Madrid, May 23, 2023 – Every company manages important documents. In a fast-moving world, information is also in constant motion, from its generation to its capture, storage, retrieval, and assessment. A rigorous document management process ensures that all activities involving a document are conducted smoothly and efficiently, with the lowest possible risk of data loss.
The document management process integrates a set of technical and practical standards for managing the documents received and created in a company. It also facilitates their retrieval, determines how long they should be kept, deletes those that are no longer useful and ensures the long-term preservation of the most valuable documents.
Like any other process, document management has several implementation stages that culminate in document digitization. It is important to follow these stages thoroughly and in an orderly fashion to ensure the proper use of corporate information. Moreover, there are many of them, so it is advisable to be methodical because the progress or setback in business operations depends on it. These document management stages are usually supported by sophisticated document software products and solutions.
Eight document management stages
1. Data entry
The first step on the road to document management is tofeeddocuments into the system. Whether they are entered through digital capture (OCR) of physical documents,by incorporating already existing files or through online or smart device information capturing options, it is necessary to consider which files should be fedand which are no longer needed.
2. Registration
The purpose of the document registrationstage is to formalize data entry. It is about registering that a documenthas been created or received by means of a unique identifier and a brief description that facilitates its subsequent retrieval (metadata). Documents must be registered when they are entered.
3. Classification and validation
At this stage, technical and administrative actions are defined to group related documents in a hierarchical manner, according to certain pre-established characteristics, regardless of their origin, destination, medium, etc.
4. Storage
The purpose of this stage is to maintain and preserve documents, guaranteeing their authenticity, reliability, integrity, and availability for the necessary period of time. This responds to one of the fundamental principles of a document management plan: to ensure that files are located in a secure ecosystem. To achieve this, storage conditions and handling operations must be controlled. The aim is to protect documents against unauthorized access and destruction, prevent their deterioration or loss, and reduce risks.
5. Definition of permissions
In this phase, the companydetermineswho has access to certain information, what can be done with it (creation, consultation, modification, deletion, etc.) and under what circumstances, applying the controls established in the access and security table. This usually depends on legal requirements, such as personal data protection, or companyneeds, such as theconfidentiality of financial, patient-doctor, or client-attorney documents, or strategic or sensitive information.
6. Monitoring
This phase is key in any company, since it is possible to know who had access to which document and document movements, which guarantees informationsecurity. It also makes it possible to know at what stage of the workflow a document is in and to locate it whenever it is needed. The objective of this stage is to maintain control of each file from the moment it is entered until it leaves the system.
7. Review
Depending on the specific function of each document, the retention period is reviewed according to a schedule and actions are taken such as transferring it to another classification, preserving it permanently or deleting it, but not before ensuring that the document is no longer useful to the company or its customers.
8. Maintenance
For documentation to flow correctly through the company and protect it from threats, it is essential to conduct maintenance processes and review procedures related to the digital ecosystem (updated software and integrations) as well as assigning responsibilities and workflows.
The importance of standardization in document management
Standardization in document management allows companies to have more efficient and effective information management systems. These standards are also a valuable tool for risk management, information auditing and process analysis; aspects that can be improved through document management in any company, whether public or private.
The purpose of standardization is to develop a series of technical specifications, known as norms or standards, which companies apply on a voluntary basis to demonstrate the quality and safety of their operations and products. They are also used to guarantee to customers or end users that the product or service offered meets minimum quality requirements, thus differentiating it from others.
A document management system based on standards always offers more rigor and quality than a non-standardized one.
A step forward in document management: digitization
The phases described above set the course for better document management and, therefore, boost the productivity and efficiency of companies.
In recent years, document management has evolved towards digitization. Document management is often confused with document digitization, but they are two different processes. Digitization is an essential management step, but it involves many other tasks: collecting paper files, removing paper clips or staples, scanning at different resolutions, configuring OCR, validating, and exporting information in different formats such as PDF, TXT or XML.
Electronic document management policies incorporate internal guidelines for creating and managing documents that are reliable, authentic, and available over time. In this way, companies assign responsibilities for monitoring, coordinating, and managing the processing of files during their life cycle.
In short, document management stages make it possible to design short-, medium- and long-term strategies and to turn files into true information centers that are useful and essential for business activity.
About DocPath
DocPath is a leading enterprise document software company that offers its international customers the technology that allows them to complement their ERP and implement advanced Document Output Management, Customer Communications Management and document software pooling processes.
Founded in 1993, DocPath is based in Europe, USA and Latin America and is present with its Solutions in companies around the world. Among its customers there are prestigious banks and top-tier corporations, facilitating the difficult and complex task of designing, generating and distributing their business-critical documents. DocPath keeps a strong commitment to R+D+i, an area to which it allocates a large part of its revenues, and in which lies one of the keys to its success.
For more information, visit: www.docpath.com.
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