Electronic Document Management (EDM): What Is It For?

How does Electronic Document Management work?

Reminder of the definition of EDM (Electronic Document Management): EDM brings together all the techniques and practices necessary for managing the various document flows within a company.

Dematerialization of documents

Within your company, dematerializing files offers very significant benefits to organizational structures, by allowing them to reduce, automate naturally or erase the immense manual flows of information circulating internally.

In addition, this dematerialization makes it possible to reduce processing costs and reduce billing times and any information gaps. In the current financial climate, this can be a considerable and major asset for an SME, a VSE or a small structure that deals with a lot of document flows or thousands of pieces of paper information on a daily basis.

Digital archiving

Integrated into your business, digital archiving can bring you the maximum benefits depending on your wishes and needs. Thanks to this type of service, you have immediate access to all the information present in your company, as well as quick identification and visualization of any document or file stored electronically in the database of the EDM software that you will have. selected.

The creation of archives is essential to the operation of any company because each creator of documents is subject to the laws of archiving and the archiving of documents is necessary to ensure optimal conditions for the organization, conservation and security of these documents. physical.

What are the functionalities of electronic document management?

Electronic document management (EDM) contains several functionalities. Each makes it possible to more effectively manage document flows within companies.

Here they are below:

• Permanently delete a document
• Allow storage of multiple versions of a document
• Establish document storage rules
• Edit any type of document
• Structure documents under user control

1. Permanently delete a document

By integrating EDM software into your company, you have the possibility of permanently destroying all the documents that are no longer useful to you. By deleting a document, you ensure better circulation of the document flow. To delete a document, you must first check the status of the latter: in fact, submitted and draft documents are the only ones that can be deleted at the moment.

2. Allow multiple versions of a document to be stored

By purchasing an electronic document management tool, which can be both invoice management software and file sharing software, it ensures the possibility of having several versions of a document coexist in the same place. Moreover, these tools are generally open source. In the event of a hard disk malfunction, you have the option of recovering all the data stored on the EDM software you have chosen. For example, if you want to save invoices on a digital platform, you must go through the three essential steps: importing documents, scanning documents to finally be able to index these invoices.

3. Establish document storage rules

EDM allows you to set up rules to efficiently store your documents. Thanks to EDM, you benefit from a document management process that allows you to store your data in complete security. Thus, all information related to your organization is protected and accessible only if individuals have access to it.

By efficiently storing your documents, you remove the likelihood of losing important data for the sustainability of your organization. The EDM makes it possible to create a logical tree structure for storing documents in specific folders: by function, by theme, by project or even by teams.

4. Edit any type of document

EDM offers companies the possibility of making changes to a document when deemed necessary. For example, if you want to edit a published document, you can do it directly from your workspace. However, you must publish the document again once you have made the change.

5. Structure documents under user control

By using EDM software, you store and structure all the documents circulating within your organization. The purchase of an electronic document management tool quickly pays for itself because you gain in productivity by having the possibility of concentrating on more fruitful tasks for your company. In addition, opting for electronic document management means naturally leading your employees towards the digital transition that you are going to bring within your company. Business leaders must know the needs of each user in order to be able to configure the EDM tool in a personalized way according to the documents that each individual will have to process internally. Thus, you set up a high-performance and efficient workflow.

In conclusion

Ultimately, the facilitated management of documents allows the security of the company’s data. Thanks to the process of dematerialization of documents and digital archiving, the traceability of your documents is simple, fast and efficient. Today, there are several software packages that integrate CRM or ERP . Thus, your digital transformation will be successful with the digital information system of your structure.