Digital document management

What is digital document management?

Companies today create a huge amount of documents and data in the course of doing business and collaborating with customers, partners and other stakeholders. Even though many of them are considering abandoning paper, they continue to create, receive and share documents through their many workflows and systems. Document creation is comparatively simple. Organizing and storing documents so they are accessible and secure is a problem for most teams.

Digital document management is the way an organization uses, manages, and stores documents within its enterprise. These documents can be in various formats, such as PDF files, images, videos, audio files, spreadsheets, etc. It helps to simplify the process of managing the lifecycle of documents to a great extent. They serve as a one-stop shop for all of a company’s information and archives. When someone with the right access needs something, they know where to look.

Digital document management should be part of a holistic information management strategy and is essential for successful digital transformation. It brings measurable cost savings, efficiencies and service delivery improvements to organizations of all sizes. The goal is to reduce and, if possible, completely eliminate paper and paper-based processes that slow down operations.

Why do organizations need it?

In today’s business landscape, with the shift to hybrid or decentralized ways of working, innovative entrepreneurs and managers have long since stopped using binders or other manual systems to manage, store and share documents.

Companies are implementing digital document management to maintain control and gain insight over documents and data coming in and out of the organization. Whether working in the office or remotely, you want to ensure that all employee:s are using the latest and most up-to-date versions of documents without too much hassle or emailing back and forth.

Digital document management allows teams to easily add comments, suggestions and annotations to documents, making it easier to collaborate, communicate, review and approve work.

It also solves security and data audit issues by logging the lifecycle of a document from creation to modification and distribution. This is useful for internal accountability or a request for an external audit by authorities.

Digital document management and its benefits

Unlike consumer document management tools like Dropbox and Google Drive, enterprise digital document management offers much more than digital storage. Version control, permission-based access, data backup, data protection, and workflow features make storing, securing, and sharing documents more cost- and time-efficient for businesses. Listed below are some of the key benefits:

1. Fast access

Locating a paper document from typically large volumes of content can be difficult - sometimes impossible. A digital document management system makes it quick and easy to access.

2. Better workflows

Business processes involve moving documents from internal to external parties, from department to department, and from person to person within a department. Often, people with different roles (e.g., creation, review, approval, and dispatch) need to reference the document during a workflow. Digital document management ensures efficient movement of documents, speeds up the process and reduces errors.

3. Compliance and audits

A digital document management system allows the history of a document to be tracked from creation to editing to downloading. This information is critical for companies to comply with internal policies and general regulations.

4. Enhanced security

A digital document management system ensures that only authorized individuals can access documents. Once content is digitized in a document management system, it is safe even in the event of natural disasters, damage or loss.

5. Cost savings

Managing large volumes of documents generated in the course of business is expensive. With a paper-based system, paper, printers, ink, file folders, filing cabinets, archiving staff, etc. gobble up budgets. At the same time, with a digital document management system, there are also big savings in increased efficiency.

Conclusion

Digital document management is an important tool for digital transformation. Its effective use in an organization ensures that data and knowledge are secure, accurate, and accessible. With this level of comfort, employees are more willing to reduce paper and rely on software. This is equally an important step towards a paperless office.