Document Management Software Program: A True Godsend for Modern Work Collaborations

Team collaboration is more than just a trendy idea; in the corporate world, it is a necessity today. In order to harness the best out of your team, workplace collaboration is a must. But, the definition of workplace is changing with changing times. Consequently, work collaborations look a bit different in the post-pandemic period.

How can you improve your team collaborations?

There could be many reasons you want to hold a meeting. One of them is when you need to discuss certain points from a certain document with your team. Now, the traditional way to get this done would involve getting a photocopy of the document for each team member, and calling a meeting to read and discuss all the points. Then you might proceed to rewrite or edit the document using MS Word to yet again follow up with a paper-based approval process. Finally, you would get all the members to sign the hard copy, publish this final document digitally, and make it accessible to the team. Though a tried and tested process for decades, it still is neither cost-effective, nor time-effective, nor very eco-friendly.

Instead, with a document management software program in your hands, you can speed up the process many times, therefore saving time, cost, as well as paper. Not just that, when you share the document with all the stakeholders, a DMS program makes sure you do so in a safe and secure manner. As every member of your team reviews the document, they are able to suggest the changes they want to see by highlighting parts of the document, and leaving notes for others to see. This way, every member not only leaves notes, but is also able to see the notes left by all others. And there is no need to have countless physical workplace meetings to get such multiple revisions or changes done. Once the final review has been made by everyone, the final document can be routed for approval, signing, and finally get published for all users to see. No need for paperprintouts, no need to meet physically!

This latter method, clearly, makes the document sharing process not only super-efficient, but super-easy as well.

You and your team can make decisions much faster; you will find the performance of various process-related tasks and rollout of contracts, policies, and such other documents much better than before. The result will inevitably be – more efficient operations.

How is sharing documents different from collaborating on documents?

By sharing documents, you are granting access to the other users to at least open and read the document. If the privilege extends, the users can also make edits to the document and/or leave comments/suggestions. While you are granting such access, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the users will in fact open the document and work on it.

On the other hand, collaboration is about sharing a document with certain users with the specific goal of modifying that document, assuming these users have been provided the relevant access. While sharing of a document usually takes place when you might have the final draft ready, collaboration is done in the revision or preparatory stages. This is the stage where you want your team to come up with ideas and recommendations, when you are looking for reviews, improvements, and corrections. This is the stage that is followed by a final revision by all the members, approval, and lastly, publishing of the document.

Five ways that a DMS program is truly a Godsend for modern workplaces, are:

• Document Management Software program allows you to create digital workflows that automatically route the document to the team member who needs to approve the document and later sign it off.
• You can easily and efficiently organize your multiple documents into various folders, tag them, manage them project- or client-wise, and more using a DMS program.
• With the incredibly advanced search feature included in the DMS, you can search documents in no time.
• You will decide which of your colleagues do you want to collaborate with, and therefore give access to the document, ensuring safety and security of information.
• In addition, the DMS program lets you view the previous major versions of the document as well. It even allows you to choose to revert to one of the earlier versions of the document and make that the current version which you can now share with others!

In conclusion, DMS is the technology all workplaces need to make the document sharing and team collaboration processes more automated, and therefore seamless.