The perfect choice: 3 vital considerations when choosing a document management system

Document management has always been an imperative business application. From the days of storing thousands of files in endless aluminium cabinets to the modern error of hyper automation, there has always been an essential need to make our files safe and highly accessible.

This is a breeze in the modern era, especially with the likes of hi-tech document management systems in place. Today, you and your team only need the right permissions to access a file at their fingertips from anywhere in the world, enhancing business productivity and taking the game to new levels of performance.

But to have the ultimate system in place you need to follow three vital considerations, the likes of which we will explain below:

1. It simply must be user friendly

When organisations commence the search for data management, they often look toward the system’s backend and overall functions. But they should really be thinking about how the system can work for my entire team? Where is the happy medium that makes it easy to store and access such files with ease?

It’s important to remember that the system is a cross-platform medium, ensuring that everyone can use it with considerable ease, from receptionists to accounts, programmers and more!

When you’re upscaling to reach higher value, if your platform is too difficult for your team to understand it will largely defeat the purpose of having done so in the first place. Therefore, it’s important to implement a highly usable solution and one that can be readily trained to any current and incoming staff as to not slow down the process of integration.

2. Ensure that the software meets your business objectives

With any software implementation, there are some general rules should abide by:

• Comprehend your business challenges and benefits from overcoming them. Through proper internal and external communication with your provider, ensure that you are both on board with addressing your business challenges and goals.  
• Define the fundamentals, including which departments the integration is primarily targeted towards, the business processes you’re working to improve and the document management types your business needs.
• Let your intended benefits guide the integration by prioritising items by advantage instead of its features. What, specifically,does your business need most? Approach this implementation in phases to ensure you're breaking down the benefits and implementing them with aplomb.
• Continue the communication: has your plan strayed from the original goals? If so, adjust and work back towards where you were originally coming from - this will save you from some serious headaches in the future.

3. Don’t forget compliance & security

Protecting your organisation from data loss, cyberattacks and control loss of business imperative data is imperative to each and every business. When it comes to a robust document management system - whether implementing via cloud or onsite - security is a vital part of deployment, and these features are critical for data-conscious consumers and companies.

Focus on what security needs are important to your organisation, such as stronger compliance or protecting your data from theft. Complying with rigorous Australian cyber security compliance doesn’t have to be difficult as you just need the right people on the job. And, of course, the perfect vendor will help make compliance a breeze.

These are the three most imperative considerations when choosing such a vendor. Consult with them, tell them your business needs, and ensure that they are a team of experts who understand and can meet your specific needs - this is always going to be the team to help your business grow exponentially!