Four Signs Your Document Management Tools Need a Fresh Look

By Jesper Theill Eriksen On Aug 23, 2018

The way documents are governed can play a big part in how smoothly an organization operates — and if it’s not done properly, it can also carry significant risk. But often, leadership doesn’t know whether the organization’s document creation and management tools need a fresh look.

Fortunately, there are telltale warning signs that can point to the need for reconsideration of a document management strategy. If any of these sound familiar, it’s not only time to rethink where your documents are stored, but how they are created, maintained and shared across your organization.

Clients Often Get Confused by Inconsistent Documentation

All external facing communication should be consistent, on-brand and up-to-date. But frequently, it’s not. If you’re finding your clients and customers are confused or asking a lot of questions about the documents you share with them, it’s likely your employees are confused about where the correct assets are located. This confusion not only creates a serious bleed on productivity internally, it’s also damaging to your organization’s brand and can make customers think twice about what kind of operation they are engaging with.

Employees Are Panicked About Compliance

In today’s digital workplace, employees create documents at an astounding rate. The pace of document creation requires employees to quickly and confidently produce assets that are up-to-date and compliant with the standards of the industry in which your business operates. If your document management strategy lacks template management and document automation tools, your employees could be sending out documents that include outdated disclosures, disclaimers or other information that puts you at risk for non-compliance. With document automation tools, disclaimers and disclosures can be updated automatically across all documents and assets, ensuring documents always contain the most current information to keep you compliant.

Finding the Right Document Is Basically a Treasure Hunt

If there are rumblings within the ranks about the sheer complexity of locating the right documents, it’s time to think about your strategy immediately. The problem is not uncommon. On average, professionals spend nearly half their workday searching for information and take a staggering 18 minutes to locate a single document. In fact, poor document management accounts for 21.3 percent of productivity loss in an organization.

Updating Documents Is a Monumental Task When There Are Brand Changes

All organizations experience change, whether it’s a simple tweak to a logo or a full-fledged merger. Regardless, changes need to be made to company-wide assets to reflect the new branding. If your digital brand assets are not kept in a single, cloud-based location, this task can be time-consuming and downright painful. Consider a digital asset management system that includes template management tools and can integrate with your document management system. With template management tools, components like logos, company boilerplate and other assets that need to remain consistent can be changed and then updated universally across all documents.

Smart money says it’s time for a fresh look at your document management strategy and the tools your employees use when accessing company documents. A comprehensive evaluation of your strategy can help protect your brand, reduce the risk of non-compliance and have a significant impact on your productivity.