Getting document management software to work with documentation is only the first part of the implementation process. With one of the primary benefits being the ability to integrate your documentation with other aspects of the business, you have to consider how to integrate it with your other business applications.
Customer Inquiries
Inquiries generally arrive through email, although they can come from a number of other communication apps. As you have seen, inquiries can cover just about anything, from delivery questions to product details. Often, businesses assign a single email address for these inquiries, making it easy to manage read and unread requests.
Document management system is tied to the assigned inbox. You can choose to either automate the process to move the email into the software or to have it managed manually. For automated management, you will be able to assign different types of queries to different divisions based on how requests are filtered.
Customer Offers
Most businesses set up their customer offers in one of the different Microsoft Office programs. Microsoft Word is the app that is used most often. Document management software can create a PDF of the file and prepare it for the customer to review. Generally, you do not want to send a document that can be edited to customers.
The software will manage and track different versions of your offers, making it easy to reference them when customers inquire about an event or sale. The files should be saved within the document management software to ensure that you have the information you need when you need it.
Vendor Invoices
Managing vendor and supplier invoices can be incredibly time-consuming. The document management software lets you integrate it with other programs so that you can streamline the process.
Once you receive an invoice, regardless of the method, you can save it into your document management software. Scanning is the most common method of saving files as this file type is one of the easiest, most reliable methods of saving a file. You can then add notes and details about the payment so that you have a clear record of when it was paid in addition to details about each transaction.
Customer Invoices
Customer invoices are easily one of the most difficult aspects to manage because there are always customers who give you a hard time. Like vendor invoices, you can save your customer invoices into your document management software for easier coordination and communication about each invoice.
Since employees can add notes and details to the system, you can minimize the number of duplicate requests for payment or details. You will need to make sure you set up the configuration so that the correct users can use this function as you will want to ensure sensitive information is not readily available for everyone to view.
Additional Software
While those are the most basic types of document management you will want to integrate into your software, there are a number of other software types that you may want to loop into the process.
- Searches across multiple applications will give you a way to quickly find data you need without having to open lots of different programs.
- Exchanging data is simpler through this type of software as it is designed for sharing.
- Storage is a major benefit of documentation software. By being able to save al of your documentation in one place, you have a better way to locate files that you need. However, you will need to be careful about how you store the documents. Make sure rules are established before opening the software to a large audience.
