7 essential best practices for document management

By Key Digital

24 Mar 2021

clock.jpg

When you’re thinking about how to implement digital document management for your company – or how to enhance your existing system – focusing on the fundamentals and defining your goals – ensures success. These proven best practices will give you a head start.

How To Apply Best Practices In Your Business

1. Set goals and develop key metrics

Many companies don’t take the time to set goals and determine how to measure their progress. Being specific is the most important thing. Are you trying to help users find documents more quickly? Save on document storage costs? Improve collaboration?

Before you implement your document management solution, specify the metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) you will use to measure progress toward your goals and set a baseline so you can benchmark against your existing system. For example, you may discover it takes 10 minutes to process an invoice with your current system and find out it only takes two minutes after using digital document management for a month. Sharing these measurable successes with your colleagues is a terrific way to show the value of the project and encourage user adoption as you move forward.

2. Prioritise business processes and systems to automate

Automated processes reduce time and effort for employees, which ultimately reduces costs for your company. Make sure you prioritise automation efforts to focus on processes that business-critical and align your objectives. You might want to speed up order processing, improve customer service response times or integrate with your accounting system to capture more early payment discounts.

For example, a manufacturer decided to use document management to respond more quickly when customers asked about the technical details related to their orders. Prior to automating this process, the average response time was 6 to 10 hours, depending on whether the order was stored onsite or had to be retrieved from an offsite storage location. After automation with digital document management, the manufacturer reduced the average response time to less than 30 seconds.

 

3. Improve paper-based processes instead of emulating them

Many companies make the mistake of trying to replicate their paper-based processes in a digital context, instead of taking the opportunity to eliminate extra steps. When you’re setting up digital processes, ask yourself why you’ve followed a certain procedure in the past, and whether those actions are necessary in this new context.

The experience of a state government agency is a case in point. The agency wanted to convert its purchasing approval process into a digital workflow. At first, it reproduced the paper-based process, which relied on the comptroller’s assistant to collect and route approvals at every stage. By building business rules into its document management system, the agency was able to route invoices for approval without a gatekeeper at every step.

4. Capture content close to the point of origin

Document capture that is as close to the source as possible saves time and improves data quality. Tools like virtual printers and electronic forms are great examples. Virtual printers enable you to save documents directly to your document management system without printing and scanning them first. And electronic forms allow you to automatically extract data from a document, reducing manual data entry. These eforms simplify, improve and accelerate data collection. Not only are they instantly available to anyone on any device, but forms provide structure to data, so it can be used to automate information flow.

It’s also important to be able to share data with your ERP, CRM or other business software. When your document management solution and other systems can “speak” to one another, retrieving data and sharing it between systems keeps business information in sync.

5. Make sure the user interface is straightforward and intuitive

You want users to get into the system, get what they need and get out with as few clicks and steps as possible – and without unnecessary clutter on their desktops. Document management systems are designed to solve many different problems, but all the features shouldn’t be displayed on every user’s screen. A good system allows administrators and users to view only the elements each user needs to accomplish a task. Customising the interface makes it easier for a person to accomplish their tasks without confusing or overwhelming them with irrelevant details.

 

6. Take advantage of the cloud

With on-premises systems applications, storage and networking technology are installed within the four walls of your business or data centre. Physical assets like servers, routers and hard drives are purchased, installed and ultimately replaced. They require expensive, time-consuming maintenance, upgrades, integrations and security monitoring. In addition, cloud service providers assume responsibility for system upgrades and security patches enabling you to scale up your solution without additional IT resources. Employees, especially those working remotely, also benefit significantly because a cloud-based business operates on the “any-X” principal: their best work can happen anywhere, on any device, at any time. With the cloud, the entire model of expense is flipped: subscriptions to services can be categorised as operational expenses rather than capital expenditure. That’s why from a purely budgetary standpoint, the cloud makes a whole lot of sense.

7. Set up a free trial account

Taking software for a test run is better than any discussion of how it works in theory. A hands-on experience with Key Digital’s automation tools is a great place to start. You can develop a better understanding of document management by uploading your own documents and using the “Your First Steps” and Knowledgebase documentation. Access a ready-to-use cloud document management system prebuilt digital file cabinets, document storage, sharing settings and more. Start storing documents the minute it’s up and running.

If you want to get the most from a new system, or make your existing solution more effective, these document management best practices aren’t just options – they’re essential.

