Since the 1990s, online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and others have been trailblazers in the retail industry's revolution. As more and more consumers start picking up their phones, tablets, laptops, and other smart devices to place online orders, eCommerce sales continue to rise, reaching a staggering £185.22 billion in 2021.
There are many reasons that the eCommerce facility is quickly taking over the retail industry, from the ease of convenience to getting your goods quicker. Yet, as the Internet continues to change how the retail sector works, changes are also being made to how eCommerce businesses capture, store, and track how they work with documents.
ECommerce businesses have hundreds upon hundreds of records to keep from PDFs, word processing files, and images of paper-based documentation. So much so that traditionally managing these documents has become an impossible feat. Fortunately, eCommerce businesses can choose a range of solutions to manage their documentation, the most popular being a document management system.
Document management systems have become a popular choice for managing and maintaining business records and provide eCommerce businesses with various benefits to make the process more straightforward and time conscious. Yet, before we can talk about the benefits of document management systems, it's essential to discuss what a document management system is, why it's important and how retailers can improve theirs.
What Is A Document Management System?
Regardless of the industry, you work within; your business will use a Document Management System, often referred to as Document Management, to receive, manage, track, and store documents. Essentially an electronic filing cabinet operated using a cloud-based system; they allow multiple employees to edit, access and create documents from any location, providing that you have a private network connection or access to the public internet.
As well as being able to make changes to these documents, employees can also retrieve them from anywhere, and when they do so, any changes will be saved automatically. Due to the user-friendly interface and ease of access, document management systems enable employees to send documents back and forth across the organisation, with many people, in a time-efficient manner. As a result, a DMS makes it easier for eCommerce businesses to keep track of all their business documents by storing them all in one place, ultimately making operations much smoother.
What Are The Benefits Of Implementing A Document Management System?
Although implementing a document management system might be incredibly daunting for businesses that haven't yet converted their paper-based documents into a digital format. The companies that choose to implement a DMS set themselves up to receive tremendous benefits. We list some of the top benefits of a document management system below:
Reduced Storage Space – Using traditional means of document management often calls for the need for office space, which can be highly pricey. A DMS means that office space is not required, nor is the presence of filing cabinets, boxes, or storage bins, meaning that the business can go digital or have more office space. Companies can further reduce storage space by utilising tools like the ones from Adobe in conjunction with a DMS, which enables employees to convert PDFs to any format, whether they are a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, or JPG image, to make the size of the file smaller and easier to store. For more information about their tools, consider visiting their website and seeing how their tools could improve your company's DMS today.
Increased Security – When you use a DMS, a digital paper trail is left, telling you who last accessed a document, what time/date it was accessed, and any changes that may have been made. Records can also be filtered into folders that different departments or individuals can only access.
Less Time Lost Searching For Documents – Document retrieval can be incredibly lengthy progress if employees have to filter through hundreds of documents. With a DMS, you can find files using a word or phrase in the document, facilitating easier access.
Better Teamwork – Access to a DMS makes it easier for staff to work as a team since they can quickly access and send content throughout the organisation, remote or in-house.
Increased Productivity – Being able to work more efficiently makes for happier employees and customers. Since a DMS helps staff save time, they can use it to complete other work areas, which correlates to increased productivity.
Backup And Disaster Recovery – When you digitise your documents, they are easier to track, reducing the likelihood of them being lost or filed in the wrong place after accessing them. Plus, since they are all digital, they are marked safe from natural disasters like floods, fires etc.
Better Regulatory Compliance – Like most aspects of business, specific rules and regulations must be adhered to when dealing with certain documents since they contain sensitive customer data. Failure to adhere to these strict rules can cause a business to wind up in all kinds of trouble. Companies found guilty of non-conformance could be subjected to revoked licenses, fines, and, worst-case scenario, criminal liability.
Why Is A Document Management System Important?
Due to the rapidly evolving business world and the technology within it, there has been significant growth in business data and content. Suppose you think about the sheer amount of documentation your business creates daily, whether they are contracts, proposals, blog posts, marketing material, onboarding material, HR guidelines, or other business documents.
It's a mind-number amount of paperwork, often stored all over your business devices, from Microsoft Office documents stored on your computer's hard drive to files stored on cloud servers like Dropbox, Google Drive etc., meaning that it can become increasingly challenging to access these files promptly which can lead to decreased productivity and other problems.
Therefore, a document management system is essential. Without one, your business will find it much more challenging to reduce paper usage, improve overall office productivity, retrieve information easier, clean up the digital mess, and much more.To prevent your business from falling victim to any problems, implanting a DMS makes it easier to maintain all the tasks related to document management, making it more straightforward, quicker, and more efficient.
How Can Retailers Improve Their Document Management System?
Although businesses typically focus on the day-to-day running of their organisation, creating, reviewing, and adhering to a document management system is also a crucial part of business operation. Businesses must regularly check their document management system to identify areas that need the most improvement.
Fortunately, there are many strategies that businesses can use to improve their document management system; we outline a few of them below:
Back-Up Your Files – No organisation wants to be in a situation where they lose electronic documents; however, no company is invulnerable to accidents. Ensure you have the latest version of your papers by backing up all your files to protect you against events like these.
Look At Your Current Storage Method – When a DMS needs improving, one of the first places businesses should look at is their current storage method and see if it still works for your business. Do your employees need to access records from outside the office? In that case, would a cloud server be better equipped for your business needs? Or would you like a balance between security and convenience and opt for a DMS instead?
Enforce Your Policies – Implement an accountability program for your DMS, meaning that you can hold employees accountable for mistakes and enforce your policies simultaneously.