Various industries, such as Accounting, Insurance, Finance, Medical, Engineering, Construction, and many more, rely heavily on digital documents. These businesses generate reports, write business papers, create marketing materials, and engage in email correspondence.
Consequently, it becomes crucial to securely store, organise, manage, and maintain these documents. Effectively managing documents can result in a significant administrative burden for both you and your employees.
Therefore, it is essential to utilise services that are user-friendly, capable of storing all your business documents and files effortlessly, and offer secure access to your business data anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
So, what are the typical signs you really need a document management system?
1 – You don’t know what is in your files: If you haven’t implemented a Document Management System yet, chances are you’re relying on your computer’s file manager to store and organise your files. It’s common for businesses to create separate directories for each client, which is a logical approach. However, as more files are added over time, these directories can become disorganised and lose their hierarchical structure. This can make it challenging for users to locate files stored in different client directories, resulting in a significant waste of time.
2 – Increasing volume of files and file formats: As soon as a business is established, the number of documents it needs to organise and manage starts to grow. Over time, as the business expands, the quantity of documents multiplies and continues to accumulate. Eventually, it becomes necessary to implement a system to effectively manage these files.
3 – Files with identical names: Businesses often implement file naming conventions to facilitate file identification and retrieval on a file server. However, this approach requires knowing the exact file name to locate it. It is not suitable for generic searches where the precise file name is unknown. Additionally, this method does not account for emails, which are the most common form of client communication saved in a business.
4 – Replication of files: File duplication is a prevalent issue for many businesses. Different users can easily open and save the same files, leading to multiple copies. Files can also be attached to emails and sent to colleagues for review, resulting in further duplication when the attached file(s) are saved in another location, such as an email server.
5 – Effective management of version control: In order to maintain efficient version control, businesses often resort to duplicating files to create new versions. This practice allows for modifications and updates to be made to standard files, such as terms and conditions or sales contracts, which are shared within the organisation. However, this approach can lead to issues with the versioning workflow. For instance, an older version of a file may unintentionally be modified and mistakenly identified as the latest version due to date modifications. This can be problematic, especially when sending out the most up-to-date Terms & Conditions to clients. Additionally, it becomes challenging to locate the actual latest version or determine who made specific changes.
6 – Insufficient access controls: While it is not entirely impossible to control access to documents and folders on a file server, it does require a considerable level of technical knowledge and understanding of user roles and permissions. Many businesses rely on IT experts or IT support services to manage user access. However, most Document Management Systems (DMS) offer robust user access and provide an audit trail of activity recorded for each file. This ensures refined controls for access management and enhances security.
7 – Time-consuming search for files: According to a study conducted by McKinsey, employees can spend approximately 19% of their time searching for information. Another study by IDC revealed that data professionals lose 50% of their time each week, with 30% dedicated to searching for, governing, and preparing data, and an additional 20% spent duplicating work. These statistics highlight the significant amount of time wasted due to difficulties in finding data. To address this issue, it is advisable to consult your staff and gather insights on the amount of time they spend searching through client files and looking for specific documents.
8 – Restricting your operational capabilities: The limited hours available in a working week can become a hindrance when valuable time is wasted searching for information. This can create bottlenecks in your operations and negatively impact efficiency. As a result, it directly affects productivity, the number of clients you can effectively handle, and the overall management of cases. Ultimately, this will have a detrimental effect on the quality of service provided and, consequently, your profit margins!!
9 – Enhancing operational adaptability: As your business expands, it is highly likely that new offices will need to be established. There might also be a need to work from specific client locations or even remotely from home. Therefore, it is prudent to incorporate operational flexibility into your business model. This will ensure that as your organisation grows and evolves, the storage, sharing, searching, and collaboration on business documents and information can be easily facilitated. Relying solely on a basic file system and file explorer will not suffice to meet your new requirements without substantial assistance from expensive IT experts.
10 – Safeguarding file integrity: The risk of data loss is something that businesses cannot afford to ignore. While it may initially seem like an unnecessary expense, the potential loss of client files and documents can have severe consequences. Once lost, the chances of recovering them are slim. This often leads to significant losses for a business! Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that files are properly backed up, allowing for the recovery of corrupted or accidentally deleted files. Regular hardware maintenance is also essential to prevent incidents of disk corruption. Additionally, implementing robust security software is necessary to mitigate the risks of ransomware attacks and the damaging effects of viruses.
Summary These ten points shed some light on the vulnerabilities associated with managing your own IT infrastructure and internal IT services. It is wise to explore alternative options such as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution or a cloud-based document management system. These alternatives can provide the necessary support and capabilities to overcome the challenges mentioned above.
If you are interested in protecting your businesses critical data and working in a more efficient manner and all the benefits this brings, please get in touch, and let BPMS work with you in developing a better way of working.