Click here to find out more

Latest news

1

McMurrays Haulage expands fleet after contract win Warehouse Supervisor at Pets Choice Brad Eddleston and McMurrays Sales Manager Rob Spencer. Photo credit: McMurrays Haulage Limited

McMurrays Haulage expands fleet after contract win

21 Oct 2025

2

Dragons' Den star to shine on Lancashire Business Day Derry Green

Dragons' Den star to shine on Lancashire Business Day

21 Oct 2025

3

Eden Project Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 marks 25th anniversary Eden Project garden

Eden Project Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 marks 25th anniversary

21 Oct 2025

4

Lancashire farm named 'Family Farming Business of the Year' British Farming Awards

Lancashire farm named 'Family Farming Business of the Year'

20 Oct 2025

5

Breck Homes appoints new managing director Phil Dolan, Breck

Breck Homes appoints new managing director

20 Oct 2025

Background image for hub sign up block

LBV Hub

Leverage Lancashire Business View platforms

Post your news
Post your events
Post your offers
Build your network
Improve your SEO
Gain coverage in the magazine
Sign-up
Events
CMI Level 5 Project Management Course
UCLanAerialCampus.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
21 Feb 2025 - 21 Feb 2026

CMI Level 5 Project Management Course

Preston Campus, Preston, PR1 2HE

08:00 - 17:00

CMI Level 5 Management and Leadership Course
UCLanAerialCampus.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
21 Feb 2025 - 21 Feb 2026

CMI Level 5 Management and Leadership Course

Preston Campus, Preston , PR1 2HE

09:00 - 17:00

Help to grow management course
Help to grow - barriers to growth.png.png
LBV Hub Seminars
26 Sep 2025 - 16 Dec 2025

Help to grow management course

Preston Campus , Preston , PR1 2HE

09:00 - 15:00

RISE - Lancashire's unique leadership programme for women
thumbnail_Emma Weston Illustration WENDY BOWERS RISE Illustrstion.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
22 Oct 2025 - 18 Mar 2026

RISE - Lancashire's unique leadership programme for women

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, Clayton le Moors, BB5 5JR

09:30 - 15:30

Women scaling up Blackpool Fylde and Wyre
LBV Hub Seminars
22 Oct 2025 - 09 Jan 2026

Women scaling up Blackpool Fylde and Wyre

The Small Business Academy, Blackpool, FY4 5JX

09:30 - 15:30

HR Essentials for pubs, bars and licensed venues
EventBrite NORi - 22nd Oct Webinar.png.png
LBV Hub Webinar
22 Oct 2025 - 22 Oct 2025

HR Essentials for pubs, bars and licensed venues

Online - Teams, Leyland, PR253XH

13:30 - 15:00

Chamber Business Lunch – October
LBV Hub Networking
24 Oct 2025 - 24 Sep 2025

Chamber Business Lunch – October

Lancaster Golf Club, Lancaster, LA2 0AJ

11:00 - 13:30

North West Business Expo 2025
https---cdn.evbuc.com-images-880456273-4862066883-1-original.20241022-105445.jpeg.jpg
LBV Hub Exhibitions
24 Oct 2025 - 24 Oct 2025

North West Business Expo 2025

Bolton Stadium Hotel, Bolton, BL6 6SF

09:00 - 15:00

Lancaster District Business Support Expo
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
29 Oct 2025 - 29 Oct 2025

Lancaster District Business Support Expo

The Platform, Morecambe, LA4 4DB

10:00 - 15:00

Chamber Breakfast Networking – November
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
06 Nov 2025 - 06 Nov 2025

Chamber Breakfast Networking – November

Porsche Centre South Lakes, Carnforth, LA6 1FW

08:30 - 10:30

Lancashire Police business update with The Police and Crime Commissioner
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Roundtables
10 Nov 2025 - 10 Nov 2025

Lancashire Police business update with The Police and Crime Commissioner

Lancaster Castle, Lancaster, LA1 1YN

14:00 - 16:00

AI, Creativity, and what it means to be human
2.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
11 Nov 2025 - 11 Nov 2025

AI, Creativity, and what it means to be human

Society1, Coworking Space, Preston, PR1 3LT

18:00 - 20:00

Advertise with us

Reaching 50,000 members, our print, digital and event platforms offer a fantastic way to raise your business profile and help you grow.

Find out more LBV124 Online Graphic
Subscribe now

Weekly news bulletin