SharePoint: Popular Tips for Document Management

SharePoint is all the rage as a document management system. And that too, not in just an industry or two, but across all of them. That, of course, begs the question — what makes SharePoint document management system so accessible despite the intense competition in the market. If we had to say it in one sentence, we would say this: SharePoint is the leading name in the DMS market because it successfully offers a solution that is capable of meeting the myriad requirements of modern business, irrelevant of its scale and industry. So, now we know what makes it accessible; time for the ‘how’ then.

Considering the capabilities it offers, it comes as no surprise that more and more companies are rushing to integrate it into their business. However, a word of caution to them: An unprepared, unorganized approach to embracing SharePoint can lead to less than ideal results. See, organizations are a maze comprised of complex parts, and when you set out to adopt an advanced solution such as SharePoint, it is essential to go at it with an exact approach. And given that no one organization is ever the same in its requirements, you typically need a tailored strategy to ace the integration. So, to help you along with the process, we have listed some of the most common best practices that assure high-quality results.

1. Ensure a robust information architecture: To ensure that the documents, upon which your workforce and business rely for seamless operations, are organized in a manner that is conducive to the expected efficiency, you will need robust information architecture. SharePoint offers plenty of features and functionalities, including Lists, Column indexing, Document classification, and more, that can be leveraged to achieve top-notch document organization and search abilities.
2. Focus on document security: First-rate security is an absolute must, especially for companies and industries that are subjected to complex regulations and laws, GLBA, HIPAA, SOX, etc. And to do that, companies can make use of SharePoint features like Alerts, Document retention policies, and Permission and roles for users among several other similar provisions. And let’s not forget the rock-solid backup and recovery features that can also help recover documents and files that may have been mistakenly deleted.
3. Tag metadata: Be sure to use the tag metadata feature, which allows companies to control the search results for documents and data. Allow us to explain — metadata tags serve as a method for standardizing logic that is then used by SharePoint to enable search and display of data. Long story short, this feature makes it extremely easy to look for documents. And anyone who works in a company knows that being able to search for and find documents quickly can often be crucial to one’s ability to be efficient.

These best practices will go a long way in making sure that you can leverage your SharePoint DMS solution to deliver the best possible results for your organization.