Skip to main content
Blog

Can document management systems make businesses more efficient?

Microform Branding - Document Management System on Laptop screen.

Efficient document management systems are increasingly important in modern business, where it is essential to keep all files and folders accessible as quickly as possible for compliance and regulatory reasons.

But this can leave many businesses unsure of how to manage documents that might once have been left untouched in dusty archives for months or years at a time.

With digital technologies, there is no reason to devote vast physical footprints to storing paper documents in this way - and even if you need to keep the originals for any reason, digitising them can give you an instantly retrievable, searchable duplicate held on disk.

At Microform we produce bespoke document management systems to help large organisations store, sort and retrieve files and folders as efficiently as possible, saving on admin time and costs, and enhancing regulatory compliance and data security.

How to manage documents electronically

The first step is to digitise your documents for electronic storage on disk, on your own servers or in the cloud.

We process each document in accordance with the type of data it contains - that means files are saved in an appropriate format, with the option to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so text documents can be saved as a searchable digital text format.

As we build your electronic document archive, we use sensible and logical folder structures and filenames, creating a virtual records room and not just a chaotic file dump.

This is reinforced with our bespoke document management systems, which we can tailor to the specific search and retrieval needs of your organisation, and grant access to all of your network's users or only to authorised members of management as appropriate.

Our common file formats used in our digitised archives include:

  • Lossless images (Tagged Image File Format or TIFF)

  • Compressed images (Joint Photographic Experts Group or JPEG)

  • Editable text documents (Microsoft Word .doc or .docx format)

  • Searchable but non-editable text (Portable Document Format or PDF)

  • Web page formats (Hypertext Markup Language or HTML)

  • eReader formats (Amazon Kindle and/or iBook)

If you need files stored in a specific format that is not already listed above, let us know - our document management systems are bespoke and we want them to meet your every need.

How to manage documents for public access

One of the biggest gains in efficiency comes if you need to manage documents for public access, and digitising those files can allow you to give the public direct access without taking any of your own workforce's time.

This allows entire online libraries to be built from digitised versions of physical documents - and that's why you'll see formats like HTML, locked PDF files and eBook formats mentioned above.

By providing secure, locked versions of documents to authorised members of the public (or without requiring any authorisation at all, if appropriate) you can make massive efficiency improvements when handling incoming external enquiries and searches.

How to manage documents that are no longer needed

We aim to offer a fully joined-up document management service, so if you no longer need the physical versions of your documents, we can destroy and dispose of them for you.

This frees up potentially large amounts of floor space and storage rooms and can save you huge amounts on the cost of storing paper files under controlled environmental conditions.

Alternatively, our partnership with specialist storage provider DeepStore means we can arrange for the original documents to be held offsite at a secure underground location.

To find out more, contact us today and we will be happy to take you through our document digitisation, storage and disposal services, and bespoke document management systems for digital storage, search and retrieval.