Document management system (DMS) is now a common phrase within business but what does this actually mean?
Essentially a document management system is software (predominantly now cloud based) which allows you to automatically store, manage and process electronic documents.
At the most basic level, a DMS is simply an electronic filing system but nowadays is capable of so much more.
So, what type of DMS can benefit your business?
Let’s look at the various options
- Cloud-based systems: The drive to remote working has dramatically increased the popularity of cloud based DMS. They deliver unlimited capacity, are extremely secure and negate the need to maintain costly in-house servers whilst allowing access to unlimited users from any location and on any device.
- On – Premises systems: Operationally, there is little difference between these and a cloud-based solution other than you will be responsible for the installation, security, back up, upgrade and maintenance of the servers. Not an issue if you have current arrangements but might be expensive if not making cloud easier on your budget.
- Records management systems: These solutions are often favoured by organisations who need to adhere to strict compliance rules. Industry requirements may be inbuilt or can be configured to mirror specific industry requirements.
- Digital filing systems: These solutions, whilst seemingly basic in their functionality, are ideal for those businesses wishing to take the first steps in transitioning from paper to electronic filing. Files may be easily stored and retrieved via their title or text.
- Content management systems: CMS are for those who have a need to maintain and distribute a wide variety of media, beyond typical document types, this may include CAD, video, audio text and images. Through CMS, businesses can create and upload content directly to their websites.
So how do Document Management Systems actually work?
In basic terms DMS provide three principal functions, namely they capture, storage and processing documents.
- Capture document from any source:
A DMS should be able to capture a document from any source, be this paper, email, CRM applications or reports, to mention but a few. Once captured documents can be indexed for easy search and retrieval later.
Indexing is a way to classify and separate documents by adding relevant terms such as metadata and tags. Whilst initial capture may vary dependent upon the type of document you are wishing to capture and recall, once indexed, they will all be returned in the same timely and efficient manner.
Typical documents may be captured and uploaded to a DMS in the following ways:
- Paper documents: Modern high-speed scanners or office MFD’s are used by most businesses to capture paper documents. The DMS takes documents directly from the scanner, from which index fields can be added either manually or through auto indexing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), or via barcoding. Documents are invariably OCR’d upon entry to a DMS and are therefore fully text searchable.
- Emails: Email being a key part of day-to-day business, the ability to capture and store email documents is vital. Using a DMS, you can automatically import email messages, attachments, or both into a specific folder of your choosing.
- External applications: You may also have external applications, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or ERP software, that produce documents you need to store. A DMS allows you to easily import these documents, then route them to or share them with others within your organisation.
- Central document storage
Without a DMS, it is not unusual for critical information is spread across the business in an uncoordinated way. Data may be held in different forms, in separate locations or worse, outside of the office as employees work increasingly remotely.
A single central document storage location is perhaps the most important part of a DMS. Having all your documents stored in one central location allows all employees who need access to the documents – both static (documents your company creates every day, like invoices) and dynamic (webpages, forms and emails) – to retrieve them quickly and easily.
Central storage also helps protect your documents from error and malicious activity. A DMS typically comes with version control, this tracks the changes made to a document and identifies who made them and avoids any possibility of working with superseded documents. You can also set permissions to control who has access to which documents, and who can make which type of change.
- Find and distribute documents instantly
Trying to find mislaid documents is one of the most frustrating aspects confronting employees, and a drain on business resource. Perhaps the most important aspect of a DMS is the ability to easily retrieve and distribute documents. A DMS lets you search any document for a keyword and bring it up quickly.
Being electronic, documents can easily be distributed in any manner you require, such as via email or file transfer protocol (FTP), or as part of an automated business processes or workflow. You can integrate your DMS with your other software applications. In sharing data in this way, almost any process can be fully automated, removing huge amounts of time and cost from your existing manual working practises.
What are document management systems used for?
The main function of a Document management system is to make your life easier by automatically and securely storing your company’s documents, whilst making them very much easier to access, share and edit, and removing potential human error.
In addition to these management benefits, in moving away from paper, businesses can measurably increase efficiency through automated processes whilst saving significant time, space and money.
What features does an effective document management system provide?
Established DMS should provide these important features as standard.
- Version control: This is critical as it allows you to track the changes to a document and ensures you are always working with the most up to date version. Older versions are automatically archived providing a complete historical record.
- System Integration: It is likely that your business currently operates several software applications, driving your finance, HR and email functions to name a few. A DMS can join these otherwise disparate platforms together, allowing them to share information and drive automatic processes.
