5 Critical Document Management Challenges and Solutions

Businesses face various challenges when it comes to managing their documents. These challenges include disorder in digital file management, long document process cycle times, lack of traceability of documents, loss of important documents, issues with version control, and more. How can these challenges be addressed?

All organizations, no matter their size, struggle with managing documents during daily operations. Although document management systems are available to help with this task, some businesses still use paper documents, which can cause problems with efficiency.

It is challenging to handle a large number of documents effectively. To optimize the use of our documents, we require complete control over their handling and tracking. When managed correctly, the documents, data, and important information will be securely stored in one centralized repository that only authorized inpiduals can access.

Inadequate handling of documents can lead to inefficiencies in the document process and prolonged search times, resulting in loss of time, productivity, and money. Managing modifications and collaboration can also become complicated, and there may be legal and regulatory risks involved.

Businesses must overcome common document management obstacles in order to succeed. To help, this article will address the top 5 challenges and offer solutions.

1- Losing important documents

Have you ever experienced difficulty locating a document that was produced before? Losing a document can lead to the need for it to be recreated, which can be challenging to do alone. To prevent losing important documents like customer requirements and contracts, it is crucial to handle them with care. Organizations usually have various backup options for their digital records to enable them to be retrieved in an emergency.

2- Digital file management chaos

Without a document management system (DMS), many organizations depend on inpiduals to manage their digital documents. This can lead to various issues such as difficulty locating documents, working on outdated versions, conflicting with others’ edits, and duplicating content across multiple locations.

3- Inconsistency

If your company doesn’t have a clear and consistent policy for managing, controlling, monitoring, sharing, titling, versioning, and other document-related tasks, it may result in an “Information Chaos.” Such inconsistencies can harm your business through sales, product management, or operations in the long run.

When pre-sales discuss and agree on customer requirements, it is important to ensure they are accurately documented in contracts and service design. Failure to do so may result in ineffective delivery, which can harm the customer’s perception of your brand and diminish their goodwill.

4- Document traceability

Document management entails tracing documents from creation to disposal, keeping track of status updates, edits, approvals, sharing, and other necessary details. Achieving document traceability is challenging without a DMS, hence the advantages of digitization and record lifecycle management.

5- High document process cycle time 

Using paper-based documents can be time-consuming and expensive to manage, store, search, and collaborate on. It’s not efficient for organizations to rely on paper documentation for daily operations, as a lot of time is lost during the creation, editing, approval, and sharing of documents. To solve this, businesses should implement a system that streamlines document processing and reduces the time it takes to complete tasks, allowing for more productivity in less time.