Proper documentation is one of the wheels to ensure your business keeps operating smoothly. For this reason, leveraging on the advantages of a document management system (DMS) can help you streamline this vital process. Sometimes, you may want to encourage remote working within your team members; thus, a DMS can also help them stay updated on document filing, especially with the use of document scanning services.
It’s software that also allows electronic signing of any documentation that may need authorization. Thus, incorporating this feature into your organization can reduce paperwork. You may only need to train your team how to esign a document and then adopt one that works well for your organization.
Benefits Of Using A DMS
A DMS automates your document storage and management. Therefore, it can relieve your team of manual efforts that sometimes result in errors and fatigue. Some of the benefits of a DMS include:
- DMS can improve team coordination and project management. This is because every team member can easily access original copies from any location, and you don’t need to make copies.
- The tagging system in DMS enables easier tracking and auditing. This saves both time and money.
- Electronic sign-offs and authorization make for quicker execution of the documentation process.
Tips For Improving Your DMS
Overall, whether you’re starting on a DMS or looking at optimizing its use, the tips below can help improve your document management system.
1. Define Access Levels.
Not every team member needs full access to all documents within your organization. As such, you can create different access levels that define the features and functions of each group of users. In so doing, you can create accountability and improve responsible use of the system. This also ensures lower-level users can advance elaborate features up the chain, thereby creating an audit record trail.
Your system admin can easily create these access levels from the dashboard. Thus, you can increase or reduce a user’s rights when necessary.
2. Train Your Team.
The success of your DMS in maintaining good documentation relies on how your team members use its functionalities. It’s, therefore, vital that you should carry out regular training that enlightens your staff on how the system can work best.
You can organize such training with an internal or external trainer to facilitate more informative sessions. It’s important to note that even with a good DMS software, if the users can’t fully utilize it, you may not realize the system’s full potential. Thus, you can go a step further and equip your team with a summary of the critical elements of the DMS. Additionally, encourage constant use and interaction with the system to enhance familiarity.
3. Identify System Admin.
There’s no doubt that the different system users will perform various functions on the platform. Some of these functions may create duplication or erroneously override entries from other users. However, a system administrator can help create folders or document groups, depending on your organization’s documentation preference. This can help users find their way around the DMS.
Furthermore, a system admin can help manage DMS functions, like defining access and authority levels, and keeping the software updated. On other occasions, the system admin can also organize staff training. A system admin can generally give you a focus point to address access levels, authority levels, document monitoring, and general system maintenance.
4. Keep Your DMS Software Up To Date.
Even though you can still use an older version of the software, there are times that it may not give you its full features, functions, and security. For example, it may accommodate certain file types or document versions, thus, limiting your team on what documents they can store in the system. Additionally, your DMS service provider may not adequately cover some support needs you may require.
It’s essential to update your DMS software to ensure you get the latest security features. Due to cybersecurity changes, DMS software developers can make updates to ensure users get protection from possible cyberattacks. Thus, updating your software lets you protect your documents and files.
5. Define And Communicate A Clear Tagging System.
A system can only be as efficient as its users. Therefore, you can develop a tagging system and ensure your team members understand the rule of the tagging system. With a sound tagging system, you can easily create a path to access documents in the DMS quickly. This also reduces team frustration while using the DMS, thereby encouraging utilization of this software to its optimum
6. Utilize Document Versioning.
Most types of DMS software allow users to store different file versions through document versioning. Therefore, using this feature enables your team to access files and documents from various devices. A file version that works on one device may not necessarily work on another device. But, with document versioning, you can eliminate this challenge.
Also known as file versioning, document versioning allows your team to edit existing documents without overwriting original documents. This means that you can easily track changes made to a particular document, thus, providing better audit trails.
Conclusion
To conclude, a DMS provides your organization with an efficient and secure documentation process. However, you can only gain from it with proper utilization of its features. Thus, the above tips can help ensure you use the DMS to its full potential.
