Today's Document Management Trends

Document management is the use of an electronic filing cabinet to organise and store all digital files. Digital document management improves access to information, saves time with easy retrieval, helps structure information in an intuitive way to prevent data silos and improves data governance and security. Over the past decade, there has been a notable shift towards digital when it comes to managing documents as companies begin to tackle overall efficiency and resilience. According to ReportLinker, from 2019 to 2025, the global market for document management software solutions is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13%. Below we explore some of the current trends around document management.

Productivity & Collaboration

Document issues account for more than 21% of daily productivity loss. From searching for documents to determining the most up-to-date version, there are a range of document issues that can hinder productivity. Further, organisations are moving away from email document collaboration preferring real-time instant collaboration on documents. Employees no longer want to waste time on manual repetitive tasks such as document retrieval and want to spend more time doing value add tasks. Document management systems can help empower employees with features like robust searchability, real-time collaboration and version control.

Cloud-Based Solutions

The cloud has revolutionised document management, particularly in a time of remote and hybrid working. Although when the cloud first emerged many were initially hesitant to get on board with it, the cloud has proven it is here to stay and will definitely be the future for digital workplaces. Cloud-based document management solutions allow for secure access to documents anytime and anywhere, which for many is essential for business continuity in today’s work environment. Cloud document management also has the capacity to scale on demand ensuring organisations are only paying for the storage they need allowing the technology to scale in line with business growth.

Sustainability

Unsurprisingly sustainability is a big focus for organisations recently. Most customers now expect companies that they buy from or work with to uphold some sort of sustainability practice. Therefore, organisations are becoming even more conscious of their sustainability and want to shift towards more eco-friendly operational practices to stay relevant and competitive. One such practice is the management of the documents, modern solutions help organisations reduce waste, reduce paper, and track documents more easily to prevent reprinting while scalable cloud storage eliminates the need for physical storage.

Workflow & Automation

Organisations today seek technology solutions that offer smart automation to make daily working tasks easier. Document management systems sit at the core of an organisation's information repository so naturally, automation in this space is very helpful. From approval workflows to reminders about the document lifecycle, automation can be easily applied and customised to align with your organisational processes. Seeking a document management system that integrates with other critical technologies can expand how your automation and workflows operate across the business.

Security

Security is something that many organisations are putting more emphasis on in today’s working environment in the face of increased cyber threats. Securing documents with a document management solution allows organisations to store documents in line with specific compliance and data security guidelines. Users can classify documents in different ways or restrict access based on user roles etc. It can also help prevent data loss with documents backed up in the cloud.

If you would like to transform document management processes in your organisation, contact us today to speak to one of our specialists. Alternatively, check out our case study with CIE, who adopted SharePoint as its document management solution.

Brianna Bracken, Marketing Executive Sep 01, 2022