Document management and business strategies go hand in hand to ensure that businesses are properly organized, complies with regulations and able to provide excellent customer service. A well-designed document management strategy can save businesses a tremendous amount of money by reducing storage, printing and retrieval costs as well as more efficient processes and improved security.
Documents are crucial to the running of any company, no matter if they are electronic or physical. They need to be easily retrieved and understood to boost productivity, speed up response times to customers and improve security and information governance. Making a plan for managing documents and setting up a new system to simplify the process of managing physical or digital documents can help companies achieve these goals.
A sound document management strategy is one that clearly defines steps to establish a consistent workflow. It also includes naming files, categorizing and labeling them, and controlling their life-cycle. It should also contain a set of clearly defined procedures called Standard Operating Procedures that cover the creation and storage of documents, as well as retrieval and organization. The plan should also identify who is responsible to manage each document, and their roles and responsibilities. It should also make sure that documents can be easily searchable and that each has a clear version history.
Having an established document management plan and implementing the required technology tools is only half of the battle. The business must also make sure that these tools are used properly and regularly. This means conducting frequent surveys and assessing the system’s use. It is crucial to develop a plan for training staff on how to use a document management software and also to increase adoption and familiarity.