Chances are that you already have some sort of system in place for your document management endeavors. If you are not using a clearly defined document management workflow, however, then your business is missing out. This is because document management workflows save organizations like yours a lot of time and money.
They cut all of the fat out of your document management
Without a clear workflow to guide your document management, your entire team is essentially improvising how they manage your documents. When document management is approached like this, you end up wasting a lot of time, even if the documents end up where they are supposed to be. This is because each team member's approach -- and more importantly, the time that their approach takes -- varies.
A well thought-out document management workflow, on the other hand, creates a system in which your team members will take the most efficient path towards filing, accessing or distributing a document.
They reduce the likelihood of errors
The less clarity you have with your document management, the more likely it is that errors will occur. This is because members of your team can accidentally step on each other's toes, or assume that somebody else did something.
A strong document management workflow clearly defines who needs to be doing what at each point in the document management process. As a result, there is a smaller likelihood that documents will be misfiled, lost or accidentally destroyed.
They reduce document management redundancy
As we just mentioned, a lack of clarity can cause people to step on each other's toes. In addition to outright errors, this can also cause redundancy. Redundancy causes your team to waste time as they filter through duplicates in search of what they really need. Plus, the process of destroying redundant documents is risky, because you could accidentally destroy all copies of important records.
The clarity created by a good workflow will also prevent this from happening.
They give you a clear paper trail for all of your documents
There will be times when you want to know where a document came from, who created it and what hands it passed through. Unfortunately, a traditional document management process will not allow this to reliably happen, because its only purpose is to get a document from point A to point B.
Document management workflows are inherently designed to allow you to easily identify each step that a document progresses through.
*Bonus tip: A document management workflow works better with digital documentation
Based on the information that we provided above, you should have no doubts that implementing a document management workflow will help your organization save time and money. In order to get the most out of your new document management workflow, however, you need to convert all of your documents to digital files.
This does not just increase the efficiency of your document management workflow by allowing you to quickly push documents to the next step in the workflow process, it also allows you to convert your documents to digital files which saves your organization a great deal of time and money.
You must implement a document management workflow to support the growth of your business
Increasing the number of customers and reducing how much you pay for products are not the only ways to help your business grow. By adding a document management workflow, you are investing in the efficiency of your organization, which will ultimately save you money and allow you to invest more time into other areas of your business. To learn more, join our webinar on January 22.
