Building a Document Management System: The Way to Improve Your Business

Document Management System: Short Intro

A Document Management System (DMS) is software designed to store, track, edit, and distribute documents in a digital format. Its primary goal is to organize electronic documents for easy searching by attributes or content. A well-designed DMS also tracks changes, monitors document movement, and manages all versions automatically.

As business digitalization has grown, the need for efficient document management has become more pressing, especially for those in non-tech industries without software development expertise.

Why Do You Need Custom Document Management Software?

Many believe that document management software is only useful for large enterprises with massive volumes of documents. While it benefits corporations, it’s equally valuable for small and medium-sized businesses.

In today’s world, where workplace flexibility is essential, over 77 percent of businesses want remote access to their documents. A custom DMS allows organizations of any size to manage documents efficiently, whether working from the office or home.

So, what advantages of electronic documents make businessmen invest in document management solution development?

DMS Offers Ultimate Team Collaboration Opportunities

Building a document management system means allowing your employees to collaborate on a document wherever and whenever.

As of 2014, approximately 92 percent of knowledge workers in the United States and the United Kingdom work together on documents via email, thus wasting productivity and time on searching, checking the version of the document, or even manually merging the changes. This method of teamwork is not only inefficient but also dangerous because e-mails can be hacked.

DMS Saves a Ton of Money

Investing in a document management system today is more than just looking after productivity. Think about paper, filing cabinets, space, and labor costs… A clinical transcription service M*Modal, for instance, was able to save $68,820 by adopting a DMS software.

On average, it costs $20 for a document to be filed and stored and an additional $120 to find or replace an item if it was lost. As stated by Laserfiche, implementing a DMS can save up to 40% of document-related costs.

Recommended: Document Management System Guide

DMS Enhance Efficiency

People weren’t lying when they said time is money. Today, to be competitive in the market, you need to react as fast as you can, and building a document management system may help you do that. First and foremost, because documents are stored in a centralized digital database, a DMS saves time in searching and editing them.

Secondly, by using this kind of software, you can reduce errors by up to 30%, all thanks to versioning and tracking document changes. In the end, if you have a mountain of paper documents, want to optimize business processes in the company, and are looking for a tool to increase employee efficiency – document management systems are the way to go.

How to Choose the Right DMS Solution?

Document management systems nowadays vary in scope and size, offer various features, and have specific benefits and pitfalls, which complicates choosing the right solution for your business. You must understand that a well-developed DMS is the backbone of an enterprise because it is used daily by all employees, so you must take your time and conduct thorough research.

We suggest using these criteria as substantive guidelines:

1. The Type of The DMS

When thinking about building a document management system, you need first to determine the type of the DMS itself: will it be server-based, cloud-based, web-based, or database system. This choice depends entirely on your needs and capabilities. For example, if you need a customizable solution that can be used without the Internet, server-based DMS is your choice.

Building a web-based document management system might fit someone with a small workflow without any sensitive data. If scalability and real-time collaboration are important to you, a cloud-based DMS may be the best option.

2. Budget Restrictions

Another important aspect to think of is pricing. This slightly correlates with the previous paragraph, since the price directly depends on the deployment architecture, but here we urge you to align the type of the DMS and your financial capabilities.

Typically, cloud-based systems cost less simply because of the different subscription plans they offer (per month, per user, per storage unit, etc.), but if you want more control and budget isn’t an issue, you may look at the server-based or database systems.

3. Usability and Handling

Switching from paper to EDMS isn’t the easiest transfer from a short-term perspective; even switching from one DMS to another may require some time to get used to. Setting up the system, migrating, and retraining the employees are just the tip of the iceberg.

At ProCoders, we believe that time and resources are the most valuable assets of the company, and that’s why implementing an easy-to-use DMS with a provider’s support is pivotal. An intuitive solution will ensure that employees will actually use it and do it correctly, so take care of it in the early stages of DMS development.

Recommended: Functional Requirements of a DMS System

Challenges You May Face With Document Management System Implementation

Developing a document management system is not an easy task and presents many challenges, especially in enterprises that have never worked with a DMS before. Knowing about these shortcomings, you can easily understand how to create your own document management system that is suitable for your particular business needs and, at the same time, is as efficient as possible, even if you are a novice in this area.

