Purchasing a document management system
Most of the main document management systems offer similar functionalities. Although the differences are sometimes minor, there may be a specific functionality that turns out to be absolutely necessary for your company and becomes a critical factor when it comes to choosing among different document management systems.
On an equal footing, cost is a significant driver to take into account. The cost of implementing a document management system includes the software’s base price, network hardware requirements (one or more servers may be required to run the software), local workstation requirements, application or customization costs, and the general expenses that might be incurred.
The price obviously varies according to company size and type of product. However, before going on, the following questions should be answered:
- Is the price of the document management software actually the final price or is it a “base price” that will be increased depending on the additional modules acquired by the company?
- Does the price include technical support and future updates?
As far as cost is concerned, there are three items to bear in mind: the cost of implementing the document management system itself, the cost of customizing or adapting it to company-specific requirements, and the cost of training employees. It is essential to go deep into the customization cost, especially when it comes to high-end products, where the price indicated is not usually the actual cost. Training costs may also vary, with sessions that range from only two hours to even one or two full days. Additionally, support in the field may also be necessary after the implementation.
Furthermore, system administration may involve significant costs depending on the program. For instance, an SQL-based product may require at least a part-time dedicated administrator, whether in-house or external. Therefore, administration expenses and the cost of providing the training required to upgrade the skills of the staff who is going to work with the document management system should also be accounted for as expenses.
Implementing the document management system
There are no strict, set rules regarding the implementation of a document management system. However, experience shows that some types of implementation tend to work better than others.
Although it is true that each company is unique and different from the rest and, as a result, each implementation entails specific aspects and details to consider, it is likewise true that companies do not differ as much as it might seem. That is why it is so important to know the document management system and its out-of-the-box features well. Systems are usually based on many companies’ best practices and, for this reason, it is worth analyzing how useful it could be to adapt some business processes to the current functionalities, instead of embarking on a software adaptation project that sometimes may turn out to be expensive.
Having said this, before implementing a document management system in your company, it is vital that you think about two questions: How do you exactly want the system to work in the company? Do the different areas and departments within the company require different security levels?
Therefore, the first point to take into account is the company’s structure: Is it a small company or a large enterprise with several independent areas or departments? This may initially seem unimportant, but it actually has a great impact on the document management system to implement and the structure that you want to put in place.
It is likewise important to pay attention to profile groups. Your company may have different types of profiles (Accounting, Human Resources, Management, etc.) and, as a consequence, it might require different security levels as far as confidential information is concerned, so that only authorized staff has access to certain information.
Lastly, when establishing security levels it is critical to take into account that there must always be a balance between security and convenience. If security requirements are too high and the system gets blocked too often, this may affect usability and, therefore, production. This point should be in-depth analyzed in order to define the adequate security level and also an appropriate convenience level.
Designing the document management system
Technical aspects of the system like the location where documents will be stored or whether a new server will be required or not (most document management systems require a standalone server) should be analyzed before making a decision.
Document management systems create “profiles” or “templates” to make organization easier and enable faster search capabilities. Some of the usual profiles or templates are Client, Subject, Type of Document, Author, etc. It is essential to determine if these profiles/templates are adequate or if your company requires additional profiles. In that case, you will need to request the necessary profiles. To do this, the following questions should be answered:
- What profiles does your company need?
- What areas or departments require different templates?
- How should emails, faxes or any other type of electronic data be treated?
- Is there any other functionality that should be embedded into the system?
Legacy documents
Another key question to bear in mind when implementing a document management system is: What do you want to do with your current documents? Every company has a great number of documents that were created before implementing the document management system and are not accessed anymore because they have become obsolete or have even fallen into disuse. In order to manage these old documents, it is recommended that you create a category for them, being then converted to the new system by users each time they access any of them for the first time. In this way, this process will be easier and take less time and, therefore, it will be less expensive than converting all old files to the new system at once.
When it comes to shifting from one document management system to another, the system may include some conversion or migration feature that allows converting old information easily. This would also be a point to take into account when choosing a document management system.
Integrating the document management system with another software
Make sure the document management system proposed can be easily integrated with the applications normally used by your company and with other less frequently used applications.
Most document management systems cannot be integrated with highly common database applications. Therefore, you should thoroughly examine the applications that may be used at your company as well as their compatibility and degree of integration with the document management system to implement.
Embedding email into the document management system
With the exponential growth of email, the ability to manage emails has become of utmost importance. Bundling all emails (and their attachments) into a single document repository, together with business documents, scanned documents, etc. is becoming more and more essential.
Client-related emails and emails sent and/or received by different employees should be adequately embedded into the document management system so that they are accessible to any employee (with the relevant permission) who needs to access them for work purposes. Moreover, it is necessary to analyze how the existing emails that are already stored should be treated. For this reason, the company should establish guidelines aimed at defining how email messages should be stored in the document management system.
Scanning
In our society, where we use less and less paper, document scanning is becoming more and more demanded. An organization must be increasingly efficient, trying to reduce the space set aside for document storage or making information more accessible by scanning it. Once more, the solution lies in implementing a good document management system.
Traditional storage system vs. document management system
Unlike traditional file storage systems, a good document management system offers companies multiple additional features that allow managing documents in a more effective and efficient way.
Document management systems are designed to help organizations create, store, monitor, control, edit, manage, organize and recover the information contained in documents. This concept requires a centralized repository (whether inside or outside the premises) to store any type of information used across the company. Besides, and most importantly, it provides a safe environment that protects restricted information from unwanted access.
If you hesitate between keeping your traditional file storage system and implementing a good document management system, don’t think twice. With the help of your consultant and the Information Technology staff in your company, go over all the questions previously mentioned and choose among the many document management systems available on the market the one that best fits your needs. You will surely notice the change.
André Klein
Freelance Consultant for DocPath