Document management is about fast, reliable and secure capture and

all aspects of document storage organisation and availability.

Weird fact: Once upon a time, efficient document management was all about cardboard boxes, steel filing cabinets and mountains of paper. Things have moved on a lot since those days yet incredibly some organisations still cling to the old ways.

Effective document management is critical to every organisation; it typically includes all of the following interlinked aspects…

• Optimised document workflows
This typically involves simplifying processes to increase productivity, accuracy and consistency.

• Data capture (often from diverse sources)
Gaining up-to-date information whilst avoiding repetition of effort.

• Tagging / labelling
Keeping things organised saves everybody’s time.

• Secure storage
Valuable and sensitive stuff needs to be kept somewhere safe.

• Communications archiving
Knowing who said what, when and why is vital to all aspects of business. If there’s a back-story, it’s good to know the facts.

• Version control
Effective version control helps ensure that people are working with current information.

• Document authentication (e.g. with digital signatures)
You need to be sure that documents originate from the source they purport to.

• Access control
Making sure that authorised persons get easy access, and nobody else.

• Search / retrieval systems
It’s important to be able to find data and documents fast with minimal fuss.

• Retention policy control
You need a system to ensure that all data is safely stored for the proper duration and properly destroyed when it is required to be.

• Secure backup
A secure backup system is vital insurance providing the ability to guard against accidental destruction of data and provide for disaster recovery.

Document lifecycle management has always been a complicated business. Fortunately, the digital revolution means that every aspect of the task has been improved in almost every way imaginable. The icing on the cake is that much of this can be automated – minimising or eliminating any possibility of human error, and saving countless hours of tedious work. It is a good thing that the core functions of document management systems tend to be fairly similar across different organisations and most of the challenges can be met by thoroughly tried and tested systems.

The difficulty for most organisations arises in choosing the right system and configuring it so that it meets all the business needs of the organisation. That’s where the expertise of Fleet MPS is invaluable. Our consultants and technicians have years of solid experience in planning, deploying and configuring document management systems for different kinds of organisations. We understand what works and what doesn’t; what’s needed and what’s not. We can help guide your document lifecycle and workflow planning, ensuring that you have systems in place that integrate smoothly with existing systems, provide excellent efficiency, reliability, sustainability and first class security.

A well planned document lifecycle management system will result in:

• huge savings in costs and personnel hours,
• improved/simplified legal compliance,
• fast access to up-to-date documents (for authorised persons),
• a reduced carbon footprint,
• opportunities for massive growth, and
• an excellent return on investment.