The Case for Document Management V/S File Server

Modes of information transformed over time. From messenger pigeons to emails, technology has enabled exponential growth in the way we communicate with each other. Businesses being at the forefront of this wave, need to adapt faster to constantly improve and innovate their processes to serve their clients better. 

An important aspect of information sharing is the change from information on paper to digital documents. Enterprise technology, with its complex systems, makes it easier for employees to share information and collaborate on work faster than ever before.

However, while these digital documents are created easily, are you able to leverage the information completely? That’s what we hope to answer in this article.

What is a file server?

A file server, as the name suggests, is a server that is used for storing your electronic files. This is usually the first step for companies as they dip their toes into digital transformation. 

File servers are generally centralised in a computer network. Employees traditionally work on documents and files on their local systems during business hours and at the end of the day, upload these documents to the file server.

Administrators are largely able to control who gets access to what files. By doing this, organizations ensure information security to a large extent. For instance, the administrator can set which users or groups have the permissions to see, open, add, edit or delete information.

For users working on-the-go, file servers can be accessed through remote access solutions. This is usually the point where companies realise that digital transformation improves turnaround times for both internal and external processes. File servers also double down as a repository for programs, running programs that are accessed by multiple network participants.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Even if you are using a file server, you do not leverage the information completely. 

Your digital documents now become just like your paper documents, stored away in a file. To find the desired PDF, it is like searching for a specific paper document in a filing cabinet. Except now, instead of searching for 15 minutes, it takes 2 minutes.But if there are more documents added, the server speed will go down, increasing the retrieval time. 

File servers also do not provide an audit log of the activities taken. If someone has the credentials to access the system, be it theirs or someone else’s, they can easily enter it. The layer of security only extends till the credentials.

This poses another threat when it comes to collaboration outside the file server environment, leading to the rise of Shadow IT, which we will explain in another article. Employees resort to bypass the existing system, as it does not offer all the required features they need. 

When these business risks are brought up, how do you choose to handle them? 

The way to address these concerns is by investing in solutions that offer security, ease of collaboration and access control to business information. 

This calls for a document management system!

What is a document management system?

A document management system works in the following ways:

  • It offers secure access to your business information by enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all users.
  • It offers faster search and retrieval of business information, with powerful Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and tagging features.
  • It makes collaboration with internal and external parties easier, throughs secure sharing.
  • It can act as the central repository for information created across all business software, emails, paper documents received etc.

To put things in perspective, if you could bring down searching from 15 minutes to 2 minutes, a document management system brings it down to under 15 seconds.

Want to know more?

Now, what can you do? If you’re interested to know more about how we can help you, fill the form and sign up for a free session!