Document Management Best Practices

Your business has already turned to document management to eliminate paper from your office. You’re now realising the many benefits of storing, archiving, and managing documents and files digitally, improving both efficiency and productivity within your organisation. But are you sure you are maximising your return on investment (ROI)? Here are the best practices you should follow to ensure you maximise the ROI from your document management solution. 

Use a consistent naming convention. 

A document management solution won’t be very helpful if you aren’t realising one of its most fundamental benefits: easy access to your documents. Avoid this pitfall by establishing a company-wide naming convention that prevents employees from independently coming up with their own file names. With everyone using the same, logical file naming convention to ensure consistency, you’ll see improved navigation and eliminate headaches when searching for files. 

Replace folders with metadata. 

Another way to help make it easier to locate your documents is by utilising metadata, rather than a folder structure. Eliminate misfiled documents and cumbersome, nested folders—both of which lead to lengthy, time-consuming searches—by tagging your documents with metadata. Metadata allows you to filter and group content, improve you organisation, and find your documents more quickly.

Control access to documents and files with permissions. 

Businesses are handling more confidential data than ever, regardless of their industry. Therefore, it is imperative to safeguard this sensitive information by controlling who has access to it. Restrict access to documents, files, and/or folders through role-based user permissions, allowing access to only those necessary.

Implement a document retention policy. 

How long a company is required to maintain a copy of its documents varies by industry and its associated regulations. Ensure your business remains compliant by creating a policy for the proper retention of its documents. This policy will prevent the deletion or modification of documents before they have reached their ‘maturity date’ and control who is able to perform these actions. 

A document management solution is a powerful tool for businesses, but just how powerful depends on the steps you take to ensure you’re getting the most out of it. To learn more about maximising your document management solution’s ROI, contact us today.