Document Management System – Where to get started?

Why Document Management?

A digital document management system is a centralised library of all business documents and transactions. Businesses storing documents in shared drives, local PCs, non-enterprise cloud-based solutions such as dropbox, or worst still as paper archives will all relate to the following challenges :

1. Can’t find documents or waste a lot of time and effort to look for information when needed.
2. Always worried about data breaches as documents are not stored securely.
3. Information is often lost, or inaccurate information is shared causing issues in document driven processed.
4. Sharing and collaborative working is stifled, and everyone is working on a different version of documents.

Traditional Document management vs Cloud Solution

The solution to some of the above challenges were offered by traditional document management system and most large enterprises would use some kind of document management software, typically installed on their servers. Small to medium sized businesses still suffer from scattered storage of documents and hence would more likely relate to these challenges.

The new, lighter cloud-based version of document management systems is more aligned to the new user needs. It carries over all the robust features of a traditional document management system and is accessible via mobile devices and provides integration with other business systems to enable information sharing between systems without the need for data entry.

There are new features that make compliance to new regulations easier by applying stricter corporate policies and ensuring a legally admissible audit trail is maintained.

There is something for the IT team too – it’s not disruptive, so you don’t have to derail your efforts from any other critical project to get started.

Convinced cloud-based Document Management is right for you?

... but don’t know where to start?
Here are there steps we recommend you should take towards getting a quick return on “document management” investment.

Three steps to pick the ideal document management system for you

1.Identify the right processes

A process that is document intensive and requires frequent exchange of information is right for application of document management. If the process requires geographically distributed teams to access information and process it, then there is a strong case for cloud-based solution. This enables distributed teams to access one version of documents from anywhere at any time.

Some such processes include contract management, employee on-boarding and off-boarding, employee records management and invoice processing. Identifying correct processes can yield substantial results in a very short period, demonstrating quick return on investment.

2.Ensure information flows seamlessly between systems

If we take the example of processes mentioned above, its easy to see that we could benefit most from a document management system if it allowed documents to be seen across systems where teams would look at documents. For example, for processing invoices: accounts payable team would like to see the invoices in an accounting system, for a contract management process: Procurement team would like to see proof of delivery, driver contracts in an ERP system.

Ensure the document management system that you choose allows this exchange of information easily. This would result in complete accessibility of documents and no hold ups or delays in processes.

3.Train users and manage change

If the user interface is complicated and it makes the users life even more difficult, then they will quickly revert to old ways of storing data on local/shared drives and data entry. If the user interface is simple and users are well trained as per their role in managing documents, the adoption of the document management system will be quick. This will again result in quick return on investment.

Twofold will be happy to help choose the right document management solution for you based on your needs or even optimise an existing solution. Talk to one of our business consultants today about your Document Management needs.

What next? 

Twofold Ltd helps overcome these challenges by  providing cloud or on-premise solutions for HR document management, and managing personnel in line with GDPR regulations. Our range of services range from DocuWare for employment records management to secure scanning and capture hardware and software. Contact us via the form here, or give the team a call on 0118 951 9800 to discuss if your HR team has any challenges around GDPR or employee data management.

Chris Gubbins

Document management product specialist