3 Tips to Optimize Your Electronic Document Management

Best Practices for The Best Workflows

Storing, sharing, filing. These verbs all have something in common: inadequacy. When it comes to your organization's documents, you simply can't rely only on storing, sharing and filing. When it comes to your critical information – from documents that support your business operations and compliance with governmental regulations to personnel files and communications with team members, partners and clients – you need to get on board with powerful document management software.

An effective and user friendly document management system not only streamlines processes and clears up communications, but it also makes the working environment much more pleasant for your team.

Here are three tips to help you and your team make the most out of your electronic document management:

1. Replace folders as you know them.
   Electronic Folders would be great if they were based on intelligent metadata. Today's world is saturated with information, and with the increasing volume of required documents, traditional methods of storing documents (i.e., folders) are problematic for a few key reasons:
   • Inability to quickly locate the correct version of documents
   • Inability to search for documents based on specific selection criteria
   • Inefficient manual processes needed to capture, store and route documents
   • Unnecessary content replication or misplacement due to confusing and inconsistent labeling/naming of folders
2. Take time now to save time later.
   Take the time up front to determine what documents you need to store, what information they contain and how people are going to most logically and efficiently locate them. The real value in document management is being able to find and view your documents quickly and easily with the following tools:
   • Easy-to-define indexes for rapid retrieval
   • Full-text search on document content, OCR search on document images
   • Easy navigation based upon user views
   • Global search for related documents across multiple document archives
   • Full file viewing capabilities and automatic launch of native applications
3. Train your team in document management.
   You know the saying: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Educate your team on 1) how to use your document management software (basic functionality) and 2) how to make the most out of the platform (best practices).
   • Make information fields required so people cannot skip steps.
   • Incorporate system usability into employees' job descriptions, as well as part of their reviews.
   • If you make updates to your platform to reflect changes in your organization's processes and workflow, make sure everyone is aware of these changes to the system.
   • Provide regular training sessions to keep everyone up-to-date and "on the same page."
   • Perform regular document audits to ensure that information is being stored correctly.

Your document management processes are only as efficient as you make them. Capitalize on the best document management system out there, and then get your whole team on board to make the most out of its innovation-driving, efficiency-boosting tools.

Want a more in-depth explanation of how an electronic document management system streamlines your organization's workflow based on your specific needs? Start the conversation with a member of the DocuVantage team by filling out this contact form or calling 866.367.3467, ext. 1.