How many moving parts does your company have? As many as a luxury wristwatch?
When influencing so many central business components, exchanging any part for a new one means ensuring that all of the other parts continue working together just as well as a whole.
As far as the luxury wristwatch goes, running “just as well” may be fine, but for organizations implementing office automation solutions, everyday efficiency increases are the aim. Of course, that isn’t always easy.
This blog post walks you through the most important issues to consider when you evaluate which document management solution is right for you.
Table of Contents
- User-friendliness should come first
- Fail-safe security measures
- Support for regulatory compliancent
- Scalability and integration
- Remote and mobile access
- Flexibility for the modern workforce
- AI-powered document processing
- Conclusion: Make an informed decision
User-friendliness should come first
When companies start looking at document management software, they may initially focus on the backend and overall functions and features. Instead, they should be asking, “How well would this system work for our average user?” Having the best functionality isn’t worth much if half of the people on your team can’t figure it out.
Keep in mind that document management is a cross-platform application. To get the most from the solution, it needs to be usable for everybody, from accountants and engineers to the business office and employees who work on the factory floor.
When you’re changing behaviors inside of a company to achieve business value, if user adoption is slow, it’s going to take longer for an organization to realize that value.
Through targeted and well-planned training, users should quickly be able to see how document management solutions benefit them every single day. A focus on training and rapid user adoption increases a company's speed toward meeting its goal.
This is one of the most important aspects of choosing a digital document management solution: Consider your users on the micro and macro level.
Fail-safe security measures
- A well-defined rights system for accessing documents for individuals and across job roles, user groups and departments.
- Single sign-on via an identity service and the option for multi-factor authentication.
- Secure communication between web-based applications and the platform service with HTTPS.
- A cloud solution that provide multiple back ups in more than one data center to ensure business continuity when manmade or natural disasters strike.
- System and Organizational Controls (SOC2) certification. The process was created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) with the goal of ensuring that a company’s customer data is protected from unauthorized access and cyberthreats.
Support for regulatory compliance
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Scalability and integration
Growing with your business
Seamless integration
- Bi-directional data flow with your accounting, human resource information (HRIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and other business software.
- Categorization and storage of incoming and outgoing emails and attachments from Outlook and other email software directly from your inbox.
- Access to documents related to transactional processes directly from other business software.
- Platform independence to integrate with other software regardless of programming language or operating system
- Filing and sharing documents from Microsoft Teams’ chats and channels into the DMS.
- Use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to move data automatically between systems.
- Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS): iPaaS connects a DMS to other cloud applications. With iPaaS, data and documents can be exchanged code-free and integrated into automated workflows.
Flexibility for the modern workforce
Your team’s best work can happen outside of a traditional office. Today, employees expect the convenience and efficiency offered by web-based and mobile technology.
Advantages of document management for remote employees
- Unified, immediate access to information through a central data repository
- Document collaboration features that streamline teamwork and prevent version control issues
- Connection with your company’s current business software and ERP systems enhances the overall productivity of your tech ecosystem
- Automated routing to enable documents to flow swiftly between teams and systems, saving valuable time
- End-to-end process transparency to empower managers with real-time insights for smarter, faster decisions
How a DMS improves work/life balance
- Better boundries between personal and professional responsibilities
- Lower stress levels and decreased risk of burnout
- Greater freedom to adapt working hours as needed
- No time spent commuting
- Cost savings on gas and parking
AI-powered document processing
The role of intelligent document processing (IDP)
Organizations across industries are using AI to reduce costs and maintain a competitive edge. With IDP, your company can leverage artificial intelligence for process automation that frees staff to focus on more strategic work.
Conventional data collection systems only work with structured information, which is consistently formatted with information that is in the same place on each document. An Excel spreadsheet is one example of structured content.
However, a vast majority — about 80% — of enterprise data is unstructured, making it difficult for many capture tools to process it accurately. This type of data includes email messages, social media content and documents that contain handwritten comments.
IDP is an innovative capture solution that uses AI to go beyond simple text recognition. It combines machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) and neural networks.
The benefits of IDP
Trainable AI models
Machine learning, which allows IDP software to learn from previously processed documents and data without programming, is enabled through preconfigured or customized AI models. Preconfigured models are simpler to deploy, leading to reduced effort and shorter timelines. Custom machine learning algorithms address your company’s unique requirements.
Automated data extraction
IDP systems use machine learning algorithms and other AI capabilities to extract data. AI understands language in context making it possible to accurately extract data from unstructured and semi-structured documents.
Management of complex types of documents
IDP can process a wide variety of documents and formats, from tables and timesheets to forms that require text-based sorting. It improves efficiency by automating how data is captured, categorized, and seamlessly transferred into your business workflows using tailored or standard AI models.
More accurate data capture
Once documents are sorted, advanced AI extracts critical data—whether it’s text, numbers, images, or signatures. Validation is strengthened with tools like fuzzy matching, rules-based logic, and scripting, while human oversight (HITL) quickly refines and improves AI performance.
Easy system connectivity
IDP integrates effortlessly with your core platforms—such as accounting, HR, CRM, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and other key business systems.
A better customer experience
Organizations relying on manual workflows risk delays and privacy breaches, which can erode customer trust. For instance, slow approvals for insurance or loan applications may push clients to competitors with more advanced technology.
Reduce costs while enabling growth
By automating repetitive tasks, IDP cuts down on labor expenses, reduces mistakes, and speeds up processing—resulting in quicker decisions and enhanced service. For example, automating loan reviews allow banks to manage more applications, driving higher revenue.
Ensure security and regulatory compliance
IDP protects sensitive data with strong encryption and controls, meeting industry standards like HIPAA and GDPR. It prevents unauthorized access and maintains detailed audit trails for compliance purposes.
Assess the total cost of ownership
Look beyond initial pricing
Evaluating an office automation solution strictly from a pricing perspective is the wrong way to go but being able to accurately assess the total cost of ownership of your solution is critical.
You should also consider how ease of use can reduce the amount of time needed for training. If you're comparing the cost of an on-premises system to that of a cloud subscription, factor in the cost of maintaining hardware, yearly maintenance and support fees, the time and expense of upgrades and keeping up with cyberattack prevention with automated updates, security concerns shifted to a dedicated team and the elimination of the cost of purchasing new hardware.
Conclusion: Make an informed decision
A DMS should meet the current and future needs of your organization. The question is: What’s most important to your business today and will also enable your company to respond to changing economic conditions? DocuWare’s document management and workflow solution reduces the burden of maintaining information security, supports compliance and increases business agility. It optimizes business processes and increases productivity.
When your company chooses DocuWare, it can take the long view which is essential to making good choices. A lot can change in the next few years, and your DMS should be robust and flexible enough to meet whatever challenges tomorrow brings. Take the opportunity to learn more about DocuWare and its capabilities today. Request a demo
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