Document Management System Software & AI

Introduction

I started implementing Document Management Systems (DMSs) in the early 1990s as a Big Six consultant. At that time, OpenText and Documentum were enemies (now “OpenText Documentum” is the product). TIF blobs on optical drives were closest to a ‘digital document repository.’

Picture 5,000 pounds of paper loaded into a truck surrounded by security guards. That is my memory of how pharma companies communicated with the FDA. To change that, I joined a software startup dedicated to electronic submissions. Getting life-saving drugs to market faster is a meaningful impact of document management that is still true today.

I love watching this important technology become established beyond regulated industries. It is a joy. 

But I’m also disappointed to see it fall short of its potential. DMSs still frustrate everyday knowledge workers. Implementations create too much overhead for content creators and too little benefit for content consumers. I’m hopeful AI will change that. 

My digital expertise has evolved towards digital media creation. Many DMS users also use Snagit, the market-leading screen and video capture tool. I use Snagit daily.

Before we discuss how to improve DMSs by leveraging AI, we will cover some definitions, benefits, and use cases.

What is document management system software?

Document management software secures, manages, and stores documents. An organization deploys configured software and procedures to transform the “software” into a “system.”

Many digital systems can provide features for storing, managing, and protecting documents. However, true DMSs have a standard set of advanced features.

Document management system (DMS) software features

1. Document Capture
   • Check-in of digital documents
   • Batch conversion to digital files 
2. Version Control
   • Co-creation and review by team members through check-in and check-out procedures
   • Version Histories
3. Tagging and Search
   • Support for standardized naming conventions, structured tags, and folder organization
   • Configurable metadata
4. Customized workflows
   • Automation of repetitive business processes, such as filing rules
5. Integrations with other systems, such as sharing documents with:
   • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): These systems track customer interactions.
   • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): These systems manage data across multiple departments.
   • Content Management System (CMS): These are similar to DMSs but focused on web page content. 
6. Cloud-Based Document Storage
   • Easily deployed and configured software
7. Access Controls
   • Rules to access documents based on content sensitivity and job role
8. Security and compliance features
   • Audit trails
   • General data security and data protection standards
   • Encryption

Document management use cases 

DMSs are heavily leveraged in regulated industries to improve everyday outcomes. 

1. Pharmaceutical companies
   • DMSs are core to regulatory submissions like new drug applications. They organize vast documentation, provide version control, and speed up approval processes.
2. Healthcare
   • Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems leverage DMS software to manage patient records, ensure HIPAA compliance, and improve patient care. 
3. Financial Services
   • DMSs help ensure compliance with transparency and equity regulations in managing loans, tax returns, and financial statements. 
4. Manufacturing
   • Manufacturers use DMSs to track documentation related to assembly specifications, quality control reports, and supply chain transparency. They keep our chemicals, energy, food, cars, and airplanes safe. 
5. Law Firms
   • Law firms use DMSs to manage case files, contracts, and court documents, adhering to ethical standards and ensuring confidentiality.
6. Other examples include government, engineering, and education—all document-heavy industries with some regulatory or compliance considerations. 

Over time, vendors increasingly specialized in solving niche use cases by industry. For example: 

• LexWorkplace – legal
• Revver – healthcare
• Granicus – government
• Autodesk Vault – engineering

On-premise implementations are less common, and vendor niches mean less custom effort (and less spending on consultants). These factors have reduced the cost of implementation.

This reduced cost, combined with a continued increase in digital content volumes, has increased the widespread usage of DMSs. For knowledge workers, they are commonplace—over 200k organizations use MS Sharepoint alone. 

However, the question is whether these users realize the full benefits. And if not, can AI help? First, let’s review the expected benefits and actual frustrations.

