“What is this Document Management Stuff I keep hearing about?”

Has your copier rep been bringing up document management more lately?  If not, they should…  unless you already have a document management system already.  What does a document management system even do for you and do you really need one?  These are great questions.

The short answers –

You may need document management, you may not.  It depends.  The bigger or more documents you deal with, the more likely you need it.

Document management is a quick method to organize all company documents, sent and received, for the purpose of storage or later retrieval.

The long answers –

Document management is needed by companies who want to improve their efficiency in workflow handling or paperwork processing and who want to comply with federal or industry standards when it comes to document chain of custody.  For example, if an attorney needs to be able to show who looked and what document and when they did so, then document management is important.  It will show which files the person internally looked at, if they modified the document, what modifications were made and retain a copy of the original as well as the revised document.

Another use of a document management would be if a sales rep were about to leave and you wanted to see if they were accessing databases such as pricing schedules and client lists for them to use with their new company.  This would be done by auditing the person rather than the document and you could go back in time and see every document they accessed to make sure there was a compelling non-compete put into place.

A third use is when there is a long process that needs some real management.  For example, say an invoice comes in.  First the envelope is opened.  There is a need for a manager to approve the expense.  Someone may see the invoice came from ABC construction and Bill, the Account Manager deals with all stuff ABC construction related.  Maybe Bill forwards to Henry his boss when he approves it.  Henry then forwards to the President to approve.  The president is super busy, so maybe his admin forwards these to accounting.  Accounting cuts the check.  They then report back to Bill and Bill contacts the client.  With traditional ways of running an office, all this is manual.  With document management, the workflow can be automated.

Here is another application.  Your manufacturing company is seeking to become ISO 9001 Certified.  Part of the certification you applied for means things happen consistently.  There may be 23 different builds for a particular product.  With document management you will always be able to grab the most recent plans to ensure you are reaching the highest standards as well as protecting compliance.  If someone makes a change to a document you will see who made that change.

If you are looking for a document management or business process quote in Denver, please give us a call today!