- Ensure Total Compliance: Most businesses need to maintain compliancy, however for some it is an absolute legal requirement. Certain DMS systems provide industry specific regulatory capability whilst others may be configured to do so.
- Scalability: A DMS should be capable of growing with your business in terms of functionality, users and storage. However it is equally important that you do not initially pay for more than you need.
It is worth bearing in mind that cloud-based systems typically provide all current functionality available, whilst these may need to be purchased as add on modules should you decide to locate the software in-house.
- Security and disaster recovery: Your business information is a vital part of your organisation and as such it needs to be properly protected. It is critically important to find a DMS that prioritises your security and protects your information and files as any data breach could have potentially disastrous consequences for your business. Providers treat security very seriously and will be pleased to demonstrate their latest security features.
- Ease of Use/Training: Investment in a DMS can only be justified if it is seen as a benefit by your employees and they want to use it.
Some systems can be over complicated and potentially difficult to use. Invariably your employees will be at different levels of IT capability and therefore it is important you select a system which they can use comfortably and will be seen as a real asset in making life easier.
From our experience, it is well worth involving users in the process of choosing a DMS at the earliest opportunity, as they probably understand your processes, for better or worse, than you, and will impart valuable insights to the development of your solution and will be stakeholders in its success.
- Project Collaboration: Many projects and processes are entirely in-house, but it may you periodically need to involve those outside of the business.
A DMS should make it simple for users to restrictively share and collaborate on project files. Tools such as editing, file sharing and plugins make this process easy and secure.
- Document Scanning & Indexing: A DMS should have the ability to scan and save any paper files and records your company to the format of your choice.
Better systems have the capability of automatically indexing your files at the point they are scanned, by effectively reading them. Documents are usually fully OCR’d (optical character recognition) which ensures that your filing is searchable across the entire text content. This can be incredibly useful in retrieving documents with a common thread.
- Automatic File Archiving: Certain DMS ensure that files can be automatically archived from the main database once their relevance decreases to ensure filing remains pertinent. Rules can be set to automatically archive certain documents or flag them for deletion as part of a compliance requirement.
What will be the benefit of using a document management system?
The reason you would invest in a DMS is to improve the working of your business. This is achieved by removing many of the cumbersome and often frustrating tasks employees face in filing, retrieving, and working with files which are necessary to their roles.
Let us examine the benefits of a DMS in more detail.
- More time for important tasks: You are probably more than aware of the amount of time and cost associated with paper filing. Be it the amount of valuable office space it takes up and the amount of time your colleagues spend in its processing. A DMS removes this burden immediately and allows your employees to spend their time in more productive activities.
- Security of you Documents: As more and more of what we do becomes digital so with this increase the risks to security. DMS contain sophisticated security and access controls so that you can control exactly who can access which documents, as well as track and see all activity on any given document.
- Full disaster recovery backup: Paper files are inevitably vulnerable to fire or flood. Within a cloud DMS your files are stored safely in the cloud, backed up several times independently and away from physical harm.
- Flexible Scaling: Unlike a traditional paper filing system, the capacity of a DMS is much more flexible and easily grows along with your business. Increased storage or additional users can be added in just a few clicks. Without doubt, any move to reduce the need for physical storage space or worse needing larger premises just for reasons of storage must be a positive.
- Better regulatory compliance: This is a particularly hot topic in most industries and for others an absolute necessity, with fines, revoked licences and even criminal liability being a potential penalty. A DMS can help you avoid this by automating key documents to meet the requirements. A DMS will automatically follow those guidelines applicable to your business to keep you on the right side of current legislation.
- Locating documents effortlessly: Endless searches to find the document they are looking for is a continual bug bear for many employees and apart from building frustration can be extremely costly to business.
PricewaterhouseCoopers in a recent survey estimate that the process of finding one lost document can cost a company on average £90, with 7.5% of all documents being lost for good. A DMS, as a minimum, ensures any document can be easily located in a matter of seconds and via the cloud on any device, from any location.
- Collaboration made easy: A DMS provides secure access of data to both those inside and outside of the business, allowing the sharing of information and making project collaboration easy. Documents can be shared, workflows generated whilst strictly controlling access
Do you need further help? BPMS are a genuinely independent provider of document management bringing decades of experience and are well placed to provide you help and advice as you begin to consider which document management system is right for your business.
To arrange your initial free consultation, please get in touch and let us begin your journey together.
