Document management and business strategies go hand in hand to ensure that businesses stay well-organized, compliant and able serve customers efficiently. A well-designed strategy for managing documents can help businesses save money by reducing storage, printing and retrieval costs, while improving security and efficiency.
Whatever form they take, whether physical or electronic, a company’s documents are critical to their operation. To increase productivity, improve the governance of information, and improve security documents must be easily searched for, understood and accessible. A document management plan and the implementation of a new system to facilitate the process of managing digital or physical documents will help a business meet its objectives.
A well-designed document management system includes clearly defined steps to establish a consistent workflow, organizing documents by naming, labeling and categorizing, as well as managing the life cycle of every document. It should also include an outline of clear procedures known as Standard Operating Procedures that cover document creation and storage, retrieval and organization. Additionally, a plan should identify who is responsible for managing each document, as well as the duties and responsibilities of the people responsible. It is also important to ensure that documents are easily searched and that every document has a clear history of versions.
The first half of the battle is implementing the appropriate technology tools and putting together a document-management plan. A business must also make sure that it uses these tools properly and regularly. This means conducting regular user surveys and evaluating the way in which the system is used. It is important to develop an action plan to educate staff on how to use a document management system and to promote adoption and familiarity.
