7 Security Reasons for Implementing a Document Management System

Working collaboratively on documents with others, whether internally or externally comes into most roles, however it is no easy task when it comes to keeping up to date with in flux documents.

Document management systems can facilitate the authoring, reviewing and approval of documents by giving users visibility of where documents currently are, in its lifecycle. This is an important security feature when it comes to the reputation of your business as it can prevent misidentified, incomplete, inaccurate and unapproved documentation from reaching clients.

Holding HR records, customer files and financial information is essential for organisations, however keeping these in paper form brings with it numerous challenges. Not only is physical storage expensive and takes up valuable office space but also makes archiving and retrieval processes prone to human error. From a security point of view, DMS’s can prevent sensitive data from being lost and leaked as they can be digitally archived, allowing for quick searches based on titles, key words and dates.

As mentioned, it is essential that customer details, HR records and financial information are kept by businesses in order to comply with legal regulations. Having these documents easily accessible via a DMS gives organisations the ability to clearly demonstrate custody and traceability of these documents which can then easily be deleted once the legally mandated time period for storage has passed.

Allowing one user to edit a single document at any one time, these systems prevent important document changes from being lost, and duplicates being made. Questions such as “Who has the most recent version? Where is it saved? and Who made these changes?” will be no strangers to those who regularly work collaboratively.

Document Management Systems leave a full audit trail on all files, documenting exactly who has edited these and what changes have been made, whilst simultaneously keeping a fully accessible log of all previous versions.

Most people can relate to a time when damaging changes were accidently made and saved to an important document, making it impossible to retrieve the original version. These systems can prevent this from happening, saving the loss of important documents.

Document Management Systems prevent the loss of data within the system often by moving documents to both primary and backup storage folders that are never kept within the database. Much like the conventional back up process of saving duplicate documents in separate locations, DMS’s do this automatically, again removing the risk of human error.

Document Management Systems allow administrators to set up system permissions calibrated down to an individual document level, meaning only authorised personnel have access to system files and documents. This prevents sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands and significantly reduces the risk of data breaches.