Many years ago, filing was just a haphazard task with no discernible pattern and no regulations governing how and why it should be conducted. However, today’s business world is far different due to major advances in so many different areas of technology and media. Why do you need best practices for proper document management?
It’s vital that you have a fully functional and compliant document management system in place today for a multitude of reasons. Some best practice standards relate to the company itself. Others relate to legal obligations that must be fulfilled in relation to dealing with other companies and various regulatory bodies. Regulations can be broken down into these five key areas.
Any document management software must meet all requirements in areas such as: Retention, Access and Indexing, Compliance and Accountability, Policies and Procedures, and Disposal. People trust a company that has a sound document management system in place that is user-friendly and enables staff to file and retrieve documents quickly and efficiently.
If you’re going to implement a document management system, it must:
An efficient document management system must offer solid consistency in terms of labeling titles, filing, retrieval, archiving and destruction methods throughout the company. It’s only when this high level of consistency is met that you can firmly agree that best practices are being met.
Companies that have solid foundations in terms of records management will stand out from the crowd and will achieve greater success in all areas of endeavor. It will inevitably take any organization a great deal of time to convert an archaic filing system to a more sophisticated set up, but the results will be well worth it.
The initial step is to conduct a full inventory. At the same time, decisions must be made for each file. Should it be archived, filed for action or reference, or destroyed? The days of “too hard to file” or “miscellaneous” files will disappear.
Files may have differing legal requirements for retention and this also needs to be ascertained. If it’s all done at once, it will save hours in double and triple handling of documents and files. In the long run, it will also save thousands of dollars as well.
The new document management software will be capable of being used by everyone from the CEO right down to the relief assistant. Future action dates can be entered and will appear as reminders when needed, eliminating the misuse of in and out trays on everyone’s desks. It will also prevent the need to create paper-based documents from DVDs or CDs as they can simply be filed as they are, along with any paper files you have relating to the same subject.
In order to establish best practices, the company has to ensure that all contingencies are catered for. What information do customers generally need and how quickly? Are there differing needs that have to be met, depending on the clients? What are the retention guidelines to meet company and regulatory requirements?
Changing any filing system is always going to be a huge job. Be smart, use the most suitable document management software and plan the change as best as possible. Then you’ll achieve the strongest foundation that will allow your company to take firm forward strides with much less stress.
Why do you need best practices for proper document management? The answer is simple. Unless you want to be left behind by the forward thinking companies that adopt user-friendly document management software as part of their best practices plan, you need to do it yourself. Your office will be better organized and your staff will be able to find documents when needed, saving time and money.
Paper Tiger Document Management Software and Filing System was designed for just this purpose … to give you a tool to manage your physical files to get organized and be able to find what you need – when you need it. You would simply input the information into the database relating to your physical files, and Paper Tiger has a very powerful and easy-to-use search engine built in, so that lost information is virtually eliminated in your office.
Tags: document management software, document management system, get organized, The Paper Tiger 'Finding' Filing System
