What is a Document
Management System?

A Document Management Workflow is the process of creating, storing, routing and sharing, approving, deleting, editing, managing, and categorizing documents in the organization. The process provides guidelines on performing various tasks during the document life cycle.

Here are some key questions to consider when developing a document management workflow:

• Creation. How a document is created in the specified workflow.
• Retrieval. How to find and access documents and what to do if a document is deleted by mistake. Are the access rights restricted for some types of documents? For whom and to what degree?
• Editing. How are the documents edited? Does the Document Management System provide version control, and can selected revisions be undone? How do you roll back to an earlier version?
• Requests and approvals. Does a new document need approval by someone other than the creator? Which actions are involved in the approval process?
• Deletion. How are duplicates and other redundant files identified and removed?
• Update. How do you keep the documents updated and relevant? A modern Document Management System allows you to set audit reminders for the owners of the documents.
• Tracking and reporting. Can the workflow be monitored using various tracking functions to ensure that all the processes involved in the document life cycle are working correctly?
• Sharing. How are the documents distributed and shared securely without risking duplicates being spread in the organization?

When choosing a Document Management System, look for these key features:

• Multi-source document input. For efficient and user-friendly document processes, it’s good to have various ways of bringing documents into the platform. Besides allowing for a smooth, consistent, and uniform creation of new documents via templates, the platform should support the import of documents via, for instance, email, scanner and OCR, apps, and bulk uploads.
  
  
• Permissioned, mobile and cloud access. The platform must allow for restricted access to specific documents or folders by role, group, department, or a specified user. Having the documents accessible via the Cloud and mobile devices boosts your organization’s flexibility, productivity, and collaboration.
  
  
• Document version control and restoration. Version management provides control over who’s done what with a document, from its creation until it’s archived or deleted. This feature should allow for rollback to its earlier versions and undo changes being made to it. The platform should provide full versioning, editing history, and restoration support.
  
  
• Advanced structuring and search. Tagging and indexing your documents makes searching for them more accessible and faster. A document should be categorized and indexed based on its author, version and revision, metadata, context, and content. To use indexing, the platform must provide advanced search filters so users can combine different search categories to narrow down the results.
  
  
• Automatic updates and deletion. Keeping the documents up-to-date and the archives free from redundant information and duplicates saves space and ensures that decisions and actions are based on accurate information. Many platforms provide good support for update reminders and automatically deleting redundant and outdated files.
  
  
• Templates guidelines. This is a hygiene factor. The platform should provide tools for organizing all approved templates used for the variety of documents that your organization will create and manage through the platform. Templates are the best way to keep your processes, brand, and communication uniform and in line with company policies while improving productivity.
  
  
• Integration capabilities: The platform should easily integrate with your IT infrastructure and corporate applications. For instance, your intranet, CRM, communications, desktop, and collaboration applications. Check the platform’s open APIs, which allow you to connect the DMS to different applications.
  
  
• Multi-layer security. Keeping sensitive information safe is imperative. Safe login procedures, encryption, comprehensive backup plans, and role-based access are features to look for. To ensure that only the right people have access to certain information, rights can be set based on several criteria: by user, group, or department. The folder can also impose user restrictions on the document, supporting audit trail requirements.

A Document Management Software is a digital solution used for capturing, storing, organizing, editing, and collaborating on documents and files. This can be word-processing documents, PowerPoint and Excel files, PDFs, or digital images of paper-based documents.

Good file management software and practices ensure that files are organized, making them easy to find and retrieve and not lost or misplaced. It boosts efficiency and reduces stress and time spent searching for or recreating un-found files.

Yes, both Microsoft 365 and Office 365 provide support for document management. These product suites include various software applications, such as SharePoint and OneDrive, which can be used for document management.

EDMS is a software solution used to create, store, retrieve, structure, share and collaborate on documents in different formats. It helps users manage and track documents in a centralized database.

Documents are either stored locally on on-premises servers or in the Cloud. When making this decision, organizations will consider flexibility, efficiency, and security requirements.

Cloud storage is an online file server service like Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, and OneDrive. Many organizations use cloud storage just for backup. A cloud-based DMS provides file storage, lifecycle management, and collaboration.

A protocol outlines the rules as to how documents are to be managed throughout their entire life cycle. This includes rules for creating, moving, storing, protecting, structuring, retrieving, sharing, editing, archiving, and deleting.