Having a Document Management System (DMS) is crucial for any modern business to be able to thrive in a digital world. A DMS has many benefits including easy archiving and reporting. It can also save your company money in the long run as your employees no longer need to waste their precious time to find the documents they need.
Document Management Best Practices
If you’re thinking about getting a DMS for your organization, pay attention to the following best practices to ensure you can get the best out of it.
Focus on your business goals
The document system must align itself with the business goals and not the other way around. It’s the system’s job to improve the business and it can only do that when you choose the right solution.
There are many DMS available in the market. A solution fit for one industry may not work well for a different industry. Do your research and see what options are available for your business.
Customize the system
A DMS is the platform where all other applications regarding documents and files stand. However, a new system rarely fits 100% with how your business works right off the bat.
Customizing out-of-the-box DMS is mandatory to optimize it for your business processes. Every company has something unique that differentiate their business from the rest. Tailor the new system to align with that uniqueness.
A customized system will ensure your business will keep running as expected without a hitch.
Secure all access
It’s not enough that you secure the sensitive files, you have to secure all files from unauthorized access.
What counts as ordinary files today may be classified as sensitive in the future. It’s best to treat each and every file in the system as sensitive and secure it accordingly.
Keep things simple
It’s so easy to go overboard with all this document management stuff. Just focus on getting people’s work done. If the DMS you use has a multitude of features, just apply the crucial ones first like document tagging and indexing. Leave out the non-essential nitty-gritty, that will take months for everybody to learn, for later.
Another good reason why you should keep things simple is that people resist change. The more people involved, the harder the resistance.
It’s best if the introduction of a DMS into your organization change people’s workflow as little as possible. A complex system can’t do that.
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