If your business is in need of a document management system, you have probably spent some time researching your options. Like most business owners, you don’t have enough time to test different systems to figure out which one will provide your company with the most benefits.
To help you make the right decision, we’ll share our tips on how to choose the right document management system for your business. Find out where to start and how to know you are making the correct choice in this article.
Document Management System
A document management system is an electronic filing cabinet organizations are using as a foundation to organize all their digital and paper documents. Each physical document copy can easily be uploaded into the document management system with a scanner. More importantly, document management systems allow you to use metadata and tags to improve the organization of your documents and other stored files.
This tremendously improves efficiency and productivity within teams as employees are no longer spending hours seeking a particular document, but they can easily find it by using a search bar. The majority of document management software systems will have a built-in search engine, in which users can simply navigate event the most comprehensive libraries to find the document they are looking for.
Another feature that all businesses need is adjusting permission settings. After all, not all documents can be accessed by all employees in the company, so ensuring that the appropriate employees can access any privileged information in the company is essential.
When choosing the document management system for your business, you should start first by identifying your organization’s needs. The first choice you will need to make is opting for an on-premises or cloud-based solution. Each of these systems provide you with the same functionality, but you will notice a few crucial differences when it comes to maintenance and data storage.
Types of Document Management Systems
As said, you will need to choose between on-premises and cloud-based document management software systems. To help you make the right choice, you will need to know a bit about both types.
With on-premises document management systems, you will need to utilize your servers and storage, which also implies you will be in charge of your own maintenance. Another thing you will need to keep in mind is that on-premises solutions don’t protect the data your company is gathering, so you will need to find an appropriate solution for that as well. Typically, on-premises solutions are preferred by larger organizations that have enough IT resources because of their strong technical demands, but the company is also in control of its own system. That is why on-premises solutions are considered the perfect solution for enterprise document management.
Cloud-based document management systems will be hosted by your provider and be accessible to you online. Usually, this type of solution charges a monthly or annual fee, which also covers maintenance and software updates. Because of its simplicity, cloud-based solutions are often chosen for smaller businesses or organizations that don’t manage a lot of documentation. There is no need for the IT team to install complicated software, and the costs are also much lower than for an on-premises solution.
DMS Features
Each document management system will have more or less the same features. One of the most vital ones is document storage. After all, the reason why companies choose one of these solutions is to store the company’s documents in a protected and secure way but make them also easily accessible to those who need to work on them.
Another feature is a keyword search. Most systems will allow users to search by using keywords that help them find their documents quicker, such as using the phrase ‘invoice’ or ‘contractors’ to find the documents related to that phrase.
Also, organizations can provide access with permission to certain organizational documents. For instance, some documents can only be accessed by managers, while others will be accessed by the entire company. Most of the time, the document owner or the team leader will be the person who decided on the permissions access.
With DMS, organizations can also see the edit history and restore the previous versions. This can be quite helpful when you want to see who edited the document you were working on, but also to a previous version of the document to ensure you haven’t lost anything that was added to it.
Of course, security is probably one of the most crucial features of document management systems. This system helps organizations not to lose valuable documents by keeping everything stored in a centralized place. Compared to the traditional way of storing physical documents, doing it digitally ensures that everything you create stays within the system.
Conclusion
Finally, your decision on a document management system for your company will depend on the organization’s needs. What works for one company might not work for another, regardless of being in the same industry and having the same number of employees.
Not to mention that we can expect to see more of DMS evolution. The legal document management system has come a long way and will grow even more and expand across different business aspects. After all, companies need documents to operate well, and what better way to store them all than in a place that is only a click away?
