The era of paper documents and bulky filing cabinets is over. According to the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), around 80% of companies agree that digitization is one of the most pressing priorities for their organization’s future. And digitizing paper documentation goes hand-in-hand with developing (or purchasing) a way to store and manage it.
That’s why procuring a document management system should actually come before even trying to digitize your paperwork. Here’s what you need to know.
Why Get a Document Management System First?
To answer this question, it will help to outline what a document management system (DMS) is. In short, a DMS is a digital system that stores, tracks, and secures a company’s digital records and documentation. It’s one of the precursor technologies to enterprise content management (ECM) systems, as well as a vital part of file-sharing systems.
Effectively, a document management system uploads your files to a remote-access server. The exact location of said server depends on the type of DMS you can choose, which we’ll cover later. Regardless, a DMS allows your employees to effectively track a document across users and devices.
So, why do you need to implement a DMS system before digitizing your documents?
It’s quite simple, really. If you start digitizing before creating a system, your files are not going to fare much better than they did when they were in paper form.
The key features of a modern DMS system, such as sharing, tracking, locking, and fractional access, ensure that every file is visible and editable by exactly the right person. Without the system in place, you risk making superfluous copies of digital files across devices that you have no real way to consolidate other than manually.
Choosing a Document Management System
Considering the importance of document management, you should spend some time researching your options and determining which one to use. Once you start, however, you’ll probably get so many options that it’s difficult to separate one piece of software from the next.
While the general gamut of features typically persists across providers and solutions, here are some vital choices you will need to make.
On-Premise vs. Cloud-Based DMS
This is where we discuss the aforementioned servers. An on-premise document management system stores all the files on a company server (typically a PC) that is used solely for that purpose. This means that the company needs to store the server and provide adequate network infrastructure to support it. Additionally, the company is typically in charge of maintaining and upgrading the software. While this might be cumbersome, it can be beneficial for small companies that don’t actually use that much data or enterprises that already have the means and want full control over the DMS system.
A cloud-based DMS saves a step here, as the server is provided by a third-party provider (that may or may not be the same as the DMS provider). Since the provider works with many companies, the infrastructure itself is much more robust and reliable, and the user company only pays for the features and bandwidth it uses, which can save on costs. It’s also a flexible solution, as cloud services can cater their offer to small and large companies alike with a few steps in between.
Open-Source vs. Proprietary DMS
An open-source DMS allows companies to implement the base and leverage it to develop a customized solution. The underlying system is typically vetted for basic functionality and security concerns. Although this option can be great for fully customizing a document management system according to your exact needs, modifying and securing an open-source DMS can be a tall order that requires a dedicated IT crew to monitor and manage it. That makes it practically unreachable for smaller companies that can’t afford full-time experts on their payroll.
Therefore, proprietary solutions are much more common. These come “as-is” and are built and managed by companies that are fully invested in maintaining and implementing the systems for their clients. As a result, they already have a set of features that can’t be changed by the client. Luckily, since there are so many options available, you can typically find a DMS that caters to companies in your exact industry, which can be beneficial when trying to fulfill various regulatory standards.
DMS vs. ECM
We previously noted that document management was the precursor to enterprise content management. As a result, it’s understandable to think that ECMs are somehow more “complete” or comprehensive versions of DMSs. While this is true to an extent, the actual truth is somewhere in the middle.
An ECM is a broader term that describes not only the physical storage and management system (which is built upon document management technologies) but also outlines processes and individual company regulations for how all digital content is stored and managed.
As such, an ECM contains more extensive collaboration options, such as rule-based file sharing or automated process-based document allocation. ECMs also work with a broader array of media and content channels. For example, an ECM can be set up to crawl through website content and store relevant data for retrieval, which a typical DMS doesn’t do since it only works with actual files.
Due to the development of more robust options and competitiveness between managed system providers, some DMS offers have already become ECM-like. As DMSs keep evolving and become more prevalent across industries, the distinctions between the two concepts could pretty much disappear.
For now, though, ECMs are typically designed and tailored to extremely large companies or ones that handle significant amounts or scopes of data, such as healthcare providers, universities, or law firms. This leads to an ECM costing a lot more to implement and manage than a “simple” DMS, as well as being impractical to monitor without provider support.
Getting the Best System for You
Ultimately, so long as you determine how the features of various systems align with your needs, getting a DMS should be easy. To avoid the hassle of creating a DMS from scratch, it’s best to start with a proprietary, cloud-based solution that can scale with you. But even then, you might run into too many options.
Luckily, there’s another way to approach this problem: partnering with a business technology provider. At Docutrend, we utilize decades of experience working with small and large businesses alike to deliver premium-level, modern management systems with personalized customer care. With our help, you can get an affordable document management system with round-the-clock support and workflow optimization solutions. So if you are in the New York, Totowa, Cherry Hill, Edison, or Ft. Washington area, contact Docutrend today and start running a better business.