You have a problem

You always want to be more productive at work? Be aware that several tasks related to the management of your documents, without you knowing it, cause you problems and losses of all kinds (time, money, ideas, focus, etc.).

What are the conflicts related to document management on a daily basis?

First of all, each person has his own way of working. This is why several problematic actions are done on your documents, leading to blatant conflicts and efficiency losses:

• For example, trying to correctly name a document to recognize whether it is a draft or a final version: version 1, version 2, final version, final version 3, etc. Unfortunately, you waste your time opening and comparing the many versions to determine which one contains the right content. Despite the processes implemented by your organization, errors are frequent and you may find yourself working on an out-of-date document or starting all over again if you don’t find the right version of your document.
• You create many folders to be more organized. However, many duplicates of your documents are located in different folders and remembering where the right information is classified quickly becomes an issue. You often have to disturb your colleagues to retrieve the right document; you look inside your e-mails because your colleagues have sent you numerous versions of this document. In short, you also manage the receipt and sending of multiple attachments.
• The task becomes even more difficult when you are working in collaboration with colleagues. You can work at the same time of a colleague on the same document. If nobody warns you, you’re going to do the same work twice and lose a lot of time to compare and merge every changes. An unpleasant situation that could easily be removed… In fact, it’s essential to facilitate collaboration!
• Nowadays, some employees work in remote, which means outside the office. Therefore, multiple copies of documents are stored in multiple locations: in the business server, as attachments in your emails, in your personal folders at home, etc.

The accumulation of all these “lost” minutes has a huge impact at the end of the year.

In brief, with all these conflicts, you lose your ideas, your focus, your time and your momentum. It is essential to consider that currently, your documents force you to do unproductive tasks. Optimizing your document management is therefore crucial given the great value of the information stored in your organization.

Possible solution

Don’t hesitate to combine different document management tools and don’t rely solely on your existing tools. Adjust yourself to new ways of doing things, keeping in mind that you can eliminate significant efficiency losses while considerably reducing the risk of serious errors.