DocuWare is the perfect home for all your company’s documents. It does a lot more than just keep your invoice workflows moving. Start digitizing more document types today! Here are five things to consider, to help you get going.
Many companies start using DocuWare as a way to speed up their invoice processing. But it’s a very powerful application that offers many other options for document management and workflow automation. This also means it can handle many different document types. This includes quotes, order forms, payroll, process documentation, meeting minutes, compliance certificates and much more.
To help your company take full advantage of digitization, we have five aspects for you to consider for every new document/process you’d like to tackle. Because it’s much more than just archiving – it’s about understanding your document universe.
One tip before we start: take things step by step. Complete the digitization of one type of document before moving on to the next. It really helps to introduce new processes in a structured way.
1 New file cabinet? Yes or no
Consider whether you need a new file cabinet for the new document type you want to digitize or use an existing one. Use the following questions to help you decide.
- Do the documents fit together thematically, such as quotes and invoices or invoices and delivery slips? If the documents are to be stapled to others, the same file cabinet must be used.
- Do the index fields of an existing file cabinet match the new document type, at least to a large extent?
- Do the access rights of an existing file cabinet match the new document type, at least to a large extent?
If you can answer the questions with "Yes," the use of an existing file cabinet is recommended. If you answer "No," a new file cabinet seems to be a better choice.
2 Processes or static document?
Are there processes that involve the new document type that you want to map with DocuWare: Release, approval, additional processing, reminders, deletions, etc? Or should the document simply be filed securely and provide location-independent access?
For processes, you may need additional index fields. This brings us to the third topic.
3 Which index criteria and index fields?
What data do you want to record for the documents? Contact, project, date, status, validity period ... Depending on the document type, various criteria are available. The corresponding data is not only used to systematically search for documents, but can also control workflows, provide automatic reminders or be used to integrate DocuWare with third-party applications.
4 Who can do what?
DocuWare uses finely-tuned rights management to assign specific access and editing options for individual users and also for user groups or roles. So think carefully: Which employees should be allowed to perform which activities?
- Display documents
- Add annotations to a document
- Edit documents, i.e. open and change them in the editing program
- Change index terms for documents
- Download or send a copy of the document
- Delete document from a file cabinet
5 Are all parties involved?
Before you start configuring DocuWare accordingly, consult with everyone involved. Perhaps one or two colleagues have ideas about what could be improved right away as part of the digitization of the new document type. Perhaps an integration is possible that you hadn’t yet considered. Or can you speed up a process because many things can run in parallel digitally, unlike on paper? Maybe electronic signatures can also be used to simplify the process?
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