Document Management Platforms for Your Professional Service

For decades, companies have been looking for an efficient way to manage their documents. For the longest time, the best way was to fill one side of an office with filing cabinets and file the documents away. With most of the workplace now being run by computers, and with hard costs at an all-time low, companies have begun to file all their new files on computer network. 

For a company that has been in business for some time, this can get a little messy. Since there are multiple files, spanning years (sometimes decades), documents can frequently get lost, and create innumerable headaches for employees, administrators, and customers alike. Washington Works has a solution for this. It’s called Document Management.

What is Document Management?

A document management system (DMS) is the use of a centralized computer system to store and manage an organization’s documents. This seems simple enough until you consider the loads of paper documents and receipts your business has on file. The DMS provides a solution that puts the information your business needs to store in one central location.

How Does it Work?

When your company commits to centralizing its document management through a DMS, the first problem that needs a solution is to get all the paper files digitized. Using either scan-to-storage or data imaging, the DMS captures a document’s information and files it away in an outside storage facility. There are all different kinds of storage options, but the most prevalent nowadays is using a database in the cloud so that people can remotely access any document with the help of the DMS.

When scanned, the image of the new documents are saved as PDF files, providing users the ability to search the DMS for keywords that will bring up corresponding documents. You will never have to rifle around inside a file cabinet again, saving time, and ultimately, money. 

What are the Benefits?

The benefits of a DMS are substantial for professional service organizations. Lawyers will be able to access files from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone from anywhere that has an Internet connection, accountants will be able to find any receipt they have questions about, and engineers can summon building plans and notes from anywhere at any time for any client in the DMS. A full list of benefits includes:

• Reduction in physical space needed for storage
• Enhanced security with encryption
• Improved regulatory compliance 
• Easy and fast retrieval of documents
• Remote retrieval for enhanced collaboration
• Easier redundancy for your organization's business continuity efforts

If your business is looking for a way to centralize all of its documents in a reliable and secure document management system, call the IT professionals at Washington Works today to set up a consultation.