7 Benefits of AI-Enabled Document Management Systems

Written by harikakochhar | Published 2020/08/14
Tech Story Tags: document-management-system | document-management-software | document-management | artificial-intelligence | team-management | remote-software-team | business | business-intelligence

TLDR According to Xerox, SMBs waste 46% of their time dealing with document management issues. In this article, Harika Kochhar explains how you can maximize workplace efficiency by switching to an AI-enabled document management system. A smart document management software digitizes all the paper documents, categorizes, tags, and stores them on the cloud. It also helps in maneuvering collaboration and engagement within teams in quick turnaround time, which otherwise is a nerve-racking task. AI can read the contents of a document and automatically classify and process it without human intervention.via the TL;DR App

Traditional cabinets — stuffed with contracts, vendor agreements,
onboarding paperwork, and other documents — are harming productivity even in 2020. According to Xerox, SMBs waste 46% of their time dealing with document management issues. In this article, I'll explain how you can maximize workplace efficiency by switching to an AI-enabled document management system.

Let's Look at an Example

A procurement firm knows they have a document but can't find it. A law firm has some papers on hand but unable to find other documents related to the case. Now, imagine the hassle they would go through finding the right documents. Well, it pretty much shows that their document management system is downright inefficient and cumbersome.
If you are in their place, you can do either one of two things:
  1. Continue to find a needle in the haystack, meaning continue to find the desired document in the stockpile of papers.
  2. Incorporate a smart document management system backed by artificial intelligence that helps them to sort and access data from anywhere quickly.
In my opinion, you must choose the latter.
An AI-enabled smart document management system takes all the pain
from your shoulders and streamlines every step of your workflow, making it better and faster. Right from procuring to storing and retrieving the
information, AI revolutionizes management, creation, and usage.
In this article, I'll tell you how AI enabled smart document management systems are revolutionizing the modern workplace and why are they a necessity.

1. Automated Classification and Processing

AI has drastically improved the document management world. It can read the contents of a document and automatically classify and process it without human intervention.
The more documents are stored in the document management software, the more it understands the audience's interaction, and the better it will classify and process the information.

2. Automates Manual Process

Most organizations struggle with storing, managing, and retrieving information in the time of need. A smart document management software automates this drudgery, thus saving time, which could be used to focus on other key business operations.
Let say you have 5 different documents in 5 different locations - a contract, a termination letter, an application letter, a NOC, and another essential paper document. You want to enclose them in one file. In the manual document management scenario, you'll have to some time finding each one and assembling them in a file.
This is where a smart document management software comes to your
rescue. It digitizes all the paper documents, categorizes, tags, and stores
them on the cloud. So, when you are looking for a specific document the next time, you can type the tag and find it within a few seconds.
This also helps in maneuvering collaboration and engagement within teams in quick turnaround time, which otherwise is a nerve-racking task.

3. Data Extraction

Small businesses produce massive chunks of data daily. Hence, it
becomes necessary for them to streamline their data and extract vital
information to perform a particular task.
A smart DMS quickly and accurately extracts information, taking data
extraction to a whole new level. It uses machine learning, predictive analysis, and data visualization to process the data contained in the documents.
For example, Google's Document AI reduces operational costs and improves efficiency by deriving information from structured and unstructured data. Besides, it automates and validates all the data (both structured and unstructured) to ensure that your documents are accurate and compliant. The best part? Since it stores the documents on the cloud, you can retrieve them at any point in time.

4. Spurs Up Business Intelligence

Suppose you are hiring for a project manager and are getting tons of resumes daily. Now, manually going through every resume is time consuming and confusing for the hiring managers.
A document management system backed by AI sorts resumes based on the keywords entered by the hiring managers, so they get the exact information they're looking for. It also saves their time and hassle of going through every single resume, including those that may not be relevant to the job.

5. Clustering Documents

The need for performing programming operations on the documents to
get desired results has never been greater. A document management system bifurcates the document stack based on different topics or
hierarchies. It understands the relationships between two documents, draws conclusions, and discovers similarities among them. This makes categorization, organization, and document search a cakewalk.
Clustering documents helps law firms, procurement firms, IT firms, and other such services provide firms that are always stuffed with a stockpile of documents. The software categorizes information in different clusters and extracts it based on relevance and similarities when needed. It makes it easy to work on the document even after a decade or more of its creation. The best part? DMS saves the changes and keeps track of it, giving you total control of the document.

6. Structuring Unclustered Information

Out of the total data gathered by the modern enterprise, 80% is unstructured. Most often, we communicate in emails, text messages, letters, and forms, that constitute the unstructured data. And this causes a lot of chaos and communication gaps, slowing down the work, and harming the organization irrevocably.
But thanks to document management systems that act as an umbrella and store all your information at a centralized location, enabling you to use different forms of communication worry-free.

7. Safe and Secure Access

We all know that in today's scenario, data is the company's most valuable asset. Therefore, if anything happens to the data, your company can get in trouble. Needless to say, your company is more prone to data breaches when the documents are manually managed.
A smart data management system lets you work in a close-knit environment, enabling you to mitigate data leakage and data piracy
issues
. Furthermore, it gives you the capability to password protect your documents preventing unauthorized access. It also gauges unauthorized requests to access private data and turns down the same. Additionally, an AI-backed DMS reduces data redundancy, data errors, and prevents the documents from getting misplaced.
Hence, in a nutshell, we can say that a document management system
foolproof your organization against all sorts of data security threats.

Are Document Management Systems a Necessity for Businesses of Today?

AI enabled smart Document Management Systems have revolutionized how we work together, in the office or on the move. They are nothing short of a blessing for businesses. A DMS helps create a smart workplace by automating daily tasks, aiding you to devote time to crucial responsibilities. It cuts through the clutter by storing information in clusters, gives you desired information when needed, and safeguards your data. Hence, it's true that a smart DMS is your all-weather friend who always backs you up. ALWAYS!
If you're looking to for a DMS to try, be sure to check out Greenbox on the Google Play Store. Are you using a document management system for business operations? Let me know in the comments section below.

Written by harikakochhar | Harika Kochhar is a marketing, SaaS and technical content consultant
Published by HackerNoon on 2020/08/14