Document management. Ever heard of it? Maybe you know the term but never knew what it really meant. We’d like to give you an overview of the basics, as well as explain to you how document management systems can impact any business or organization.

Whatever organization you may be a part of, the business has some method of capturing, storing and retrieving your business documents. With electronic document management, however, your organization will save time and energy wasted on searching through file cabinets or desk piles to find the document needed.

Documents come in different forms. For example, invoices may begin as electronic records within the accounting system of a vendor. They are printed and mailed to the appropriate destination, in the form of a hard paper copy. Although both of these documents are directly related, they are stored differently.

Besides invoices, documents such as contracts, acceptance documents and delivery receipts also come in electronic and paper form, not to mention, are processes in different kinds of systems and places. They might be processed in different departments or locations of a business, stored in multiple file cabinets, or even mistakenly sit on someone’s desk longer than they should.

Let’s say something goes wrong with a business order? Now, someone has to track down the acceptance agreement, contract, delivery receipt and invoice, to see where the error occurred. However, only some or maybe none of the documents are stored in the same place. Tracking down all the necessary information could be time consuming.

With an electronic document management system, all documents are in a single location. They are electronically captured, organized and easy to find at any time. It’s as simple as scanning paper documents into the system, where they are directly stored or sent through a workflow to the next person in the review or approval process. With such a system, the paper and electronic documents are properly tied together, with the paper document, then no longer needed.

Because the documents are stored within electronic folders, you can index them according to their attributes, such as department, vendor, purchase order number, date or anything else that makes sense. With this capability, it makes searching through the system easy, as you can perform a search according to the document’s indexed attributes or a text search.

There is no reason not to consider implementing a document management system. Realize the time you’ll save without the need to search through your desk or office for needed information. Realize that finding a document is as easy as searching on Google. Your focus can now be shifted from stressing over lost papers to addressing business specific issues.

Curious about online document management, then visit DocuVantage to read ourdocument management tutorial.

categories: electronic document management,document management,SaaS,Software

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