Benefits of EDMS (Electronic Document Management Systems)

By Chad Perlmutter | April 22, 2015 | 3 minute read

Document management and storage is one of the most critical pieces to your business. Creating a logical way to file, store, and locate files can be a very challenging task, especially if you have a filing system like the one in the image posted here.

Organizing your documents might not be the most exciting thing to tackle, but it can be revolutionary for your business. An Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) is here to help. The benefits of EDMS includes helping increase efficiency and accessibility to your critical business file and documents. It will save you time and money.

What is an EDMS?

Officially, an Electronic Document Management System is a system of various technologies that are used to create, capture, index, distribute, review, maintain, store, retrieve, and dispose of information assets.

The main components of EDMS include technology that steps you through the entire digital document creation and storage process.  This includes imaging, document management, and workflow processing.

Additionally, it reduces the time it takes to find, file, and store your documents. It’s also a simple way to give everyone you choose access to any file in your business they choose.

The Benefits Of EDMS Over Paper Filing Systems

Investing in an EDMS and converting your paper files to digital will not only give you a solid return on investment. It’ll also provide a solid foundation to help grow your business by streamlining your processes and workflow.

Fast And Easy Retrieval

Digital documents make accessing and finding documents easy.  Any authorized employee can access the files they need remotely.  All documents are indexed. You’re just a keyword search away from finding a document that used to take 15 minutes to find.

Version control

Every change that is made to documents in an EDMS is being tracked. This includes day/time stamps, who made the change, and more.  Furthermore, this ensures that previous versions that are no longer valid are not accidentally pulling for a client or your boss.

Security

A solid EDMS system not only gives you the ability to easily control clearance levels and who has access to which documents. It also provides encryption services that protect your data where it’s being stored, and while it’s being transmitted.

Legal Compliance

If your industry has strict guidelines, laws, and regulations on accessing or providing documents quickly, an EDMS ensures that you have every document for every situation available. In addition, EDMS comes with data protection features that will keep you in compliance with laws like HIPAA. Finally, EDMS has software that can automate retention schedules to keep you in compliance with those guidelines as well.

Disaster Recovery

Almost all EDMS use cloud-based storage and backup systems.  This helps guarantee that your critical business files are backed up to a remote location for disaster recovery.  By avoiding storing things on site, this can function as an automatic insurance policy against loss or damage to your files.

Remember that not all systems are equal. Be sure to do the proper research for your business to figure out which system will work best for your needs and requirements.