File organization is a necessity in order to quickly retrieve documents. Since businesses can hardly keep track of the amount of documents they generate daily, electronic document management solutions (or DMS) have been vital to their preservation.
As a platform, a DMS hosts files for the users within an organization to access. A DMS comes with a range of features to simplify folder structure while also restricting users from accessing certain paths. Here’s how it simplifies such complex functional aspects:
1. Folder Hierarchy
DMS makes it effortless to set up a custom folder structure. As the DMS is accessible by the employees of your organization, the hierarchy of the folder structure can be constructed in order to differentiate files according to their respective departments or projects.
As an admin, you can assign users to access files within their corresponding departments and projects. You can also grant the extent of rights to be given to each individual user. In our DMS, retrieval works based on the user’s access to a folder structure. Search queries will only display documents that the user has access to, within the folders they aren’t restricted from viewing. This creates multiple levels of access on a shared document management system that can be used as per the admin’s preference.
2. Document Categorization
Documents are categorized or grouped based on their type. Access rights are also given based on these categories. Thus, some users may have access to receipt records and bank statements, others may have access to appointment letters and resumes. Users can also index documents to include specific information that can be used to make searching convenient. If a user wants to access files based on contact or identification information, documents that have this indexed information can be pulled up with a simple search.
3. Automated Workflows
Automated workflows are a huge benefit of electronic document management. Depending on its approval on the portal, a DMS processes documents from input until it lands in its assigned folder.
Workflows ensure that the processed and generated documents can be quickly retrieved through their data entry. This is powered by the indexing option in automated workflows. This, like the folder structure, enables the users to search for documents within the workflow.
To conclude, all of this would immensely help your company’s file management if you diligently follow the practice of uploading documents onto the DMS as and when they are created or scanned. If you’re reading this article as an organization that is still using traditional document management, switch over to electronic DMS right now! Among other competent DMS, our product ShareDocs Enterpriser comes with great document management features that prevent the perils of haphazardly stored paper files and cabinets. You can learn more on our blog, or contact us here.