Managing electronic documentation is much easier, safer and more efficient than working with their paper counterparts. Electronic document workflow provides convenient access to current and archive company resources, ensures quick and efficient work and effectively protects confidential data against unauthorised access. Implementing such a solution also saves company’s resources – time, money and energy of its staff. All these benefits stemming from shifting towards electronic documentation can be brought about by a properly selected, highly functional and flexible document management system

What is a DMS and what does it do in the electronic document workflow?

DMS-class solutions, or document management systems are a category of specialised enterprise-grade software solutions, designed and created to ensure reaping the benefits of electronic document workflow, which is becoming increasingly popular with modern companies and organisations that are looking for proven and effective methods, as well as tools to improve their efficiency and quality of their operations, covering both their daily operations and their strategic goals. The steadily growing popularity of electronic documents stems directly from a broad range of measurable and perceptible benefits that arise from this paradigm shift. Electronic documents greatly surpass storing company resources in paper form.

Paper documents are very problematic in everyday operations. Working with them involves a high risk of losing, destroying or misplacing important documents, which can expose the company to severe financial and image consequences. The lack of adequate security measures and piles of papers on employees’ desks, usually piling up without any oversight, leads to the risk of unauthorised access and confidential information leaks. Managing paper documents is also a costly undertaking, as it requires the creation and maintenance of a physical archive, hiring staff responsible for its management, as well as maintaining printing infrastructure and buying proper printing materials. Any company that focuses on environmental protection and ecology should make the vision of a paperless office a reality and say goodbye once and for all to the flood of physical documents – unnecessary in many cases.

These problems do not exist in the case of electronic document circulation, which assumes complete digitalisation of the company’s documentation and its storage in an electronic form, based on the company’s digital assets, available from a dedicated DMS-class system. The implementation of an electronic document workflow enables the company to curb all key problems related to paper document management, as well as save time and money – this makes this move the first crucial step towards the digital transformation of the company, which in the current reality is one of the most promising and recommended directions for organisations striving to improve their competitive edge and ensure growth, keeping up with the times and technological progress.

What features should a great document management system have?

The main task of document management systems is to ensure efficient, effective and fully automated work related to processing of all kinds of received, generated, processed and archived documents. However, the scope of benefits offered by modern DMS-class systems is in fact quite diverse and strictly depends on their built-in features. High-quality, well thought-out, enterprise-grade DMS-class systems developed with Industry 4.0 in mind, remain simple and intuitive to use despite their extensive and powerful feature sets. What is important, they also enable simple, efficient and secure integration with other systems implemented in the company (such as CRM, ERP, etc.), enabling synergies and ensuring a number of additional benefits from even better use of the company’s IT infrastructure.

The best document management systems available on the market are based on many innovative technologies – robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Other features, such as automatic document registration and generation, reporting, adding attachments and manuals, viewing change history, smart optical character recognition (OCR), generating barcodes, digital signatures, etc. enables companies to have everything they need to effectively and efficiently manage their documentation in one comprehensive solution. Particularly noteworthy among documentation management solutions are innovative low-code platforms, which not only provide key DMS-class features, but also enable the creation of highly functional enterprise applications, efficient real-time change management and business process optimisation.

A high-end document management system provides numerous benefits for the company and its staff. Collecting all company documentation in a single, easily accessible place shortens the time needed to retrieve the required papers, accelerates the performance and tasks and allows employees to work not only at the office, but also during business trips and at home. Thanks to the extensive feature sets, the operation of DMS systems can be perfectly aligned with the current and emerging needs of the company, and the highest security standards ensure proper protection of company data in accordance with applicable legal standards. Good quality document management systems also offer full audit trail – the ability to control the flow of documents throughout the organisation.

By following the link below you will find relevant information about document management system: https://webcon.com/platform/document-management/