Are you always surrounded by a pile of papers and never seem to find the right one at the right time? At work, documents being misplaced can be disastrous, which is reason enough for you to switch to a document management system. However, the next step is to analyse and choose the best document management system (DMS) for your business, which most people are not good at. If you are clueless as to what to look for in a DMS when buying, we bring the 10 things to look for when selecting the right DMS.
1. Simple interface
Simplicity is genius, anyone can complicate things. Software with a difficult to understand user interface should be avoided. Rather, go for a software solution that is easy to understand and use which would save time and money to be spent on training.
2. Comprehensive search options
Since digital data storage and retrieval are the most imperative functions of a DMS, you should focus on the searching options provided by the DMS software. The DMS you choose should have a comprehensive search option which not only searches through documents but also lets you create and save multi-condition queries (for e.g. All Invoices Paid in June).
3. Software support and upgrades
Make sure the DMS you choose has a good support team and upgrades are made available as and when they release. Some software providers offer free customer support and upgrades for a certain period of time on purchase. Go for them.
4. Email storage
Apart from storing scanned documents and native documents, a DMS should have the ability to capture and store emails and related attachments from any specified email account. Email messages can be documents too!
5. Security
An ideal DMS should provide at least a basic level of security to the documents managed by it. The DMS should have folder hierarchy and folder privacy options, which makes data governance easy in a multi-user scenario.
6. Cross-platform usability
Access to your documents should not be restricted to a particular device type. This is the age of smartphones and statistics state that people are spending more time on them than ever. Make sure your DMS is available across all platforms so that you can use them from any device.
7. Scalability
What happens when you need more from your software as per your growing needs? When selecting a DMS, check whether the software provider has any other products which you can transition to once your business grows.
8. Document Scanning
Scanning and adding documents can be an arduous and time consuming task. Make sure your DMS has the ability to add multiple documents through scanners with ADF. Virtual scanning of documents can help you utilize more of your scanner’s built-in features.
9. No hidden costs
Nothing worst than deciding on a product and then finding hidden costs in the fine print. Make sure that the costs are clearly communicated by the DMS vendor and there are no other hidden costs.
10. Support for multiple file formats
An ideal DMS should have support for multiple file formats that today’s user deals with like MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, JPEG, Auto CAD files and more.
Always remember cost effective doesn’t mean low on quality. Buy a DMS which suits your needs rather than blindly going for an expensive one.
