How to choose the right document management system
The rise in remote workforces has prompted many organizations to search for a viable document management system.
But to justify its adoption, an organization must study the DMS tools and ensure that they meet the organization’s needs. With more options becoming available due to improved technology and awareness, it can be difficult to know what to look for.
What is a document management system?
Document management systems help teams go beyond the limits of paper-based workflows to bring all their business systems online. They also provide a more structured alternative to simple file management systems that improve security, sharing and connectivity across workflows and applications.
A document is the universal API of business information exchange. Every business document, including invoices, contracts, bills of materials and purchase orders, is packaged into universal-sized pieces of paper. Document management systems bring order and consistency to these manual processes.
Why does an organization need a document management system?
The need of every enterprise is different. Smaller companies might appreciate the opportunity to digitize manual and physical processes. Larger firms may appreciate new capabilities for integrating document data across various customer, financial, legal and compliance workflows more efficiently and with a higher level of granularity. And these more sophisticated capabilities are becoming more accessible and cost-effective thanks to improvements in AI, robotic process automation (RPA) and the cloud.
A document management system is a critical step in automating business processes. Timeshatter, a timeshare negotiations consultancy, turned to a document management system to improve complex workflows around timeshare contracts.
Implementing a document management system helped eliminate human error, according to Timeshatter CEO Brian Donovan. It also improved access and reduced the time spent ruffling through filing cabinets to find documents.
Companies with a high volume of critical documents will likely see the most significant gains from deploying a DMS platform.
Ephesoft, an intelligent document management system vendor, sees significant adoption among financial services companies, healthcare organizations, government agencies, education institutions and manufacturing firms, according to Dave Beery, data science team lead at the company.
