resources
Companies grow and improve through various means, and maximizing existing company resources is one of them. Company resources are not just limited to electricity, water and manpower. It also refers to workspaces and office supplies. Imagine having more spaces for your teams and employees because you can free up a room previously used for filing cabinets. Think about buying lesser paper and other office supplies because your files are already in the document management software. Then there is e-signature technology that helps companies save up to $20 per document.
There are many ways that document management software can help save money. By doing so, you can allocate them to something that would grow the company’s mission, values and culture and empower employees.
Speeds up the approval process
Some factors that slow down administrative processes within an organization are the unavailability of approving bodies or sometimes just the tedious processes that no longer work for dynamic organizations. Up to 21% of company productivity loss connects to poor document management practices. But with document management software, companies can get signatures electronically, speeding up the approval on expense requests, client onboarding, and anything that needs the clearance of a manager.
This is most beneficial for acquiring and onboarding new clients because partnerships no longer have to take too long to materialize. With the right document management software, you can automate document workflow and acquire a more efficient approval process.
Builds security
Using document management software is much safer than simply emailing a PDF for signing. Using document management software increases your business’ security. It also improves your partners’ or clients’ confidence in you.
Some transactions in the company need another layer of security and protection due to the confidential information some documents have. This benefit applies to financial documents, client data forms, confidential agreements, and many more others.
Tips on Making Document Processing Easier and More Seamless
More and more companies and employees are now learning how to be more agile and adaptive when it comes to changes in the organization. But people are generally resistant to change. Integrating a new system like document management software that would help automate document workflow will still prove to be difficult to some, even most employees and key members.
When document processing becomes more seamless, the whole company, its employees, key players, partners and clients will benefit from it. Here are seven tips on making the processing of documents easier and more seamless.
Assign a team in charge of the process
Integrating a new document management software requires a specific team to champion and focus on it. Ineffective integrations of new systems or processes in companies are often due to a lack of proper planning and execution. That is why even something as simple as having document management software requires a team to implement it in the organization.
Use automation
One useful strategy in integrating document management software is to make it user-friendly to everyone by using automation. Automations help users navigate through the document management software with ease and without being overwhelmed by too many details.
Save a template for each document needed
Using templates for common documents that companies use is a good way of making the processes of documents easier. Because companies already have identified which kinds of documents they need in every transaction, whether that is client acquisition, client onboarding, or approving expense requests, they can already provide templates for every document they need.
Most likely, you’ll encounter an issue with a file type in your document repository. Thankfully, some document management tools come with a PDF editor so you don’t have to worry about making changes to the templates.
Store all documents in an online repository
Having an online repository for all your past documents vastly improves your files’ accessibility. Doing this also decreases the chances of losing important documents needed by the company. Also, in the event of worst-case scenarios like fires or earthquakes, your company’s files, data, and important information are safe and retrievable because most digital document repositories get stored in the cloud.
Integrate your document management software with other business software
Setting up integrations in your company’s document management systems will help speed up various parts of your operations. For example, integrating a document management software with some examples of accounting software can remove friction when getting expense requests signed by the appropriate managers.
You can also build out these automated workflows with other kinds of business software. Some companies integrate client onboarding software with document management systems to automatically file client information and store them in a secure database.
Control document access
Regardless of the size of a company, there is still a need to control the people who have access to certain documents. Your file management workflow must be both seamless
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