Document management software is full of features that help organizations save time and money while increasing efficiency and productivity. But one of the most exciting, and our personal favorite, feature of document management software is workflow or as its also known, office automation. We’re aware that “exciting” and “document management software” aren’t commonly used together, but just hear us out about this one!
Two standard industry statistics are that employees spend up to 75% of their time looking for the documents they need to complete their job and that about 90% of office tasks still, to this day, involve paper. We have all seen these statistics so many times; do they even mean anything to us anymore ?
Let’s look at them this way – your employees are the happiest and most productive when they can efficiently complete the work they are expected to do. So why hinder happiness and productivity with inefficiencies? That’s where document management software, specifically workflow, gets exciting. Here are our three favorite things about workflow and how it can bring excitement and productivity to your organization:
Workflow evenly allocates tasks across teams and departments. It can monitor each individual’s workflow and prompt the document management system to assign new items to those that need them. This helps ensure an even dispersal of work and prevents downtime in between tasks. It also eliminates the option for team members to choose all the easiest and simplest tasks.
When employees are tasked with processing documents such as invoices, request forms or expense reports, consistency is the main goal. The process of completing these documents and tasks needs to flow quickly to ensure the right result. Workflow automates processes for uniformity, making sure they are all completed in the same, correct, way.
Workflow acts as a tracking system for submitted documents. Employees not longer have to waste time tracking down documents that have been submitted to them or that they have submitted to a different department. Email alerts are sent upon approval, denial or changes of any given document in the system. The document management software gives complete visibility into any document within any given process.
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