What is a DMS system and what are its benefits

Have you ever been in a situation when you needed to find this one, specific document, but after looking through every file, disk and briefcase you still weren’t able to find it?

Let’s be honest. It happened to every one of us. The amount of various sources and documentation storages can lead to an information chaos, which results in additional stress, logistic problems and biggest of all, extra costs. What if I told you that IT all could have been prevented? How? To solve this problem a DMS system has been created (also known as Document Management Systems). In this article you will find out, what is the DMS system and what are its benefits!

What is a DMS system?

As we already mentioned a DMS system is an electronic platform supporting documentation management. Commonly they are equipped with data warehouses and mechanisms for gathering, storing, sharing, searching and analyzing documents. These systems are used both by small firms operating on single invoices, and by giant corporations dealing with constant streams of offers, contracts and agreements.

Nowadays it’s becoming more popular for DMS systems to be a part of complex company management platforms (workflow), which are used for employee work standardization, analyzing and automating actions or registering leads (CRM). You can learn more about workflow solutions from the article: Workflow, what is it and is it worth implementing?

The benefits of DMS system

A company not using a DMS system is a company losing money, and it’s losing lots of it. The platform that is well fitted for organization needs, can cut the document related work time by 66%. DMS system mechanisms are designed in a way, so the document workflow would be as short as possible, while still being simple. Every step is precisely described. It is very transparent, which information needs to be filled and who is the executor of any task. That makes the whole process standardized and more error-proof.

The DMS system also means greater safety of stored documents. Current RODO regulations defining the rules of information storing and processing, are very strict when it comes to companies. Electronic platform meets all the RODO conditions, ensuring us that the access to documents is only granted for employees with right permissions.

In the case of remote work, owning the DMS system is nothing but a necessity. How would we access our electronic assets otherwise? Thanks to the DMS system we can go through any document at any given moment, from any place or device.

System for documentation management can be described as a tool improving work for everyone. Whether it’s a board member, accountant or any other employee, his job will become much faster and safer when it comes to documents. System is easy to understand. Right after we enter the application, the platform will explain to us which tasks are waiting for our action and which decisions need to be made in the first place. This makes communication more effective, once again saving valuable time.

DMS system disadvantages

Many advantages of document management systems are showing how powerful this tool is. However there are few things that need keeping an eye on.

First of all – costs. A good platform, suiting your business needs and well secured, may come with high implementation and servicing costs. Often we also have to deal with prices of hosting, licenses, bug fixing and more. Luckily on the market you can find many various systems, with different payment models. Small organizations can benefit more from payment per user option. For corporations on the other hand it may be more profitable to buy software in installments. 

Implementing a DMS system will also require teaching employees about the platform and creating completely new procedures, which can lead to more investments in the beginning of implementation. Don’t worry. These investments will quickly pay off as you will be wondering how you could have ever worked without a DMS system.

When choosing the right platform, it is worth dedicating much time for research and analysis. Selecting a tool fast or by lowest price, can cause the risk of security breaching, or in the best case scenario lost money on investment.

The nature of electronic platforms also comes with a risk of temporarily losing the access to data, due to lack of electricity or internet. But many systems deal with it by creating data backups.

The last disadvantage of the DMS system is related to law requirements. In many countries it is still necessary to use paper documentation. Either completely or partially.

Examples of DMS system usage

Every document, either incoming or outgoing, can be handled inside the DMS system. The whole process starts with downloading data from any connected source (those can be mails, disks, messages, other systems, fax and scanners). Intelligent platforms, such as NAVIGATOR, will automatically separate documents, even if they are inside of one file. Then an accountant goes through every document, starting with an OCR function, which automatically transfers data from a document to the system (even from scans and photos). After data transferring, the accountant checks if everything is correct and fills in any additional information. The system also proposes answers based on previous actions, ex. contrahent data, bank number or tax rates for particular products. When the process is finished, a document goes to the next workflow step according to the path selected previously. NAVIGATOR lets you treat documents differently based on your company policy. For example you can decide that only invoices above 10 thousands dollars will have to be accepted by any member of the board.

More on this topic have been presented in an article: Document management in a big company.

Document workflow in a company thanks to DMS

There isn’t a single answer to which DMS system is the best. However it is recommended to have additional functions in a system, even if we don’t currently need them. Some DMS programs allow for analysis of gathered data, which makes it easier to find ways of improving company workflow. Intelligent system prevents problems, such as data duplication or lack of control over documents. The versioning functionality is great to examine changes history with users responsible for them. That way it’s easier to find where the error was made and how to prevent it next time.

Document management system is just more convenient than paper form. If we want to find a particular invoice, we don’t have to go through piles of documents segregated by year. Electronic programs help us to search for a document by any criteria or even word. No more chaos. No more wasting of time. In addition documents can be connected together, making job even more comfortable for employees. The offer can connect to an invoice, a contract to an agreement, etc.