THINGS YOU NEED IN DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE. Presented By:

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1 THINGS YOU NEED IN DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Presented By: With over 15 years experience with document management solutions OnPoint DMS and Cabinet Paperless are pleased to offer you some insight on 7 things you should look for when shopping for a document management software solution. Granted, there are many features and benefits in a great solution. However, we believe a system with these 7 must haves will prepare you for the future and prevent a costly conversion down the road. Enjoy the read

2 In today s connected, fast-paced world, it is increasingly important if not completely critical for organizations to automate timeconsuming manual tasks and be able to access documents and data quickly and easily. The best way to accomplish these goals is to deploy a best-in-class document management solution. You ll want one that s easy to use, efficient to deploy and capable of generating significant ROI Simple, right? Problem is, every single document management vendor says their software does all of that. And unfortunately, there s no real way to check: Any app is easy for somebody to use, deployment time measurements are apples and oranges, and every case study ever claims some amorphous ROI. So how can you, the business user, separate the document management wheat from the chaff? It s best to start by winnowing down the field with the features you absolutely must have and the ones that would be really, really nice. That list, of course, is different for every organization. But in this guide, you ll find the ones that we ve heard consistently from customers over the course of more than a decade.

3 Flexible Deployment Options Every organization s IT infrastructure and staffing situation is different. Some have robust hardware (and the people to support it) on-site. Others have little beyond their PCs and mobile devices, connected by a basic network. Still more have a mix of the two, with different technology capabilities at different facilities That means one-size-fits-all document management software just doesn t cut it anymore. If it s only available on-premise, a DMS suite won t meet the needs of companies without a readily available server, a full-time IT staff and a fully fleshed-out backup and disaster recovery strategy. Conversely, cloud-only paperless office solution doesn t fit certain organizations SOPs, which may not allow any missioncritical documentation to be hosted outside their four walls. You might need an on-premise solution. You might need one hosted in a secure, private cloud. You might not now. And it shouldn t matter. The best document management solutions can be deployed either installed or in the cloud depending on your needs so you can base your decision on the software s potential benefits to your business, not where it lives. Is the Cloud Secure? Done right, absolutely. At Cabinet, for instance, our cloud is hosted in a pair of complementary data centers, with full biometric access control and redundant climate control, fire suppression and electric systems. All information is encrypted in transit, and documents remain the property of the company using the software.

4 Business Process Automation Capabilities If you re only looking for a virtual archive, you re only scratching the surface of what modern document management software suites can do. The best paperless office solutions essentially serve as enterprise-class business process automation platforms by building upon their basic capabilities, they allow organizations to eliminate manual work from both simple and complex tasks. Let s look at two examples of document-management-driven business process automation in action. Example 1: Customer Records Management Customer relationship management (CRM) software is great for recording the core data about engagements contact information, contract details, lifetime customer value, etc. But what about the actual documents that are generated, like proposals, scopes of work, correspondence, invoices and more? Without document management software, all that is stored in folders and filing cabinets or in unstructured (or vaguely structured) computer files. In either case, customer records are time-consuming to find, easy to lose or delete, and almost impossible to effectively route within the organization. With document management software, customer records can be accessed instantly via search or drilling down. Need a detail from the SOW? The actual document is at your fingertips in seconds. Better yet, business rules can easily be ascribed to certain types of customer records. Signed

5 contracts, for instance, can automatically be routed to accounting, AP and management as soon as they come in. And everything is completely secure, under strict version control and essentially disaster-proof. Example 2: Accounts Payable Processing AP processing is the bane of many businesses existence its high-stakes work that also happens to be detail-heavy and highly manual. Fortunately, proper document management solutions can take much of the pain out of accounts payable. With such a system in place, it s actually possible to extract key data (like invoice number, vendor ID, invoice total and even line items), route for approval based on business rules, associate and archive supporting documentation (like packing slips and order confirmations) and send information to accounting software, all with minimal manual intervention. Some invoices might be received, approved, paid and accounted for without a single number being typed out by an employee. Sure sounds better than the old way of doing things, huh? CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE FOR #3

6 Third-Party Integrations These days, no system stands alone. Any document management system you consider should play nice with whatever mission-critical applications you re running, whether it s EHR/EMR, esignature platforms, accounting software, a CRM, or anything else. Documents and data should pass between systems seamlessly, and the use of one solution should complement the use of another. Today s best document management solutions integrate with common thirdparty applications (essentially) out of the box via pre-built connectors, with only minor configuration necessary to get the software platforms working well together. More complex (or proprietary) integrations are accomplished through the use of an API; if a document management suite doesn t offer one, you won t be able to hook it into any custom system in use at your office. How to Choose an API Cabinet lets IT technicians and programmers create custom integrations with outside systems using one of two APIs. Cabinet Open API is the most flexible and can be programmed to be called from any development platform. Cabinet Windows API can only be programmed from a Windows-based application. Between the two, Cabinet offers full coverage APIs that are simple to use, easy to maintain and permit the use of many different data formats.

