Document management software is integral to an organization’s functions and great care must be taken in choosing one. The right document management software [DMS] can make an organization function faster and smoother and also reduce its costs while increasing its efficiency and profitability.
Below are some considerations to keep in mind when buying Document Management Software. However, keep in mind that these may vary from organization to organization according to each organization’s needs and situation, and what may be extremely useful or even critical for one may just be “nice to have” for another.
Here is your text rewritten into short, structured paragraphs with appropriate headings. No words have been changed—just formatted for clarity and readability:
Ease of Use
First, the software chosen must be easy to use and learn for an organization’s employees, and must have an intuitive and relatively uncluttered user interface that works well over the company network and the Internet while allowing users to perform common activities and tasks quickly and efficiently.
Finding, searching and accessing documents from the central document storage repository should be easy and uncomplicated.
Security and Audit Trail
Check if the DMS offers adequate security for the organization’s confidential records. It is best if the DMS allows security rules to be applied to the smallest unit possible, such as the ability to set folder or file level access control and permissions.
Also, for better security and control, it is useful to track and log user actions and movements within the document management system. For this, an audit trail that shows which persons have accessed the document management system database and what operations they have performed is useful.
Price and Features
Many of the document management systems on the market have high and often inflated prices, and they might be full of features that you don’t need.
So select a DMS that has the right balance of low price and the features that you need.
Open Source Document Management Software
An open source system will allow an organization to utilize the software more freely, and lets the organization change or improve the software to meet its needs better.
Compliance with Laws and Regulations
Does your organization have any legal obligations to meet in the way you store your documents? What laws do you have to comply with?
You must evaluate the DMS to see if it helps you comply with the laws and regulations that affect your industry. For example, health care companies will need to comply with various privacy and security regulations of HIPAA.
Record Management Capability
Just remember that all EDMS systems may not have record management abilities.
If you need to manage critical business records and documents securely for various legal and regulatory compliance reasons, you will need document management software with record management capability.
Reporting
Does the document management system have the reporting features and report generation capabilities in the document formats that the organization needs?
Capture and delivery of documents and reports to users in common and widely used formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF is useful.
Integration and Compatibility with Other Software
The DMS should be accessible from existing software applications in your office, such as Web Browsers, word processing software and email applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook).
This will allow users to retrieve files from the document management system, and work on these documents and then save them to the DMS database, all without having to leave the application.
If you intend on integrating the document management system with other software within your enterprise, such as tax and accounting software, the software should have pre-built 3rd-party application connectors.
Forms Design Capabilities
A DMS with the capability to design electronic Forms helps capture information from users or lets them easily create letters, memos and the like in a standard format desired by the organization.
Workflow Control
Does the DMS have flexible workflow capabilities so that it allows an administrator to exercise control as tightly or loosely over the movement and lifecycle of documents in the system as needed?
The DMS should allow the automation of document approval processes.
Support and Upgrades
Does the DMS vendor offer a service contract that includes unlimited support and upgrades?
This will often be useful as you might need many instances of support until your organization is familiar with the DMS.
Backup and Recovery
A DMS should have tools and utilities that allow the backup and recover data for security and protection from accidents, mistakes and disasters.
Annotations and Format Support
The ability to make annotations on digital images, and store and export PDF documents and TIFF images is useful, as these are widely supported formats.
Document Distribution
Ideally, the DMS should support distribution of documents outbound from the organization in a variety of formats and modes that may be requested by recipients based on preferences like PDF files, by fax or email etc.
Customization and Add-ons
It is best if the document management software fills your organization’s needs as-is, so you must check if the DMS requires paying for extra components or 3rd party support and software to fulfill your current requirements.
The DMS should also be customizable to suit your business processes.