• Extended chain of document performance. Controller can establish priorities and conditions for users which will be receive document for coordination/performance.
• Events. You can create event, add participants, discuss the event and set reminder about it by e-mail.

Your company had learned the best experience of other organizations in the innovation sphere and the head has decided to use the document management system and all the employees have to learn how to use this system. After the long conferences the system administrator had to find out how to download DMS (document management system). What do you have to know before downloading DMS?

Firstly, you have to know the main aims of using this program and who will use it. Will it be the separate department or all the staff? Maybe first of all it would be better to introduce some departments this system for the approval of some agreements, orders. And only then introduce all office staff with it.

Usually all the office work begins with the office work department, where the incoming mail comes and the outgoing mail is formed. Document management system introduction can be begun in this department. The registration of all documents will be in the electronic form. Paper journals of registration will depart in the past, giving your work place more free space.

If the structural divisions of the company are far from each other, so using DMS can help you to use your work time more efficient and will accelerate labor productivity. The created document will instantly enter to the necessary structural subdivision for the examination and approval.

It is necessary to do the comparative analysis of functional and user’s characteristics of the system, to determine the place on the market for the proposals before downloading DMS. Functional comparisons can be carried out through the separate directions of work with the documents: routing documents, information safety, archive, control. If you can, then read the reviews about DMS from other users.

Thus, introduction DMS is the labor-consuming process, which requires analysis and practice. Training your staff to work with this system will take some time. But it will take some time and company on behalf of its employees will see all the advantages document management system.

Electronic document management is the most convenient and safe at any stage of its operation.  It’s not necessary to be afraid that documents will come in unfitness as a result of environmental impact. Also it will reduce expenses on acquisition necessary stationery and additional equipment for the creation of archives.

So what is DMS? This is an opportunity to better organize the activity of your company.  It expands horizon for geographically distributed companies. There is no necessity to send the document by post for the coordination and the approval and wait for its returning. There is no need to decide in which structural units will be stored original documents or their copies. By means of DMS processes of creation, approval, transfer, control and storage become simpler.

Let us study what is DMS on the example of its functions. So, these are main functions:

- Creation of an electronic document with all necessary details;

- The appointment of the responsible person for document control or execution;

- Coordination of workflow within the company;

- Document storage.
Let us consider what is DMS on the example of its benefits. The main advantages of the system are:

- Convenient and simple functioning;

- Fast approval and movement created documents;

- Secure storage of archive;

- The best possibility for searching necessary documents using parameters within the system;

- Saving the cost for stationery.

Pay attention to the fact of DMS disadvantages.  It is possible to consider the only one disadvantage, it demands time for studying.

Each progressive manager will make the right choice in favor of DMS application after careful study and analysis of information about this system, its advantages and disadvantages, its operation and usefulness.

These gloomy pictures stay in the past gradually. The increasing quantities of the enterprises become paperless office.

Paperless workflow at the enterprise is realities of our time. It is advantage of modern and progressive manager, which agrees to train the employees to use document management system.

Paperless workflow at the enterprise will help to solve following problems:

- Safe storage of documents and protection against natural erosion or loss of important documents;

- Efficient use of working time;

- Faster process of document submitting for endorsement and confirmation;

- Coordination of internal and administrative documents;

- Possibility to see who has a document and at what stage of the endorsement;

- Creation of a single reference database;

-  Fast access to necessary documents.

In the modern world many enterprises decided to purchase document management system. Paperless workflow at the enterprise provides effective control and access to documents; it increases the speed of information and improves control of the enterprise.  Documents registration, approval, searching, archiving is become faster after putting into operation of document management system; it’s given the opportunity to collaborate on documents during the coordination. Time for getting information from a single database is reduced.   Incoming/outgoing documents’s registration transferred into electronic form. Acquaintance with the orders and control over their implementation, work with the memos is become paperless.  The electronic archive is created with security policy of storing documents; access to information is under the control of responsible person.

Thus, paperless workflow at the enterprise has a great advantage and increases productivity.  Need for labor-intensive process and the endless copying and printing of documents is become useless. Premises used for archives can be used for additional workplaces. Expenses on stationery are cut down; efficiency of business processes is increased.

 · News. You have been appointed as the controller or the executor. They have added the new message in discussion. All these and many other events will be shown in the table of the menu of “News”.

· The notices on e-mail. If you want all the news will come to you by e-mail.

· If the term of document performance is important for system’s users. It’s given a chance to define document’s attribute as “The attribute of performance’s date”. Then after that a new column “Performance date” will appear in the menu table “On the control” and “Accepted”. The documents have been not executed in time will be shown as red ones.

· The report “Delayed documents” is created. In this the user will learn what documents are going to be delayed in 3 days and what documents has been already delayed. Both for the documents which he controls and he uses.

· The Groups of dispatches. The Addition of the document’s users by certain groups.

· The design of the system has changed. In the menu “Interface” the user can choose the system interface of six possible variants.

For example, a frequent situation: it is necessary to find the letter you’ve sent about two years ago. Actually, it’s not a simple problem – good if you have an executive secretary. And if you don’t have?

There are a lot of such problems. The market puts new problems before the organization. It would be not fair to assert that the system of execute project management as the tool of the control of document performance is an exit.

The specified problems happen in state structures, commercial organizations and small enterprises. While decision-making on system introduction let’s shortly familiarize with the principle of the system.

As known, the document is basic unit of information storage. As a matter of fact, it’s a logic unit. The document can consist of various elements: for example, text, drawings, drawings or tables. The document passes the whole life cycle which should be considered in the organization of the control of document performance.

Firstly a birth. This is occurrence of new document on light. Documents appear in a various occasion and leave in the various form. For example in the form of order, instruction, etc.

