Crash Course on Document Management
by Chris Geiser – cgeiser@pcstechnology.com

This month we’ll take a look at why document management systems (DocMgmt) are often dismissed as irrelevant by small businesses and what value those DocMgmt systems actually pose.

Five Myths about Document Management Systems

1. Our File Server Is Good Enough
With most file servers, end users get to choose their own folder, subfolder, and file naming convention and may only save files to their private drive. For their co-workers, finding useful documents is akin to finding a needle in haystack in a padlocked barn.

2. A Paperless Office Will Never Exist – So Why Bother?
By some standards the amount of paper printing has only increased in the digital age. It’s true, paper documents will need to be accommodated for the foreseeable future, but a thoughtfully designed DocMgmt system can capture all important paper documents upon arrival, classify them, route them to the right people/places and send the hard copies to the secure shredding facility.

3. Document Management Systems Are for Large Companies Only
Perhaps this myth was true 10 years ago, but most DocMgmt software companies now scale their pricing packages to as few as 2 users. Additionally, the implementation of DocMgmt systems can now start within a single company department (i.e. Accounting) and expand to more conservative departments once the proof of concept has been established.

4. Our Users Will Say “It’s too complicated”
Change is always hard. So with a new DocMgmt implementation it’s often best not to immediately change the way users do their work. Save those process changes for after users demonstrate their ability to work with digital documents.

5. The Document Management System Doesn’t Work with Our “Insert Company’s Most Important Application Here”
Every company has their prized application, the one where their money is made. Sometimes it’s called CRM, other times ERP, or accounting application. These applications were not typically designed to manage documents. The best DocMgmt systems will integrate with these critical applications so that any document can be found from any screen where that document is relevant.

Basic Features of a Document Management System

The basic features have been around for quite some time. Most small businesses have evolved their other (non-DocMgmt) systems to accomplish:

1. An organization-wide naming convention can be automatically enforced so that files can be stored in a retrievable and searchable fashion.
2. Indexing information can be added to every saved or imported file. Index information helps users to quickly find documents later on. Index information can include: created date, last modified date, author, work/sale/invoice order numbers (or any other custom field you wish).
3. Document Check In and Check Out is another basic feature that can prevent two users from corrupting one another’s work on a document.
4. A permission system can be added to any folders, determining which users have read and edit rights to documents or document types.

Advanced Features of a Document Management System

Some of these features have been around long enough, but there’s not yet been widespread adoption in small businesses.

1. Document Comparison – This is similar to the “Track Changes” featured in Microsoft Word.
2. Web Publishing – Make the files securely accessible from anywhere, once they’re saved to this system.
3. Application Integration
   a.  Email – Put a button in Outlook to import an email plus all of its attachments into the document management system
   b.  Hot Key – With an advanced document management system you could be able to hover over any of these document numbers, hit a hot key (ctrl + right click), and open the actual document without having to open the actual document management system.
4. Form Creation – 85% of business processes depend on forms (Gartner Group)
   a.  Create digital version of your existing forms (i.e. Sales Order)
   b.  Create new forms to collect/organize scattered information (i.e. Employee PTO Request)

Workflow: The Holy Grail Feature of any Document Management System

Imagine a document arrives at your business. It doesn’t just sit there. It demands that you and your co-workers process it. Examples include a customer signed contract, a salesperson’s receipt for a client lunch, a vendor’s invoice for equipment, or a prospective employee’s job application. These documents must go from one person to the next for review and some action. The processes you impart on these documents are often repeatable, meaning that they are also time-consuming (read: expensive).

Rulebooks without Referees

Each time you and your co-workers process a document, a set of rules must be followed for that process to work correctly. For example:

1. if an invoice is more than $500, then route to Paul for approval
2. once contract is signed by customer, send to CEO for second signature, and then to billing department for invoicing.

Of course, your company’s processes are considerably more complicated than these examples. It begs the question though, where does your company keep your process rules?

Danger: Tribal Knowledge Ahead

If you’re like most small businesses, you don’t have a process map, opting instead to depend on tribal knowledge, where a subset of employees just “knows how” that process works. The danger inherit in tribal knowledge is that there’s often no stated turnaround time expectations, no audit trail, and little hope for process improvement. In worst case scenarios, tribal knowledge also becomes an employee stronghold they use to keep others from impeding on their turf.

Digitize and Conquer

Have you ever looked at a UPS or FEDEX package tracking online? It’s insane the amount of information gathered about one parcel. But it keeps everyone in the loop and accountable for their responsibilities.

Today’s document management systems offer the opportunity/excuse for small business managers to get acquainted with any document driven process in their department, map it out (like FEDEX would), and recreate or improve it, only this time in the digital world. The benefits include:

1. Decrease occasion of lost documents or abandoned processes
2. Provide co-worker transparency and identify bottlenecks in processes
3. Build scalable processes that can incorporate additional people or resources when necessary
4. Establish clear understanding of current process so that impact of changes can be fully-understood

Cool, Why Are You Writing About Document Management, Again?

Admittedly, I knew very little about document management 1 year ago, before we acquired LBC Technology of Des Moines, Iowa. You see, PCS has long been in the business of implementing and supporting IT infrastructure, letting our customers decide what applications are best-suited for their business. This strategy made sense because each of our customers needed different applications, (i.e. manufacturer needs an inventory management application whereas a physician practice needs patient/insurance billing). However, very few of these primary line-of-business applications adequately address the ubiquitous role of document management. Document management systems are best thought of as a flexible platform that can be configured to provide each document a secure and complete pathway through your company’s operations.