Is document control a person or process?

When you have a department or dedicated person, the workflow is naturally more controlled. In those cases, the users have a strong understanding of the downstream needs, and recognize that a little time now can save a lot of time later. There are compliance measures in place, and specific training in the value of compliance. In these situations, it is easy to monitor, and cajole software adoption.

When a process is not the central job role, immediate wins are critical. The software needs to save time for users on EVERY transaction, not just provide an overall win for the company. Of course, transactional time saving is always good, but it becomes critical when the employee’s core focus is outside of the new process being implemented. If the project manager saves time submitting her own documents, she will choose to use the software system. And of course, when a package delivers to both the immediate transaction, and long term information management needs of the organization, you’ve got a win all around.

We’ve seen cases where a company has a dedicated document controller(s) but even with this structure still finds the work too much to handle manually using their existing processes.

On the other hand, we have also seen cases where a company moves from having someone – perhaps a project assistant or another administrative person – handling document control work as needed until it got to the point where it became too much to be handled on a part-time and somewhat unstructured basis.

Finally, we have also seen instances where document control is something that is handled as needed and everyone chips in and does their part.

Which situation are you in?

As we’ve discussed in the past you can add structure to your document control processes and department with DocBoss. Among others things, DocBoss can help you address these questions and much more:

• Who in your organization creates new documents and who authorizes them?
• How are documents maintained and revised?
• How do you track revisions and ensure you’re working with the most recent version?
• Who has access to documents and specifically, what level of access do they have?
• What level of reporting do you provide?
• How do you handle templates that your customers provide you to work with?
• How do you tell at any given time where documents are in the process?
• How can you reduce/eliminate holdbacks at the end of projects?

Once you start adding structure to your document control work, you’ll find that it becomes less time-consuming, less frustrating and more efficient. DocBoss was designed to help you facilitate this.