It wasn’t that long ago that the barrage of documents flooding offices were filed manually in bulky file cabinets by human beings. Searching for a document meant someone would have to get up and walk—sometimes a considerable distance—to go find it. Oh, how far we’ve come.
Document Management Systems (DMS) are a game-changer for how modern businesses operate. We all know the benefits of a DMS by now: they make workers more efficient, automate a ton of processes, neatly organize your documents, and most importantly, enable employees to locate documents quickly and easily. But what are some innovations that are pushing the boundaries of efficiency even further? There are eight functions that make a DMS even more efficient:
1) Versatile, Simple Document Capture
Whether an organization uses paper, or has made strides towards the paperless office, efficiently capturing documents is vital to organizing data properly.
Scan profiles that can configure and save commonly used settings to import paper data are a must for businesses looking to cut the time employees spend away from their desk importing documents. More robust offerings allow users to create soft-keys on the MFP’s control panel or in the DMS itself, enabling them to scan to destinations, or automatically integrate the captured document into workflows.
Drag-and-drop capabilities offer users a simple and easy method of adding documents to the DMS. Let’s say a user needs to add an email attachment to the DMS. Instead of saving the attachment to the desktop, then importing it from there, the user can simply drag and drop the file directly into the DMS.
Batch importing reduces the time it would take an employee to import large volumes of documents. Some systems offer features that allow users to import different single and multi-page documents, and file types in one batch, indexing and separating the documents, then routing them to their proper destination automatically.
2) Automated, One-Click, and Learned Indexing
Once documents have been captured, they must be organized so users can search for them later. But manual indexing can be time consuming or lead to costly mistakes associated with misfiling.
Automated indexing features enable the DMS processing engine to “read” the document in order to determine how the document should be filed. With the proper intelligence, an advanced DMS can tell if the document is an invoice, who it’s from, what department it’s for, and how much it’s for. Furthermore, the feature picks out meta-data such as date, file type, and so on.
One-click/Highlight indexing are useful for manually indexing documents. Users can simply click or highlight data, indexing a portion or the entire document. This can be handy for text-based searches made later.
Learned indexing is a feature that enables the DMS to read and compare imported documents against the rest of the database. Based on the comparison, the DMS suggests indexing data and indicates how likely the data is accurate.
Linking documents is useful for grouping documents together. Users can jump between related documents instead of searching for them separately.
3) Embedded Connectors for MFPs
For organizations that still integrate paper documents into their workflow, being able to access the DMS from an MFP’s control panel is essential. Organizations should leverage their investments by extending the DMS’s capabilities to the MFP.
Scan to/Print from features enable users to access the DMS from the MFP’s control panel, enabling them to select documents to print, or scan, index, and route data.
Extend the capabilities of your MFP by allowing users to execute actions at the MFP that can be done in the DMS. For example, let’s say a user needs to attach a scanned image to an email. Traditionally, the user would scan the paper document, walk back to their PC, open the DMS, find the document, and attach it to an email. With embedded connectors, this process is streamlined—users can attach the scan to an email from the MFP, input the sending address, subject, cc, bcc, and body text, and then send the email—all from the MFP’s control panel. The email will be addressed from the user’s email account and stored in his or her outbox.
4) Advanced Search Features
Due to the sheer amount of documents some organizations store, neat organization does not guarantee documents will be easy to find. With that in mind, a great DMS employs powerful, granular search features to ensure users can locate documents quickly.
Auto-fill search will complete search queries based on the inputted text against the database. This comes in handy for users who know what they are looking for, but are unsure about spelling, or only remember the first few letters (such as a first name) of indexed data.
Full-text search can help users who forget the name of a document, but remember certain words contained in the document.
Phrase search enables users to search for a string of text in a document. Proximity search allows users to search for characters in a document with in a given amount of words.
5) Integrate with Everything
Today’s business landscape is riddled with applications, solutions, and hardware designed to make organizations and their employees more efficient. A DMS should integrate with any major application, solution, and hardware utilized by an organization, facilitating the quick and easy exchange of vital information.
6) On Demand Access
Mobile devices and the cloud are revolutionizing the business world. Mobile applications bundled with a DMS offer users access to the system from virtually anywhere. Some platforms offer near full functionality on mobile applications or web-based access from outside of the office.
With the rise of the cloud comes on-demand access to the documents and applications that knowledge-workers use every day, so on-the-go workers can be as productive on the road as they are in their office. The cloud offers a cost-efficient alternative to on-premises deployments by eliminating the front-loaded investment of purchasing, deploying, and maintain a server. Cloud-based DMS—or at least hybrid cloud solutions (on-premises deployments with private-cloud access)—should be a serious consideration for those in the market for a DMS.
7) Robust Document Viewer
Of the thousands of existing file types, hundreds are utilized commonly throughout the business world. One client may email attachments as a PDF, while others may send TIFF. Some organizations may generate documents in Microsoft Word, while others use Open Office. And vertical markets rely on industry-specific file types, such as CAD drawings in the AEC (architectural, engineering and construction) arena. The point is, a DMS must offer a means to view file without requiring that the document’s native application be installed on each user’s desktop.
8) Document Versioning, Collaboration, and Check in/Check out
For a team to succeed, collaboration is vital. DMS platforms must allow multiple users to access documents simultaneously in order to effectively do their job.
Check in/check out capabilities enable employees to check a document out of the DMS. They can make changes to the document, and once it is checked back in, changes will be updated for other users to see.
Document versioning saves different versions of a document. If a user makes alternations and saves the document, the earlier version, unaltered, is still available for others to access. This ingenious feature is not only perfect for undoing mistakes, but is also essential in industries where regulatory requirements necessitate that document history be maintained. Some DMS platforms also offer an audit trail, capturing meta-data such as who made alterations, when they made it, and more.
To see our complete coverage of the DMS arena and to find a solution that’s right for you clients, be sure to investigate the Document Management product category on bliQ.