Electronic document management is going to shake up your business and bring many benefits. These include making information more readily available, limiting the flow of paper documents, centralising your organisation’s documents and securing document storage and access.
From reflection to implementation
To be fully effective, an EDM needs to be well thought through and organised. What is the objective of the EDM for your company? How are your employees going to use it? You must determine which parameters and key performance indicators will measure progress and success. And before you get started, you need to draw up a list of the types of documents to be stored and managed.
Next you must draft the document management rules. For efficient and consistent use, you need to know how your digital documents will be named, classified, stored and deleted. Setting up automatic numbering for certain documents, for example, helps to ensure traceability. More generally, the use of automated processes also saves time and reduces employee effort.
More safety through more training
You should also consider security and decide who will be able to access each document type. This is especially important for the most sensitive document types, which must be stored on a secure server to prevent any loss or hacking.
Once your EDM has been clearly defined, one crucial stage remains: employee training. Your employees will be the primary users of the system and must be familiar with the document management rules and procedures. The better trained they are, the more aware they will be of the security risks associated with electronic documents.
To make it easier for them to get to grips with the EDM, it’s best to opt for a simple, intuitive user interface, with as few clicks as possible. An efficient system allows administrators and users to see only the elements they need to perform their tasks.
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