Businesses deal with enormous amounts of documents and other data every day. Documents are sent to and fro across the country and across the world. In some cases, different people in the same building are dealing with the same document, or are collaborating on writing it. How is it possible to keep everything organized, so that employees are getting the most recent documents and ensuring that what has been done by others isn’t lost due to some software mishap or sharing error? In some cases, document management software is an absolute necessity for ensuring that documents and data remain uncorrupted and available.
Keep Everything Organized and Available
In the event of an audit into business practices or processes, do you know where the relevant documents are stored? If so, do you have access to those documents yourself, or know who does? Having an effective and efficient enterprise document management software solution for your organization is an absolute must. It might also be that someone is interested less in the final version of a document, and more in an earlier one that reveals something about how a major decision was made (or how a certain business path was avoided). Too often, though, you only have access to the latest version – as does everyone else.
Without enterprise document management software, you can manage the day to day running of a business. However, when someone in search of information comes to you with a request about a certain decision or aspect of your business, more detailed information is what they’re looking for. They might already have the final version of a document. They might already know how a decision was made, or why a certain project lost money, or who was responsible for a security breach.
When More Information Is Required
What they might lack is further insight into how a better decision could have been made, or if better security procedures could have been enacted, or even if rigorous safety and security procedures were ignored in full or in part.
Enterprise document management software is also useful for those collaborating on document creation to keep track of where everyone is. It can literally help people stay on the same page, or avoid erasing someone else’s hard work on a certain page or chapter of the document. In the event that a compliance audit is being run, if something was overlooked, the use of document management software ensures that people will know what happened. If there was some kind of security breach, those businesses with such software can see who edited what and when. In this case, plugging the hole in the organization means time is of the essence.
Knowing when a document was created, where it is being stored, and how it can be recovered if lost is a useful thing for businesses and individuals alike.
