by
Samantha McCollough

Improve Integration & Communication in Your SMB with Document Management

According to a research report by Solgenia, the amount of unstructured data and the volume of documents is growing more than 30% per year within small and medium-sized businesses. So it is not surprising that over 60% of SMB’s have adopted document management of some kind. Unfortunately, these companies are often missing greater opportunities for integration and communication that this technology provides.

This research should be a wake-up call for small business owners who think document management software is only for larger corporations. Rowe stated that big statistics make a good impression, but there’s no telling the size of each digital document project. Many companies may have great document management programs but are not properly trained on it or perhaps haven’t integrated it well enough.

“Almost one-quarter of the companies in the SMB category are researching new document management technologies,” Rowe said. “Major consideration is being given to collaboration tools and automation. Collaboration is important because of the traditional silos of information that make sharing difficult. It prevents information accessibility to various departments that own a portion of the business process. It can take a long time to gain access to some of those silos.”

Document management can-and should-be more than just a document repository. But too often SMB’s lack the knowledge or skills to take full use of the software. Many companies are not fully aware of the hidden benefits such a system can provide. A common problem is a lack of tight integration with other systems, so collaboration, communication and workflow all suffer.

The key to improving integration and communication is to properly define your processes before implementation, connect the workflow across the organization and separate systems and choose a solution that will be powerful enough to achieve this but simple and flexible enough to be managed. Training is also key, if employees aren’t utilizing the system or are finding ways around it, then the company will not realize the benefits associated with the system.