Make the Most out of your Document Management System (DMS)

Have you ever lost your documents, misfiled your documents or had a tough time identifying changes to a document? You’re not alone, it’s an issue we tackle as well. This is what many organizations suffer from – and it ultimately leads to wasted resources, time and efforts.

No matter how big or small your organization, a document management strategy is key for staying ahead of the competition and not wasting dollars because of inefficiency. Below are a few of the things you can avoid by reevaluating your document management strategies.

What is Document Management?

To get started what is Document Management? Document Management is how documents, digital or physical, are handled and processed through their typical workflow. Often a document comes in needs to be reviewed and signed by certain stakeholders before being filed or processed.

A Document Management System (DMS) helps ingest, edit, and store digital documents. As most industries turn to digital documents, a Document Management System makes the most sense rather than manually storing and processing documents.

Follow a Document Management Roadmap

Some questions to ask yourself before implementing a DMS are:

• What are the processes I want to map?
• Why am I mapping them?
• What do I want to achieve the most?

If your goal is to clearly define your business objectives so that mistakes and repetitive operations are less likely to occur, then a strategic plan must be in place. By not following a roadmap, it will lead to mismanaging documents, administrative chaos and important data getting lost down the rabbit hole. That’s why it’s important to find a document management system (DMS) that’s versatile and place priority and budget on improving internal processes with the right records management strategy.

Involve your Employees in the Process

Your employees want to see their markups, revisions and the full edit history associated with their documents, so don’t exclude them from your document management strategy. Involve all end-users from start to finish to empower their workdays and see who on your team is inundated with work by swapping outdated spreadsheets with real-time custom reporting tools. This allows employees to work smarter, not harder, and fosters greater collaboration between departments and ensures business processes run smoothly.

Remember to regularly host training sessions and refreshers for your staff on how to best implement document management tools/strategies and get their honest feedback.

Defining Tasks and Responsibilities Clearly

Losing track of deadlines is something we’re all guilty of, but failing to keep track of due dates can severely hinder your growth. Emphasize consistency by assigning and distributing documents to key stakeholders to gain full visibility into deadlines, tasks, and progress (again through a trusted DMS system). Life gets simpler when your workloads are customizable and adaptable as projects unfold, and you can determine bottlenecks and areas of urgency quicker, for quicker resolutions.

If your DMS has a report-building feature and an intuitive dashboard, there’s no way you won’t gain full insight into your business processes.

Be Prepared for Audits

The “A” word is not so scary if you have the right tools to prepare. Annual reviews, audits, and SLAs are usually manual, tedious and resource-intensive; making it an expensive effort. But by factoring compliance into the equation every time you handle a document, you can avoid that.

By implementing a DMS with a built-in compliance checklist, you can force compliance, so reviews are done on time while meeting the standards set out by regulatory bodies, and you never miss a step in the process.

Avoid Going at it Alone

Many organizations think they must handle their processes on their own to keep costs down – but that’s where they’re wrong. By enlisting the help of expert tools and teams, you can streamline your business goals, meet objectives and grow your operation while increasing ROI.

It also helps to choose the right provider with proper communication and onboarding.

Get Started with Blue Relay to Automate your Business Processes

Blue Relay is a Document Process Automation Tool that can help your company adjust to working remotely and remain HIPAA Compliant. Blue Relay helps with Workflow Automation, Team Collaboration, and Document Review and Approval Get your company back on track while remaining compliant.

• 100% Virtual Implementation
• Seamless Onboarding and Training
• Pre-built Workflows and Dashboards
• 30 Days to Deployment
• 90 Days no Obligations