7 Anytime, Anywhere Document Access These days, business isn t just for the office. Whether you re at home, on the road or (sigh) on vacation, there are plenty of times when you simply need a document on the go. Fortunately, top document management software systems make this a snap. The best DMS options offer a wide range of ways to access and use documents. Look for a solution that works via desktop app, in a web browser and on a tablet. The desktop app (also called a client ) is going to be the most featurerich option; it s the full version of the software. All functionality document search, retrieval, external integrations, editing documents in native programs, etc. will be present. Most leading options are Windows-only; Mac users still a minority of the enterprise community typically access document management software by other means. Web-based versions of document management software are an important complement to native OS apps. The best are streamlined and optimized for the most common on-the-go use cases, improving performance and making interfaces as intuitive as possible. Editing documents in native programs (e.g., Word or PowerPoint) is possible as long as the program is functional on the device. Tablet document management offerings are increasingly popular. While some functionality won t be present on an ipad or larger Android device, core needs are accounted for. This is a great option for a quick document lookup on a sales call, or for the day-to-day needs of mobile workforces.

8 Smartphone Document Management Full-featured smartphone apps are the next generation of DMS exploration. While basic functionality is absolutely possible on a 4-odd inch screen, text size, bandwidth and hardware performance challenges make smartphone apps less full-on DMS solutions and more excellent collaborative tools--a mobile sidekick to the desktop or web-based superhero. Workflow Management Unless you represent 100 percent of your businesses workforce, you have workflow needs. Make sure any document management software you re considering includes a configurable workflow engine, allowing for automatic routing and exceptions based on business rules. It should be possible, for instance, to have invoices routed to different management levels based on their totals or a number of other factors. Make sure the workflow does not require a software engineer to configure. You will want someone in your organization to learn how to setup workflows for the various documents in your business. This is the part of implementation that can go on for a while as you find new business processes that include a business document.

9 Typically, document workflow is something you will be tweaking more than any other part of the system as you decide to automate more and more documents through their business process. So, you don t want to put in a support ticket every time you want to change a user in the workflow or add a variable. Be sure and insist on good training on that part of the system Beware, by the way, of document management solutions that force you to reengineer all of your workflows upon deployment. Rolling out a new system is a great time to take a hard look at how you do business and improve upon any inefficiency, your document management software needs to work for you, not the other way around. If it can t handle your workflows, it can t handle your business. Learn more about how workflow can provide accountability, better control over business processes and much, much more visit the link below 3 PART SERIES ON WORKFLOW.

10 Secure Document Sharing Every business needs to share sensitive information with people outside the four walls of the office. Whether you re a financial advisor sending statements or trade approval documents to a client or Human Resources sending documents with employee information, you need to be able to send and receive information without: Spending the time (and money) to print it and send it via USPS, FedEx/UPS or private courier, or; Compromising its security with unencrypted or Dropbox-style upload/download services. ( encryption, by the way, is a twoway street; it doesn t matter how good your setup is. If your client s security measures aren t as good, the document isn t secure.) Some modern document management solutions offer near instantaneous secure document sharing as core functionality. In these systems, a document can be sent to an encrypted, password-protected cloud repository with the click of a mouse. The client automatically notified via can then download it, work on it and re-upload it. Once it s back in the repository, the internal user is notified, and can easily re-insert it into document management workflows. Cabinet offers a Secure SHARE Portal with both the ON-PREMISE and CLOUD option. You can learn all about it and see a video by clicking the link below Cabinet Secure SHARE Portal

11 World-Class Onshore Support Everyone says their support staff is amazing. But do yourself a favor and check any metrics you can before you invest in a system. The best document management vendors average sub-1 hour resolution on most issues, don t use third-party answering services during business hours and do all their work out of their home offices in the US. The last bit is interesting. It s not that overseas teams can t provide good support many can. But if you re buying your software from a U.S. company, with U.S. developers and U.S. management why would you want support calls routed somewhere else, to folks who didn t build the product and don t work every day to maintain it? Flexible Deployment Options Business Process Automation Capabilities Third-Party Integrations Anytime, Anywhere Document Access Workflow Management Secure Document Sharing World-Class Onshore Support And More Of course there are many other features and benefits to a great system. Some you may use and some you may not. When you are ready. contact me at or fill out my REQUEST FORM and I will contact you for a conversation about your business model. Thank you very much for taking time to read this information!