Key Features to Look for in Document Management Systems
Businesses exchange particular information with regulars and customers all the time. If even one document falls into the incorrect hands, they might lose an excellent relationship in a moment.
Everyone I work with uses document management software, and you ought to too. Once you start, you’ll see that it gives you plenty of advantages beyond security.
Whether you’re trying to travel green, stay organized, build great-looking newsletters, or meet the foremost stringent regulations, document management software can make a tough process much easier.
The key’s finding the proper one for your specific needs. I’ve put together an inventory of my top five document management solutions—let’s mention why they’re valuable and the way they will help.
The Top 6 Options for Best Document Management Software
1. SharePoint – A web-based collaborative platform for document management System
2. OnlyOffice – Best for going paperless
3. PandaDoc – Best for closing more deals
4. Rubex by eFileCabinet – Best for automating daily tasks
5. LogicalDOC– Best for enterprise compliance
6. Docware – Best for sales engagement
How to Choose the simplest Document Management Software for You Estimates, proposals, contracts, invoices—documents are the bottom layer of each account.
The easier it’s to manage documents, the better it’s getting to be to manage these relationships.
Document management software can do tons to assist you to stay organized and efficient. Let’s check out a number of the features that will have an enormous impact.
Digitizing documents may be a pain without the proper product. In fact, going paperless is one of the key reasons people get document management software.
It turns a very inefficient workflow into a streamlined process with tools to spot, sort, tag, and store all types of file types.
Some products accompany optical character recognition (OCR) which translates the printed words into digital text. this suggests that any document you scan are often searched. Pretty slick, right?
Document Security Measures
A lot of those tools increase the control people have over documents, even after they need been shared.
Some of the features I actually like are:
* Password protection
* Flexible view, comment, and edit permissions
* Document expiry
* Restricted use
It’s very nice to be ready to send a document knowing that it can’t be shared, altered, or printed. this is often an enormous breakthrough for businesses that lose all control once they need to send a document.
Document Engagement Metrics
At a look, I do know exactly who has read a proposal and the way much time they spent on each page. Microsoft Word won’t tell you that.
For sales, this is often an information gold mine. Or, if you’re trying to boost funds, this is often insight into who is really interested that’s easily cleaned.
I find these metrics ultra-valuable. There’s definitely a reason more and more document management solutions are adding these features.
Document Creation
Making great looking, on-brand, up-to-date content of any kind is tough. Document management software takes all the formatting and presentation legwork out of the equation.
There are templates for all types of use cases, helping you quickly build proposals and newsletters that look phenomenal, automatically optimized for both web and mobile.
Some products have a visible document builder. Drag and drop your thanks to a show-stopping proposal that has videos, or draw up the right contract with a signable field.
Design legal documents confidently, no academic degree necessary.
It’s very nice when a document management solution connects to your CRM software and auto-fills templates with customer information. Get a proposal during a lead’s inbox before the primary call is over.
Logging and Versioning
As you would possibly expect, good document management software keeps a careful record of events.
This is important for collaboration. People always know that they’re performing on the newest version of an equivalent document. This avoids needless time lost thanks to redundant actions and confusion.
Plus, with prior versions logged, changes to documents are often examined and therefore the original is often restored if something bad happens.
For companies that are subject to a lot of regulations, document management software provides helpful audit trails and extra compliance features.
Different sorts of Best Document Management Software
There’s tons of overlap between the 2 main sorts of document management software. Every product goes to assist you to track, sort, and find your documents faster.
That said, they’re focused on different problems that companies face.
Some businesses are trying to find an answer that helps them move their documents to the cloud. By digitizing their paper archives and records, these companies can finally preserve and organize all their information in a searchable format.
Others need a tool that lets them create and manage documents of each kind. These tools accompany features that enable internal collaboration also as secure client-side sharing.
The first step for locating the proper document management software for you is deciding which of those categories most closely fits your needs.
Document Imaging Systems
One of the main tasks for traditional document management software is scanning and imaging paper files.
Whether companies are going paperless or interfacing with vendors that also use hard copies, document imaging systems quickly create high-fidelity digital documents.
These products are getting to accompany two main features.
One, they ought to have fairly well-developed OCR capabilities. having the ability to acknowledge text, document imaging systems with OCR can automate the method of recognizing, naming, and filing all of your important paperwork.
The second thing they are doing is provide an interface to arrange your documents once they need been digitized. this might be a built-in interface or the software can connect with a storage system you already use, like
Google Drive.
A document management system (DMS) provides the functionality businesses got to stay on top of things of all their important paperwork.
This includes some document imaging capabilities also as really well-developed tools for searching, tracking, organizing, and sharing all types of file types.
The truth is that the file/folder system of something like Windows is simply not sufficient for the real-time needs of most businesses.
For one thing, they’re unable to make the documents they have, like PDFs with signable fields or emails that track customer engagement.
On top of that, staying organized with traditional file systems gets really tricky during times of growth. Documents can stray, shared incorrectly, or walk out the door with a former employee. Then there’s nothing you’ll do.
With a DMS, you keep control. Beyond that, these tools take over tons of the busywork. Documents are stored in known locations, easy to seek out once they are misplaced, and always available to anyone who needs them.
Documents also are always automatically updated to their latest version, albeit multiple people are performing on them at an equivalent time.
There is still tons of variety within the DMS product category. What you’re trying to find are some things that are focused on delivering the capabilities you would like. Some DMS solutions are built for sales teams, some for automating administrative tasks, et al. are tailor-made for companies facing strict compliance requirements.