Negosentro.com | Offices have adopted online file management systems over a papered one as it requires a great amount of time to look for documents, incurs a higher cost for paper production and gets difficult to manage. To understand why have businesses and offices opted for this, let us know what makes an online file management system different and unique.
What is an online file management system (OFMS)?
Online File management systems are useful for converting, sharing and storing digital files within a network. The need for an OFMS has arisen when companies had started making use of technologies to convert paper documents into digital files. This helped corporations save paper and time wasted on managing paper documents. Even the oldest document management systems had a great contribution in reducing the time wasted for sharing paper documents with limited file formats available. Since this contribution, technology progressed in supporting image files, videos, and other documents.
As per research, 7.5% of all documents get lost. 90% of the documents get shuffled that leads to a waste of time. 50% of the time is wasted upon looking for files whereas, only 5% -15% is spent on reading the information.
No matter how small or big a company is, what the strength is and how many workers are enrolled in the company, every company or startup needs an online document management system. The modern ODMS also are popular for proving security, auditing tools, and automatic workflow.
Let us discuss some keys points about online file management systems that you must keep in mind before you implement one.
Compatibility
A good OFMS should be compatible with all types of files. Bore implementing, make sure that the system is capable enough to recognize all types of files especially images. Moreover, look for optical character recognition to identify texts in the documents. Avoid a document management system that has limited file type supporters. When Microsoft introduced the new version of document files in Docx format, they understood that storages didn’t offer the feature to support a basic format like docx. Therefore, trust only those online file management system service providers that can ensure you to deliver the trending technologies that are available.
Legal issues
Although the legal issues regarding documents aren’t really stressed upon such legal issues actually play an important role in terms of management. The use of documents that are regulated by an OFMS can result in strict penalties in the future. Every user and a consumer must abide by the rules set for controlling these document management systems and their documents. Although it is difficult to review the terms and conditions and keep them in mind, the motive should be to have legal support wherever possible. This is the only way to play it safe.
Trust within the organization
There are several documents that are sensitive and cannot be openly stored in the system. These OFMS lets users have access to documents from anywhere and anytime. How can you be sure if your documents are secure within the working environment itself? Firstly, the managers should be sure that their workers are made aware of the policies and procedures of the file management system that they are using. Secondly, workers should know how to handle critical data. When such policies are implemented, a level of trust will be built automatically within the organization and also they’ll be aware of the penalties which will restrict them for misusing the documents and instead help each other to decide what measures to be taken.
Also, workers in general never read the policies or conditions of their organizations. In such cases, a simple and clear instruction along with a legal disclaimer can help companies fulfill their goals of ensuring trust within the organization. Managers can encourage their employees to use their instincts in making decisions while the employees, whenever facing an emergency about misusage, should call a senior authority to take the call or at least guide along the way.
Storage
Out of all the characteristics that an OFMS has, a good storage facility is one that mainly counts. Due to a large number of documents produced, it gets essential for companies to review the storage capacity the system is offering them. Managers and workers should decide whether what data is important and what is worth archiving. In fact, sometimes it gets essential to destroy certain documents too. It is only these factors that will force you on deciding what kind of storage is essential and with what amount of storage. The modern online file management systems help the workers in creating a hierarchy by assigning certain parameters for priority in each document. In fact, many companies use hierarchical storage management that categorizes documents according to the importance they have. This helps the companies decide whether which documents should be stored where and also transfer documents from a high-cost drive to a lower cost if they aren’t important as the highly relevant ones. This process is much like deleting the unwanted files and transferring to the recycle bin.
There are certain factors that emphasize more on why you must implement an OFMS for your business. Here are a few of them.
- Amongst all the companies, 55% of companies are not confident about their documents. They doubt whether they could get a recovery of the documents or not.
- The OFMS is still not efficiently used in many companies as they still think that paper file management system is more reliable and manageable than any other system provided.
It is true that disruptive technologies are hard to believe unless you haven’t implemented and got results as per expectations. But the digital form of document management has much more to offer beyond time management and easy access. An online file management system is worth implementing if you want your workers to stay updated regarding any changes made in the documents. The documents are easily accessible from anywhere and anytime. Security is highly ensured and you can also limit the people who can access the files by making changes in the documents. And mostly, the chances of documents losing are very few. Companies that have adopted an online file management system have seen results and are found to be user-friendly.
via Anushka Chakrabarti
Anushka is an avid blogger of Docup, a company that does document management for individuals, tax professionals, and businesses of all sizes. She loves technology, especially cloud technology. She writes on cloud-based apps and works in the online cloud file storage company.
