Without systematic document handling and management software, processes slow down. Businesses become heavily dependent on paperwork, which leads to inefficient decision-making.
SMBS should opt for holistic and integrated document management software. More than that, it is the right time to understand the trends to make each organization’s document management efficient, secure, and anywhere accessible.
Top 6 Trends in Document Management and Handling for SMBs
Digital transformation in document management
One of the newest trends in document handling is to go paper-lite or paperless. It depends on the compliance and security policies of an organization. Some of the companies choose only a few documents to store online.
Meanwhile, the rest are going paperless. It means end-to-end document handling to be online. This works best for scattered teams working in hybrid business modules.
Adopting paper-lite or paperless hedges the cost of maintaining and storing paperwork. With the digital transformation, it is now easier to track document updates, repositories, and history logs.
Blockchain logs for maintaining document history
One of the emerging trends we must speak about is the widespread use of blockchain technologies. These ledgers help to safeguard the historical data related to documents.
It means company documents are easier to track, whether legal or not. You can check the latest changes, updates, and edits made in those contracts and legal policies.
It eliminates any scope of fraud, breaches, or non-seriousness among the parties to follow through with the terms of the contract.
Automation in document management workflows
Automation in document-handling workflows is emerging as one of the trends to follow this year for SMBs.
Features enabling PDF conversions, storing, editing, and processing these documents with multiple account accesses are equally important. Approval-based workflows allow the super admin to toggle access and view control for these documents.
This improves the document’s security and does not allow any unauthorized ID to log in or view the PDFs.
Prioritizing maintaining compliance with regulations
Maintaining and updating compliance to adhere to the state and national regulations is of utmost importance. Small and medium-sized businesses adhere to strict regulations to avoid paying unnecessary fees or charges.
Such charges are already too high, impacting the working capital of a small business if deadlines are missed.
Thus, document management, handling, or processing software helps to take note of the updates beforehand. Super admins can set reminders to update the compliance and file for returns before missing the deadlines.
That is one example of how to make this trend more understandable. However, scenarios can vary when it comes to filing documents at a registrar or any government office.
Enabling remote work with real-time knowledge exchange
Another interesting trend emerging this year is to enable remote work with knowledge-sharing features. Top remote work management software now allows integrations with document directories and repositories.
Of course, this must also have a strict access and admin view. With configurable access, multiple online and remote workers can acknowledge the same document.
For example, this is easier for an HR department when rolling out employee handbooks or company policies.
E-signatures are making their mark!
Electronic acknowledgment of the documents is another integration to look for in document management software. This is a trend to follow and implement in your document-handling tool.
With e-signature integrations, employees and business heads can acknowledge the document quickly. There are fewer delays when matters are crucial, and results are expected on time.
Business owners can crack big deals with a quick slide online to attest the documents and share the proposal/contract with the concerned person.
Best Practices for SMBs for Efficient Document Handling Approaches
Practice 1: Categorize your documents for further optimization
Finding documents can be time-consuming, even on an online app or tool. Companies usually have a huge pile of legal contracts, templates, policies, and handbooks. Each such document has an updated and older version in place.
Thus, it’s best to categorize each document and include a tag to make the filtering easier. It saves time when trying to find the exact document through the filtering features in the app.
Practice 2: Define sharing protocols in advance
Whitelist IP addresses, blacklist certain users, or do more. Ensure that users do not share documents outside the approved IDs. Add or update more such protocols when you create a knowledge and document-sharing policy or handbook.
Consider talking to auditors as well first. They can give you the best action plan for a policy that is a win-win situation for every for sharing relevant information in the team.
Such protocols are the best benchmarks to adhere to when sharing company information or contracts with third parties.
Practice 3: Create guides and explainer videos for your clients
Creating a document-sharing protocol and guide can be tricky. Clients often do not engage, understand, or acknowledge it. But making explained guides, articles, and videos helps a lot.
Your external stakeholders then understand the nitty-gritty of managing documents. They know then when, how, and where to access the contracts without breaching or breaking into the privacy of other users.
Tips for creating explainer guides:
- Explain the benefit of these guides to your clients.
- Show them how to use these guides.
- Conduct regular training for your internal staff to communicate better when managing documents and policies according to the regulations.
- Make the explainer content available in multiple extensions or formats.
- Grant permission to access these guides beforehand so that authorization is not an issue.
- Make the guide easy to understand with pictures, images, and directional content.
Unlock Document Management Efficiency in No Time!
Start right away with your data and document management journey. Understand the nitty-gritty of document handling processes and the trends emerging these days. Reread the post if you want to memorize it better.
Dive deeper into the best practices for a small or growing business. These tips will help you be prepared for a catastrophe or uncertainties in data privacy regulations to avoid and steer away from hefty penalties.