Secondly, document formation. During this moment the document passes the “adaptation” period – it passes from hands in hands, it change or alter.
Thirdly, the document publication. It is that moment when the document is possible to a wide audience.

Fourthly, archive. At this stage the document is send in electronic archive.
What components does the system of execute project management usually include? They are also necessary for knowing for the organization of the effective control of document performance.

Firstly, this storehouse of documents attributes, in particular fields which characterize the document.

Secondly, documents storehouse.

The industry. While the introduction of the best project management software for the effective electronic coordination of documents at the industrial enterprise there is a necessity to analyze the possibility of its integration with the automated control systems. It’s connected with that many workers of such organizations as a rule combine work with “usual” documents and engineering documents. Some systems have special means to carry out such integration.

In many branches connected with the big responsibility of workers for result there is a necessity to document work on each stage of process. In these cases the electronic coordination of documents should be especially effective. The information work control is also important.

The state departments. For the state bodies such features as the big territory of management, difficult hierarchy with set of elements, low level of security of electronic technologies, low level of standardization are characteristic. While the introduction of electronic document workflow systems it’s necessary to consider considerable requirements to level of safety of data.

The feature of the state bodies is conservatism of officials, low qualified personnel structure. This problem dares at the expense of programs of professional employee skills improvement but real return from the best project management software will be yet fast. Very often there are difficulties of the information reception at the stage of decision-making study.

The large commercial organizations. For these organizations following features are characteristic at the introduction of the best project management software – territorial dissociation, big structure and a lot of business processes.

The consulting organizations, legal firms, etc. The basic problem of these organizations is the shortage of resources to introduce serious system.

The first question. When is it necessary to introduce the system of electronic document workflow? There are a lot of reasons. Firstly, it is necessary to process information in the organization faster and faster. Secondly, document loss can cost much for the organization. As a whole, among problems which the organizations face and which stimulate it to download project control management we can name the following ones:

1.    Document loss.

2.    The accumulation of new documents, as well as their appointment and source are not clear.

3.    The information which contains in documents gets into strange hands.

4.    Time expenditure to find the necessary document and to generate a thematic selection of documents.

5.    The creation of useless (sometimes harmful) document copies – at times it only complicates necessary document search.

6.    Expenditure of time for the preparation and the coordination of documents.

The introduction of project control management solves all these problems including:

•    to provide teamwork of divisions;

•    to simplify the work with documents, raises work efficiency;

•    to lead to the growth of personnel productivity;

•    raises the efficiency of document access.

Question 2. How to choose effective project control management? While approaching to the choice of the electronic document workflow system it’s necessary to remember that there are following classes of such systems:

•    the systems of document workflow automation;

•    the systems of work streams management;

•    the systems of archive management;

•    the systems of electronic document management.

Clear, that each system solves the class of problems.

Question 3. How to introduce – stages, time and cost? While the introduction adhere to following conditions:

•    System class: the more difficult the system is the more time it will take to introduceу and approbate it (sometimes about one year);

•    Possibility to adjust system.

The work with document archives includes the following: the definition of periods of necessary documents storage; document placing in archives; delivery of copies, as well as originals of archival documents; the examination and the control of document value.

As experience shows archive conducting is not only important direction of company activity but also labor-consuming activity. It’s uneasy to create and support the funds of materials. However today this problem is solved. It is solved thanks to electronic document management file storage.

Unlike traditional one electronic document management file storage gives the chance to minimize time expenses for the creation and archive maintenance. Besides, electronic archive is the powerful tool allowing to lower requirement for access to paper resources thanks to access granting to electronic samples of documents. Besides, it’s a powerful tool of decrease in expenses for maintenance of premise for archive, the personnel and other resources used for archive work. Moreover, the electronic archive doesn’t replace usual archive but supplements it and considerably reduces requirement for access to paper documents. Besides, the electronic document management file storage gives the chance to organize archival storage of materials not being present in a paper kind.

The electronic archive of documents has such advantages as the possibility to connect an electronic material with paper that in most cases allows doing without access to the paper document; carrying over of the information from operative storage in the archival; the distribution of the rights and access procedures if to follow corporate regulations.
Using electronic document archive you:

•    Will lower expenses for storage. It means that the basic part of help inquiries will be satisfied with electronic materials usage.

•    Reduce losses and damages of archival documents.

•    Reduce volume of copy works.

•    Will be able to supervise inquiries about information reception that will allow you to prevent not authorized access and document copying.

There are a lot of such problems therefore we’ll only talk about one of them – about the features of interaction of electronic and paper document workflow. In particular, it will be the question of the exchange of documents with parallel divisions and structures in the various organizations. As a rule, the information from these structures goes in a paper variant. In the future this situation will be probably changed so the exchange of electronic documents will be norm but now it’s necessary to consider a current situation and to introduce some decisions.

It is necessary to have electronic images for the paper documents could get to the organizational system of electronic document workflow from an external environment (which is possible to have if to download document control project software). For this purpose, scanners are used. If, for example, the volume of the entering documentation is small, the organizations can use inexpensive scanners. If the volume’s big you buy more serious industrial scanner.

Thus, the migration of documents from the paper form in the electronic form is apparently one of the most difficult elements. If you haven’t planned it carefully you will probably face the problems which will prevent you to take advantages of all possibilities of electronic document workflow.
If there is a paper archive of documents in the company to search their electronic copies in all network to create the electronic variant of archive is unpromising business.

If there is no such archive you’d spend long enough spadework. Forbid documents keeping on local computer disks. It’s important, that all employees had the folders in a local network in which they store the documents. It will facilitate your work in the migration of documents in the system of electronic document workflow considerably.

So, document control project software to download is not the problem. It’s important to work with the system rationally and correctly. Success!