Document Management System: Definitions And Advantages

Electronic document management, or DMS (from the English Document Management System ), is the direct consequence of document dematerialization, which is adopted in new business practices. Racks are finally freed from significant, dusty folios that don’t allow you to precisely exploit the information they contain. How would you organize your requests, checks, contracts, etc.? Here is one more procedure that licenses you to hold, narrate, and use the report resources of your association in a perfect world. Money managers, overseers, and starters offer you all the stray pieces of electronic chronicle-the-board and its advantages, especially in SaaS mode. Welcome to the era of document management 2.0, from digital transition to collaborative work!

Document Management System (DMS): Definition

The DMS is part of the more prominent family of Enterprise Content Management. It is a computerized document management system to arrange and work with the creation and the board of electronic data and archives inside an association. The DMS takes part in cooperative work cycles, capitalization, and data trading. It also allows you to manage the following:

access rights based on users and their functions the systems:

1. capture (mass scanning of paper documents)
2. of indexing
3. of archiving,
4. information storage,
5. document distribution,
6. workflows

The Challenges Of DMS: Why Implement It?

Organizations’ volumes of information and documents quickly become unmanageable and can hinder productivity. For this reason, it is essential to centralize and standardize them to:

1. facilitate internal work and communication,
2. improve archiving by indexing them according to specific algorithms
3. flawless management of customer relations (no loss of contractual documents or other content),
4. foster collaborative document creation
5. improve accounting and electronic invoicing management

Let’s take a closer look at the advantages associated with DMS.

A Sustainable Solution

Paper is damaged, lost, or forgotten at the bottom of a drawer. In digital format, a document is protected. There are also ultra-secure backup systems that guarantee duplication on different servers.

A High-Performance Search Tool

Thanks to metadata, it is possible to attribute different characteristics to a document so that the search engine can find it through different indexing paths. Example: An invoice can be found by typing the customer or product names.

A Structuring Classification

The documents are stored in a virtual library and accessible to all, thanks to a tree structure. A tree structure guides users through how folders, subfolders, and files are organized.

Cost Reduction, Time-Saving

No need to print everything and store it in cardboard boxes that take up space, management is digital! You save on manual labor, electricity, and machine maintenance. Time is saved at all levels: searching for documents, archiving, distributing, and automating some tasks (indexing, etc.).

Collaborative Work And Traceability

Changed files are updated in real-time, with everyone working from the same documents simultaneously from multiple locations. Previous versions are accessible through history, with the date and name of the collaborator who made changes, thanks to the timestamp.

This is called versioning and avoids duplication.

Secure Information Capital

You can manage access rights to protect your information. There are also built-in digital vaults for indexing, retrieving, and archiving sensitive and evidence-based files in a highly secure environment. This complimentary tool does not intervene in the lifecycle of a document at the same time.

Implement Electronic Document Management

First Steps Toward DMS

The Acquisition Phase

Scan all your existing paper documents. It is a tedious but critical task. Once you do, you won’t have to do it again. NB: Thanks to ADF (automatic document capture) technology, it is possible to extract information from scanned images, including OCR (Optical Character Recognition), barcode recognition, and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) techniques. This can save valuable time.

The Processing Stage

Indexing of scanned documents to facilitate search engine operations:

1. by type (formal description of the document using its metadata (author, title, source, date, etc.),
2. for concepts or keywords (indications on the content of the document).
3. Some software can do this for you (index just the filename or the content and metadata).

The Archiving Phase

Store them on a medium of your choice, ensuring compliance with the principles:

1. authenticity: the copies are accurate, identical to the originals,
2. sustainability: your data is usable in the long term,
3. confidentiality: your sensitive data is protected.

The Diffusion Phase

The DMS makes it possible to determine the distribution of documents within the company according to predefined procedures and working methods (the workflow). For its implementation to benefit everyone, disseminate these procedures to all your employees.

The Valorisation Phase

Use your data. Let’s also talk about Content Analytics: it analyzes and exploits effective corporate data content to transform them into indicators, trends, situations, and, therefore, decisions.

Why Choose A Cloud Solution?

A DMS software system in SaaS mode allows you to have a scalable, constantly updated, and accessible tool for all employees, even if mobile. You can also share access with third parties, such as your accountant, suppliers, or customers, for greater fluidity in your exchanges. Finally, there are no storage issues. Everything is in the cloud. Among the criteria to take into account when choosing the software, pay attention to:

1. Compliance: especially with standards such as ISO 9001 and GDPR
2. Mobility and collaborative work: access from mobile devices and the possibility of collaborative work even remotely
3. Compatibility with other software you use

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