Why Your Teams Need a Digital Document Management System

Nobody gets goosebumps when the topic of document management comes up. It may not be the most thrilling subject, but efficiently creating, distributing, and managing critical business documents has a huge impact on your business. Done well, document management will enable you to work efficiently and make informed decisions.

However, even though 93%  of U.S. companies conduct at least some business online, 40% of businesses still use paper-based filing processes.

To provide faster, more efficient information workflows, a growing number of organizations are evaluating their document management processes in both hard copy and digital formats. A digital document management system is an automated software that helps your teams organize, secure, store, and manage their business documents. When managed effectively, many find that an all-digital document management system benefits their employees and their bottom line. Let’s find out how:

Less Clutter

It’s no secret that your organization handles a considerable number of documents on a routine basis. Even with the steep rise in digital business operations over the last two decades, the average office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year.

Often, the information your enterprise handles needs to be stored for future reference. In a paper-based operation, that means filing cabinets spread out across offices or lumped together in a crowded storage room. These cabinets (or the messy bottom drawer of your desk) quickly get overrun with stacks of paper, which means your organizational system goes out the window as things — quite literally — pile up.

Filing systems aren’t just a hassle to use; they also lead to significant business costs over time due to: 

• The expensive office space used to store filing cabinets and other receptacles
• The prints and reprints needed to integrate files into storage or replace missing ones
• The time employees spend looking through an endless stack of paper files

With a document management system, you don’t have to take up an area for your data. Storing documents digital frees up space in your office and gives employees a unified storage system to parse through when they’re looking for a critical piece of documentation. 

More Security

While a paper-based filing system’s literal lock-and-key security gives many business owners peace of mind, these tools aren’t without several risks. First off, most filing systems don’t offer state-of-the-art tools. Big box cabinet manufacturers likely install the same lock-and-key system on multiple products. The constant hassle of asking, “Who has the key to this filing cabinet?” often leads frustrated employees to leave keys out and available to all.

Believe it or not, 41% of companies leave over 1,000 sensitive files open to any employee in their office. With no record of who accesses which files and why, your organization’s sensitive information could easily fall into the wrong hands. Plus, if your office building catches fire, floods, or lands in the path of a natural disaster, you’re likely to lose years of irreplaceable information.

On the other hand, a digital document management system provides a virtually impenetrable safe house for your organization’s private information. Because cyber threats are an unavoidable reality, digital document management systems include a range of robust, built-in security features so you can rest assured that your data files are protected from bad actors. Most solutions also allow you to restrict access as necessary and maintain a record of who has viewed or modified a document at any time.

An additional benefit to employing a document or enterprise content management system is that your data will be backed up, thereby protecting it against disaster. This means that you will become more organized and improve security all at once.

Simplified Storage

One of the most cumbersome experiences associated with paper-based filing methods arises when employees go to retrieve a previously stored file. After all, the main point of maintaining files is to access them when needed and ensure you’re looking at the most recent version of the document you need. A paper-based process requires staff to sift through piles of paper and compare multiple conflicting versions of a document against one another to identify the most up-to-date version.

Sometimes, just tracking down a single document costs employees large chunks of working time. A simple typo or misfile can turn into a wild goose chase that leaves your staff frustrated and often still lacking the information they need to do their jobs.

Rather than requiring users to thumb through files or scan alphabetized dividers, a digital document management system can search for multiple keywords simultaneously, discovering your results much more quickly. Digital storage also helps with version control and ensures everyone is working from a single source of truth.

Efficient document management systems save your employees hours of working time and make it easier for them to do their jobs effectively. A study by Laserfiche estimates that a digital document management system can save your teams up to 6,000 hours per year, equating to 2.4 full-time staff positions.

Make a Holistic Evaluation of Your Document Management Operations With Centric

Well-optimized document workflows and a reliable document management system can help you determine a better way to support your key business objectives and keep your employees’ daily operations running smoothly.

However, effective digital document management requires more than a single software tool. A holistic evaluation of your people, processes, and technology can help you create your ideal document workflows and streamline operations across your organization.

Are you interested in learning more?

Contact Centric to learn how our Business Technology Assessment can unlock new business value and optimize your internal workflows.