Document Management Systems: 6 Reasons Your Business Needs One

No matter the industry, every company leaves a paper trail. A filing cabinet might have been a trusted tool for many businesses before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now? Not so much.

Many businesses are operating in a hybrid work environment, with some employees working at home and others working in the office. Companies are left trying to find an easy solution to enhancing their pre-existing document management system or creating a new one.

LDI’s Document Management Services can help adapt your business to the newest tools available. While the search for efficiency is a never-ending process, we can easily help your company create, store, communicate, and access data.

This article will break down the six reasons for why your business needs a document management system. By the end of this article, you will understand how digitizing and automating your document management system can help improve your business’s workflow and protect access to your information.

Let us dive into what a document management system is and how it can help your business.

What is a Document Management System?

A document management system manages and stores your documents while reducing your paper trail. Whether through the cloud or your company’s server, using a unified software system that can attain and index all your documents can save your business time and money in the long-run.

Below are six reasons why your business needs to put a reliable and secure document management system in place.

What are 6 reasons for implementing a Document Management System?

Gone are the days where filing essential documents away in a cabinet will suffice. With most of your team working remote and the other half of your team working at their office desks, businesses need to transfer and retrieve documents seamlessly.

1. Simplified Workflow and Productivity:

When it comes to retrieving archived data, team members can now access that data through one click of a button from any device. All that is required is having access to your web browser and personal log-in information which allows you to access or modify your documents.

The removal of a manual task increases the efficiency in which you retrieve and send data out. With urgent documentation needing to be shared regularly in a work environment, a document management system allows you to send or upload any necessary documents to someone’s email or directly to a particular folder.

Depending on the Manager or authorized parties in control of your company’s system, certain team members may or may not be allowed to have access to a particular document which can help mitigate security concerns from the onset.

2. No Backlog Of Processes: 

Document Management Systems can enhance your high-volume processes and help you access any electronic document without delaying another person’s process.

Through digitizing your business’s workflow you can enhance processes within your organization as well as with your clients.

Depending on the task, whether it involves retrieving, scanning, or copying a document, it will not delay another person from getting their work done.

3. Document Encryption: 

Document encryption makes it possible to encrypt certain if not all documents from cyber attackers. With document encryption, the information will be unreadable via a complex algorithm.

Although a cyber attacker might gain access to the storage media in which these documents are stored, they will not be able to tamper with or exploit any important information included due to the encryption algorithm set in place.

With most businesses operating in a hybrid work environment, considering the security of a file is paramount. It should be a driving factor in solidifying a document management system that works best for your company.

4. Audit Trails: 

An audit trail will include a series of records related to specific computer events regarding an application, a user’s activity, or an operating system. An audit trail can display what leads a team member to a particular event and can act as either a support option or as an insurance policy or both.

Audit trails are mainly used for security-related objectives. They can also help solve IT-related issues in retracing a user’s steps to resolve a possible risk or bug.

Audit Trails act as a mechanism for enabling employees to maintain individual accountability, promoting professional and secure user behavior. If user actions are tracked via an audit trail that logs user activity, employees will be more aware of their decisions and how they can affect the company.

5. Reporting Capabilities: 

A document management system can provide reporting capabilities that enable users to view an analysis report regarding their user activity. Standard administrative reports, a simple customizable reporting option, and a fully customizable reporting option can all be accessed via a document management system’s reporting feature.

Many reports assist the overall management within a document management system’s operations and can be exported to a CSV file for extended analysis.

6. Digital Signatures: 

Signing and authenticating a document has become a lot simpler with the inclusion of digital signatures now accessible to businesses. Digital Signatures can increase the security and overall productivity of managing a document’s end-to-end process.

You might be asking, “What is the difference between a digital signature and an electronic signature?” Good question!

While both electronic and digital signatures allow for a speedy signing process, they differ in that digital signatures work by proving that a digital signature was not modified from its original state; digital signatures generally provide a private key and encryption. Where digital signatures are mainly used to secure documents and authorize them through authoritative processes, an electronic signature is often attached to a contract or form.

Electronic and digital signatures can both reside within your document management system while serving slightly different roles.

Is a Document Management System the right choice for your business? 

After reading the reasons mentioned above, you now know the benefits that can come from having a reliable document management system in place.

Digitizing your information and using an easy-to-use system helps your company save money and safely optimize your resources.

At LDI, we can help you implement a document management system and work with your employees to improve your current workflow. Speak with an LDI expert today about your document management needs and concerns, and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.