Expected benefits of document management solutions

The promised benefits of these systems go beyond mere compliance. Key expectations of document management implementations include the following:

1. Finding the Correct Document Quickly
   • Search capabilities should be effective, not just powerful.
   • Users can ensure the most current version is in use and revert to prior versions if needed.
2. Reduced Paper Usage
   • Less paper saves time and money in filing, storage, and transport.
3. Accessible Document Formats
   • Batch conversion of different file types to a shared standard like PDF. 
   • This includes paper-to-digital conversion with optical character recognition (OCR).
4. Security and Compliance
   • Sign-in and encryption prevent unauthorized access to documents.
   • Access controls meet regulatory or security requirements.
5. Improved Collaboration
   • Digital content enables virtual teams and workplaces to collaborate.
   • Check-in and workflows automate team processes. 
6. Better Decision-Making
   • A single source of truth drives fast and well-informed decisions. 

The most important benefit of document management systems

Of these six benefits, the most crucial is the first: finding the correct document quickly.

• If a knowledge worker can’t find a document quickly, they will keep paper backups nearby. Those backups will not be secure or accessible.
• Employees who can’t find content may waste time recreating it. This reduces productivity, hinders collaboration, and slows decision-making.

Considerations for document management implementations

Best practices for technology implementations

Best practices for implementation of any enterprise technology include: 

1. Set fewer, bigger goals.
   • When you advocate for a system, you generate an extensive list of benefits. But when you implement, you pare back the expectations. (This is the technology consultant’s secret formula.) 
   • Take the time to agree on what minimally constitutes success.
2. Take training seriously.
   • Tech experts often fail to consider human factors in adoption. Humans embrace change for two reasons.
     1. They understand the benefits. Make that real with storytelling and peer anecdotes.
     2. They have adopted it as a habit. Plan to support end-users until it’s familiar. 
3. Iterate.
   • Check user sentiment and outcomes regularly. 
   • Fully achieving benefits can take years.

Frustrations of document management system implementations for end users

How did you last look for a document in your organization? Were you satisfied with your experience?

• The average person searches email, not their DMS, for (non-regulated) documents.
• Hardly anyone has a consistently positive experience searching Sharepoint. 

How fast someone finds the correct document tells you everything about the effectiveness of a DMS. And from industry surveys, there is a widespread problem.

• A 2021 survey indicated that 81% of US office professionals had difficulty finding essential documents. 54% of these employees spent more time searching for files than working on tasks.
• An earlier 2019 report indicated that 83% of employees were recreating existing documents they couldn’t find.

In fact, ‘time looking for documents’ is the top social media complaint regarding DMS implementations. Common problems include:

1. Difficulties maintaining file structures
2. Inconsistent naming standards
3. Resistance to change among staff
4. Steep learning curves even for simpler systems like Sharepoint

Why haven’t we fully realized the benefits of DMSs?

How is it possible that users still can’t find documents? Why hasn’t the DMS industry met this basic need? The issues are both commercial and human.

Compliance risk initially drove the adoption of these platforms. Vendors don’t need to innovate if customers are required to buy their products. Worsening the incentives is a well-known challenge in commercial product management: buyer <> user.

The stakeholders who implement DMSs decide which DMS to purchase. So, commercial software companies prioritize features for purchasing agents (bundle discounts) and IT administrators (easy implementation). The end-user is an afterthought.

So, tech has not addressed benefits like effective search, relying instead on human overhead.

Content creators don’t embrace top-down procedures like tagging. If it’s not a regulatory requirement, they don’t ‘have to.’

• Investing for the long-term payoff is difficult in many aspects of life. 
• They may see the benefit if they take the time to think about it. But how many hundred communications does a given employee receive from HR and IT in a year?

So, humans forget or ignore training in their haste to get their work done. They forget check-in procedures, metadata, folder structure, and naming standards. This means coworkers can’t find their documents.

But the future is bright. AI integration in DMS software is promising. The right digital content creation tools, like Snagit, can also make a difference.

How to improve document management system implementations?

AI technology and the future of document management

AI technologies promise easy information retrieval for users without the need for training and repetitive tasks.

When I first implemented DMSs, I heard a bold idea. One day, file and folder systems would be obsolete, and users would simply search for documents. That future is beginning but not fully here yet. 

