Top 7 Ways Any Company Can Benefit from Document Management Systems
Marci L. Crane
February 16, 2010
Every company and every organization can benefit from the automated speed and organization that document management systems provide. Every industry has standards to adhere to even if the standards are created by the company itself. Take a look at the top 7 ways document management systems can improve your business.
Reason #7: Speed
Every company wants speed. The best equipment and the best employees result in faster results without sacrificing quality. Document management systems also speed things up---in every aspect of business. They speed-up collaboration and approval processes (see reason #2) and they save time that employees would have used to slowly route documentation, search for documentation, collate documentation, etc. The savings in time alone can save companies thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars annually.
Reason #6: Document Management Systems Collaboration
Collaboration has long been associated with document management systems and is one of the main reasons that many companies invest in the systems in the first place. They want a system that will automate the creation, routing, approval and archival of documents as well as providing a state-of-the-art audit trail, high-level "searchability" and reporting capabilities.
Reason#5: Transparent Audit Trails
Transparency, even if it isn´t demanded by a federal government agency (which in many cases it actually is) is one of the wisest measures that a company can make not only in terms of compliance with industry-specific regulations but to ensure that information is readily available in the case of civil action or unfounded accusations that can be readily laid to rest with the right audit trail. Quick searchability capabilities also allow companies to protect themselves without spending unnecessary fees for legal hours or internal hours used to look for lost documentation.
Reason #4: Reporting and Version Control
There are many documents that require reporting. Whether they are spreadsheets, legal documents, documents related to human resources or the latest SOPs it helps to have these documents readily available for trending (in the case of graphs or spreadsheets) or easily searchable by the latest version of the document. It is of course also helpful if a document management system is robust enough to manage all file types.
Reason #3: The Environment
It´s popular for companies to "be green" and it´s no wonder. People are taking the responsibility to care for our environment seriously and there is nothing "greener" than document management systems. These systems literally obliterate the need for paper-based documentation and allow companies to more effectively comply with environmental standards that may be required by government, customers or industry organizations.
Reason #2: Training Combined with Document Management Systems
Training is essential in every work environment. Successful and efficient training at fast rates allows companies to save resources and compete within their respective industries more effectively. Training can also be improved when it is automated within a document management system. This may seem like a strange concept but consider how often documentation is involved with training. Whether it´s an agenda, an HR document, an SOP or any other document, when it´s changed or revised it often requires subsequent training sessions or the release of full-scale training units. The right document management systems can track these documents and when they are changed automatically trigger related training sessions that are emailed to all applicable users. A series of training courses can also be automated: when a user finishes a first segment he or she will automatically receive the second and so forth. Follow-ups and escalations are also automated as are training related data and exam grading.
Reason #1: Email Storage Capabilities
There are document management systems providers that do companies the great service of providing email storage capabilities within their document management systems. Theses systems allow emails marked by the recipient to be automatically delivered to the document management system where they can be routed to the correct directories and linked to related documentation.
Marci Crane is the Lifeline Publications Editor at MasterControl, Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about document management systems and quality management systems, please feel free to contact a MasterControl representative.
Reason #7: Speed
Every company wants speed. The best equipment and the best employees result in faster results without sacrificing quality. Document management systems also speed things up---in every aspect of business. They speed-up collaboration and approval processes (see reason #2) and they save time that employees would have used to slowly route documentation, search for documentation, collate documentation, etc. The savings in time alone can save companies thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars annually.
Reason #6: Document Management Systems Collaboration
Collaboration has long been associated with document management systems and is one of the main reasons that many companies invest in the systems in the first place. They want a system that will automate the creation, routing, approval and archival of documents as well as providing a state-of-the-art audit trail, high-level "searchability" and reporting capabilities.
Reason#5: Transparent Audit Trails
Transparency, even if it isn´t demanded by a federal government agency (which in many cases it actually is) is one of the wisest measures that a company can make not only in terms of compliance with industry-specific regulations but to ensure that information is readily available in the case of civil action or unfounded accusations that can be readily laid to rest with the right audit trail. Quick searchability capabilities also allow companies to protect themselves without spending unnecessary fees for legal hours or internal hours used to look for lost documentation.
Reason #4: Reporting and Version Control
There are many documents that require reporting. Whether they are spreadsheets, legal documents, documents related to human resources or the latest SOPs it helps to have these documents readily available for trending (in the case of graphs or spreadsheets) or easily searchable by the latest version of the document. It is of course also helpful if a document management system is robust enough to manage all file types.
Reason #3: The Environment
It´s popular for companies to "be green" and it´s no wonder. People are taking the responsibility to care for our environment seriously and there is nothing "greener" than document management systems. These systems literally obliterate the need for paper-based documentation and allow companies to more effectively comply with environmental standards that may be required by government, customers or industry organizations.
Reason #2: Training Combined with Document Management Systems
Training is essential in every work environment. Successful and efficient training at fast rates allows companies to save resources and compete within their respective industries more effectively. Training can also be improved when it is automated within a document management system. This may seem like a strange concept but consider how often documentation is involved with training. Whether it´s an agenda, an HR document, an SOP or any other document, when it´s changed or revised it often requires subsequent training sessions or the release of full-scale training units. The right document management systems can track these documents and when they are changed automatically trigger related training sessions that are emailed to all applicable users. A series of training courses can also be automated: when a user finishes a first segment he or she will automatically receive the second and so forth. Follow-ups and escalations are also automated as are training related data and exam grading.
Reason #1: Email Storage Capabilities
There are document management systems providers that do companies the great service of providing email storage capabilities within their document management systems. Theses systems allow emails marked by the recipient to be automatically delivered to the document management system where they can be routed to the correct directories and linked to related documentation.
Marci Crane is the Lifeline Publications Editor at MasterControl, Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT. To learn more about document management systems and quality management systems, please feel free to contact a MasterControl representative.
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