1. Providing Data Security When Building a Document Management System

By data security, we mean the inaccessibility of the documents to a third party, be it a natural or legal person. Because businesses deal with private documents daily, the issue of data theft is extremely serious and poses a genuine threat to the company’s integrity. With the average cost of a data breach to companies worldwide being $3.86 million, not to mention the nonfinancial damage, it is critical to provide a foolproof system for document management.

To avoid this problem during the early stages, choose the most reliable and reputable service provider that has worked with DMS before. Even more so, if security is a top priority for you, you may build server-based document management software. That way, you can minimize the risks and ensure the company’s data security.

2. Ensuring Document Authentication

With all documents transferred into electronic form, the question of confirming their authenticity arises. Even when operating within the same organization and having a standard login-password binding to enter and work in a centralized document management system, it is necessary to have a second level of document identification.

The ideal solution to this problem is the implementation of an electronic (digital) signature as a part of the DMS. Besides, according to Forbes, companies gain 70-80% more productivity after adopting e-signature.

The trick here is either to find an out-of-the-box DMS solution that already has an e-signature or, if you want to build your own document management system, to find contractors that have experience working with this feature. Having already worked with electronic signatures, we know that this tool should not be underestimated or overlooked at ProCoders.

3. Constant Support & Updates

Software continuity is one of the biggest issues for non-technical companies when they want to develop document management system. Building a DMS is a challenge in and of itself, but it doesn’t stop there, and you need to make continual improvements.

Typically, service providers offer 24/7 customer support. However, you should check that before leaning in favor of a particular developer.

How to Build a Document Management System in 7 Steps

Here’s a 7-step document management system implementation plan!

Step 1. Evaluate the Current Workflow in the Company

The main objective of this stage of DMS implementation is to determine what patterns of working with documents are typical for the company, what documents prevail in the workflow, and what gaps and shortcomings in communication between employees need to be eliminated.

If you want to succeed, you need to know how to create an online document management system that responds directly to your company’s needs and solves the pain points of your business operations. Try to answer these questions:

• How many people work in your company?
• What is their main method of communication?
• How many documents are in a daily turnaround?
• What kind of identification methods for the documents do you have?
• How quickly do the documents accumulate?

Step 2. Dеfine the Requirements

Before jumping straight to document management system software development, you need to draw up a list of requirements for the software itself. This requires the analysis of the general functions you want your DMS to perform, general industry regulations, and the results generated in data transactions.

Any DMS should take care of storage, security, retrieval, retention period, and disposition of the documents. Based on your thorough analysis of the current workflow, determine the objectives for each one of these points. What is the bare minimum of functions and features you want your DMS to have, and what are the optimal ones?

If that seems too difficult or you want to get a third-party consult, you can try scheduling a discovery phase with a contractor. A discovery phase is an initial phase of development aimed at clarifying project goals, objectives, and possible risks. It might be necessary if this is the first electronic DMS in the company and there is no previous experience whatsoever.

At ProCoders, we can start a discovery phase for your enterprise, and on short notice, you will be aware of possible scenarios for implementing document management software.

Step 3. Find the Solution/Contractor

Choosing the right software vendor is probably the most important step in this list, as it will determine the quality and efficiency of your DMS. While all DMS solutions offer pretty much the same range of features, some are better at offering certain services than others. Your job is to compare them to one another and decide what features fit your business best.

Having a reliable service provider is a guarantee of better opportunities and, overall, a brighter future. Those who opted for customized server-based software should generally be more attentive to the search for a partner than those who decided to stick with a ready-made system.

Having worked with many clients from different industries, we can vouch for the expertise of ProCoders’ developers. If you are looking for a dependable partner with whom to build a DMS, we can offer our services as a staff augmentation company with years of experience in software development.

Step 4. Sеt up a Schеdule and Stick to It

Developing a document management system is incredibly time-consuming. Starting with accessing and finding a contractor and transferring all of the paper documents to the system, which usually means scanning till you drop dead. It is as rewarding as it is tedious, and that’s why setting up a schedule and following deadlines are a must.

Step 5. Come Up With a Consistent Strategy

Remember the weaknesses and pain points identified in Step 1? Time to find out how to get rid of them using your new DMS.

