Johannesburg, 12 May 2014
Collaboration is one of the key things you need to have in mind with your businesses; whether you're sharing information internally with your co-workers or with your business partners all over the world - sharing files can get messy.
To stop losing files, being sure the other side got it and everything else that goes with this kind of collaboration, many of you will see that simple e-mail sharing isn't good enough. Should you use some specialised tools like Dropbox or Google Drive? Or should you think about implementing a document management system (DMS)?
Here are some things to consider when choosing between file sharing and document management systems.
1. Security. Security is one of the key things with handling documents. With a simple file sharing you can secure a shared directory (along with its subdirectories) to restrict access to them. Document management systems, however, provide many more security features than that. You can decide who can edit documents, add them, delete them, etc and, of course, you can get notifications on who and when accessed the document.
2. Taxonomy. Naming the files is another huge problem with simple file sharing programs because it's at the discretion of the creator. DMS systems make this task a lot easier because they use standardised naming convention and enforce the use of required fields.
3. Revision control. Revision control should also be important to you, as it's always nice to have older versions of the files on hand just to be safe and in case the newer version somehow is worse than the original one (or just some previous version).
4. Scanning capabilities. Sure, it would be great if businesses could be 100% paperless, however, that still isn't possible. So you're going to have to scan a lot of documents to create a digital archive of them and that's where DMS shows up as a great helper. Scan the document and if you're using a good enough DMS system, it will OCR the document so you'll have a searchable digital copy of your documents, as opposed to basic .jpg files in a shared folder system.
5. Control. The real benefit of having access to your documents and being able to share them is not in how many you can store and share, but in what you can do with those documents once you have them. Document management provides tools like workflow automation which allow content to flow throughout your organisation based on pre-set rules or events. It also allows for the automated capture of e-mail, Web forms and even print output in many cases.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of collaboration and file organisation; once you start using a document management system, you'll get used to it and find out all the advantages over file sharing. It will transform your business from an unorganised pile of files and papers into a finely structured, easily searchable digital storage system.
NOSCOTEK AND BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Noscotek has some of the most skilled experts in software solutions when it comes to managing documents and business processes. Whether you want to move to paperless technologies, improve on business processes, automate repetitive tasks or integrate various systems, it will be able to assist with a full turnkey function. To discuss your requirements or to book us for an assessment, e-mail ricky@noscotek.co.za.
LET OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE THE LAST WORD
Misha-Lee Gomes, Weco:
"At Weco our promise is to deliver Rock Solid Dependability and it is a pleasure when we are able to do business with companies like Noscotek who believe in this too. Dealing with Noscotek allows me to concentrate on what I do best leaving the mysteries of IT, including programming and technical solutions for both hardware and software, up to their expert care. Their teams are knowledgeable, not only about their speciality area, but they have also taken the time to get to know us and fully understand our unique requirements. Dealing with Noscotek is a 'win-win' situation that I can highly recommend."
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