The best document management system can do a lot for a company's ability to get work done more efficiently, but you need to put some thought into it before and after you implement it. Here are some things to remember to get the most out of your document management tools.
- What gets measured gets done. You’ve got to set goals before embarking on document management, and it's important to establish quantifiable goals. Just plugging it in and hoping it begins to improve all your processes is a recipe for failure.
- Names. This might take a little time, but sitting down with your staff and establishing some guidelines for the naming of files and file folders is vital to good document management. We’ve all had whole hours stolen from our lives trying to find a file or image lost in a forest of file names that are completely inscrutable.
- Priorities. Like goals, setting priorities is vital. If your organization is sales driven, then prioritizing the order process during the document management implementation is important.
- Limiting paper. Document management is software, and as such, it manages data very well. If, however, you have paper documents that will be scanned and put in the system, you may not get the full potential of the software if the document isn't indexed correctly. These images of documents are often not searchable or accessible to basic applications like Excel or Word. Static PDFs can also present problems. You might have to start thinking differently about documents as you get smarter about document management. The process you use to generate paper documents might need to be modified if you want to get all the efficiency you can out of document management.
- Employees. Your employees may not have been involved in buying the document management software platform, but they are the ones needed to get the full benefit of the system. The savings and efficiencies you need to meet your goals are completely up to them, so get them involved as early as possible.
Make the user interface as simple as you possibly can. And don’t forget to train your people, build job aids for them, and share your goals. Contact Tri-Copy for all your printing and document management needs.
