Solid Document Strategy: Five Traits + Five Steps

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solid document strategy.gifIn case you haven’t been fervently following these blog posts on creating a solid document strategy, let me refresh your memory. In Part 1, I discussed the 80-20 rule and how applying it to just a few of your company’s most important documents can cause a ripple of positive changes in your organization. Following that, Part 2 explained what a document strategy is and why it’s urgent for your company to develop “information agility.”

Now here we are at Part 3.

 

In the fast-paced world we live in, it is essential to have a solid document strategy to help improve productivity and enhance the security of your confidential information. With so many different types of documents, it can be challenging to organize, store, and share them effectively across an organization. In this blog, we will look at the five essential traits and the five critical steps that can help us design a solid document strategy.

Trait 1: Classification of Documents – Classification of documents is the starting point for designing a solid document strategy. It is essential to categorize the information based on its type, intended usage, and security level. This classification helps in streamlining the workflows and enabling secure sharing of information across your organization.

Trait 2: Process Optimization – Document-driven processes require several steps to go through different stakeholders, which can be time-consuming and cumbersome. By optimizing processes, you can streamline workflows and eliminate redundant steps, reducing the overall time to process a document, and improving the document management process’s efficiency.

Trait 3: Security – Security is a crucial aspect of document management. Implementing security measures such as role-based access control, document encryption, and secure sharing can help prevent unauthorized access to confidential information.

Trait 4: Archiving – Document archiving is necessary to store, manage, and organize document archives securely. Archiving can help businesses meet compliance regulations, minimize document loss and ensure that critical information is easily retrievable.

Trait 5: Analytics – Document management systems can provide valuable insights into the performance and productivity of your organization. Document analytics can help businesses track and measure the progress of document-based processes, identifying areas that require improvement.

Step 1: Identify the Business Needs and Objectives – The first step in designing a solid document strategy is to identify the desired business outcomes and objectives. Document management systems should be aligned with organizational goals, and business needs should be clearly defined to design a tailored document management strategy.

Step 2: Choose the Document Management System – With so many document management solutions available in the market, selecting the right system can be challenging. A document management system that aligns with business objectives, has a user-friendly interface, meets security requirements, flexible, and scalable can significantly improve document management operations.

Step 3: Document Classification – The classification of documents involves categorizing them according to their type, usage, and security requirements, allowing for easier management, faster workflows, and secure sharing.

Step 4: Implement Security Measures – Documents often contain sensitive and confidential information that needs to be secured. Implementing security measures such as user-based access control, secure sharing, and encryption can help prevent unauthorized access of confidential information.

Step 5: Document Analytics and Optimization – Document analytics can provide valuable insights, enabling process optimization for improved productivity, increased efficiency, and better decision-making.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, designing a solid document strategy can be a challenging task, but by following the five essential traits and the five critical steps we have outlined in this blog, your organization can create a comprehensive document management system that aligns with business needs, improves the security of documents, and ensures efficient workflows. Implementing these steps can help businesses streamline processes, reduce document management costs, and minimize document loss, enabling you to stay ahead of the competition and achieve your organizational goals.

 

Coming Up Next…

In the next several blog posts, I’ll discuss each of these steps in more detail so you’ll have a better idea how to apply them to your company.

Resources:

  • http://documentmedia.com/article-2278-executing-the-document-strategy-framework.htm

 

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Related Reading

Pt 1 “Key Documents” Can Help Open the Door to a Company-Wide Strategy
Pt 2 One Way to Measure Your Company’s Success: How Well Does It Manage Documents?

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