When you create a document management system, it’s not only about technical stuff but also about making an effort and prioritizing efficient policies, practices, and standards, which means coming up with a consistent strategy.

Step 6. Organize Your Current Documents

One of the primary functions of a DMS is document organization, so it is only fair that, at some point, you’ll have to organize and declutter your current documents now that you have a basic framework of your management plan.

To organize digital storage, companies usually use tags – succinct and short words that explain what a document contains. It can be a type of document, name of the client or partner, status (active/expired), or any other description. The goal of this is to set up a database where it is easy to find any document using tags and metadata.

This is also where you purge redundant data and get rid of old documents that have no use.

Step 7. Upskilling and Training

When the DMS is all setup, it’s time to teach the employees how to work with it. If a company just migrates from one DMS to another, it will take less time for employees to master the technology, as they already have experience. However, newcomers to digital document management can have a hard time getting used to it.

Recommended: How to Create an E-Signature Software

Some Tips on Creating a Document Management System Architecture

An important ability of any document management system is the ability to integrate it into the company’s existing software. The smoother the system can integrate into the software, the easier it will ultimately be to use.

This is where the DMS architecture comes into play. The architecture is basically a visual representation of the app, with all the patterns and techniques used to build it. Knowing about architecture is irrelevant for those companies that choose ready-made solutions (be it cloud or web-based DMS). However, for those who want to create a custom document management system it is important to know how well the system is going to behave with custom software.

For example, this is what the architecture of the famous open-source system Alfresco looks like.

This architecture allows you to see how storage, retrieval, and modeling of the content, as well as access control and versioning, are carried out in the program. Because of the level of control, Alfresco provides over individual content, the content repository is more than just a database application.

The main characteristics that should be reflected in the architecture are flexibility, scalability, the ability to create backups and ensure secure storage, and workflow engine support.

In companies that build document management software, architecture-related issues are treated as a separate developmental stage and are coordinated with customer requests to ensure seamless integration.

Non-technical Advice for DMS Implementation

In the difficult process of transitioning to a new content organization system, it is not only the technological nuances that are important. When you are dealing with document management software development, there are some so-called “soft” aspects to watch out for.

For example, the willingness of the team to jump to a completely new organizational structure. Your efforts to digitize the business process may be in vain if employees continue to use outdated communication methods, which means that special attention should be paid to training and supporting those employees who find it difficult to make the change.

It is also a great idea to have someone controlling the process from the very beginning, the designated driver, if you will. It can be one person or a whole team of representatives from every department of your company (accounting, administration, sales, etc.) who oversee the correct transition from paper to digital data.

Our general tips for non-tech companies who want to know how to build document management system would be:

• have a designated team of employees to oversee the DMS implementation;
• come up with a reward system for those who actively use all new opportunities offered by the DMS;
• if you have any difficulties with selecting a contractor or adapting a DMS overall, hire a web developer to act as an independent tech consultant;
• don’t hesitate to use the customer support service provided by your contractor (if there is one).

How Can the ProCoders Team Help to Create a Document Management System?

With over a decade of experience in software development, ProCoders knows what it takes to build a reliable document management system. Our team of 50+ experts in Java, PHP, and Ruby is equipped to create a robust solution tailored to your needs.

E-signature tools are a game-changer for document processing, acting as a digital binding mechanism that simplifies and speeds up workflows. According to LunarPen, processing time drops from five days to just 37 minutes with e-signatures, drastically improving business efficiency.

For RLM Jobs, we integrated e-signatures into their platform, attracting over 50 companies and establishing them as a key player in the logistics market. Our team launched the project within six weeks, demonstrating our ability to deliver fast and effective results. If you’re ready to build a document management system, ProCoders is here to help.

Conclusion

Do you need a reliable document management system (DMS)? It can boost productivity, cut paper costs, and enhance teamwork, but choosing the right solution can feel overwhelming.

DMS options vary widely in features, scope, and price. The right choice can greatly impact your company’s efficiency, as it supports daily operations. Our guide can help you navigate this decision, but we’ve got you covered if you’re unsure or want to minimize risks.

At ProCoders, we specialize in building custom DMS solutions tailored to your needs. Whether you’re implementing a system for the first time or upgrading to a better one, we’re here to guide you—from discovery to ongoing support. Let’s work together to take your business to the next level!