The document control process includes a number of crucial steps. Depending on which industry requirements apply to your business, you may need to fulfill some or all of these roles.
Document Capturing
Document capturing is the action of acquiring a document, whether it's physical or digital content. For physical business documents, document capture is the process of sorting relevant pieces and storing them away in a physical location such as a filing cabinet.
In computerized document capturing, this function involves converting physical documents into a digital format. DMS software can extract relevant data and information is stored digitally.
Indexing and Metadata Management
Indexing is the process of sorting documents in such a way as to be efficiently accessed later. In physical document management, alphabetization is the most common form of indexing.
With electronic document management systems, users are able to add metadata tags to materials with specific information — such as location information, business department, or document type. Users are then able to search by tag keywords to quickly find the specific document they're trying to access.
Document Search and Retrieval
As the name implies, document search and retrieval is the action of looking for a specific document and obtaining it for use. With physical documents, this typically involves going to the correct filing cabinet and searching for the document alphabetically.
Computerized document management enables users to search the digital document storage system based on specific criteria such as document type, client name, or content parameters for efficient retrieval.
Document Retention and Archiving
Retention and archiving are slightly different. Document retention refers to storing material for future use and regulatory compliance. Archiving is the process of storing older and less crucial documents at an out-of-the-way location, to be retrieved only when absolutely necessary.
When it comes to physical documents, archiving is necessary to make room for newer, more relevant records. This usually entails taking boxes of old records to a basement storage area or sending them to an off-site location for long-term storage.
Digital retention doesn't suffer from overfull filing cabinets, but the information does take up computer storage space, which still has its limits. Archiving involves compressing the digital information into smaller file sizes, making it unreadable until it's decompressed, which frees up computer storage for more recent and relevant records.