• Sometimes, searches don’t find the correct document because users didn’t add enough metadata. 
• Other times, there are too many results because of full-text searches and increasing volumes. 

AI language models can help balance these issues with more intelligence to serve the end-user.

Implementers often add unnecessary complexity using systems designed for regulatory audits in everyday work. Knowledge workers value accessing information, not file versions. While AI doesn’t aid compliance, it offers enormous potential for finding information.

Examples of AI-enabled capabilities in document management software

AI is already present in DMSs. Going forward, AI will be the primary source of innovation for products like MS Sharepoint. Here are some examples:

1. Natural Language Search and Retrieval
   • Users can leverage natural language processing (NLP) to retrieve information and locate collaborators without training.
   • AI can create intelligent summaries of large documents. This time-savings helps users see the benefit quickly.
   • Optical character recognition (OCR) also enables image searching. ChatGPT Plus already has advanced capabilities for interpreting images. 
2. Automatic Organization:
   • AI can study tagged documents and find more documents like those through machine learning. This reduces the burden on content creators to add structure.
   • The AI can discern outdated, overlapping, and conflicting information. This provides collaboration benefits with less overhead.
3. Predictive Analytics:
   • AI can analyze information to forecast trends and risks.
   • It can also optimize workflows by reassigning tasks to avoid bottlenecks.
4. Multilingual Translation:
   • AI translation services can reduce storage requirements and speed up collaboration.

These are exciting features. With AI, could DMSs become something the average knowledge worker wants to use?

How Snagit can improve document management systems

Document management systems need digital documents. Historically, these documents were word processing documents, but images and video are increasingly commonplace in the workplace. DMS software support for image and video is mixed, requiring companion products.

Snagit is a screen capture, image editor, and video recording tool loved by end-users. Plus, it’s easy to integrate with DMS systems and corporate processes. Here are some capabilities:

1. Visual Annotation:
   • Snagit lets users annotate media with text, arrows, and highlights. This is useful for highlighting critical information to increase clarity.
2. Fast Documentation:
   • Snagit enables any team to create detailed process documents using customized templates that combine visuals and text. 
3. Redaction and Simplified User Interface:
   • Snagit can redact or blur sensitive information like PII. 
   • Snagit also can simplify visuals, reducing the frequency required to update documentation.
4. Secured Sharing with Enterprise Systems:
   • Snagit can be configured to stay entirely within the corporate firewall.
   • It also integrates with preferred enterprise locations like Google Drive and OneDrive and with DMSs like Sharepoint and DropBox. 
5. Collaboration:
   • Teams can share annotated screenshots or videos via Snagit links from preferred storage locations, enhancing collaboration.
   • Snagit integrates with tools like Slack or Screencast to facilitate feedback collection. 
6. Document Metadata and Video Transcripts:
   • Snagit automatically collects rich application metadata with every capture. 
   • Optional features in Snagit also provide automatic summaries and ADA captions for videos. Many DMSs require text transcripts for videos to support searching functionality.
7. Batch File Format Conversion
   • Snagit converts multiple files into different formats simultaneously.
   • This reduces the time to convert files and provides file-format consistency at a low cost.

Using Snagit with a DMS improves documentation clarity, streamlines workflows, and enhances team collaboration, ensuring information is accessible and organized.

Conclusion

Document Management Systems (DMSs) have helped us evolve from bulky physical storage to essential digital repositories. Despite their advantages, DMS implementations often fail to reach their full potential. 

Regulated use of DMSs has contributed to this problem. End-user productivity was never a priority for innovation.

AI technologies offer a promising solution by improving search capabilities and automating document organization. This can transform DMSs into tools that users want to use. Providing value to end-users is critical to overcoming the human challenges to successful implementations.

Integrating AI can improve outcomes and reduce overhead. As AI progresses, it can address long-standing issues with DMSs, making them more user-friendly and efficient.

DMSs require companion content creation products. Snagit helps end-users easily mark up images, create process documents, and hide sensitive info. Snagit also works well with company DMS systems for secure sharing, collaboration processes, and efficient file management.