Electronic document management in a small business. Electronic document management for medium and small businesses: tips for beginners. Privacy agreement

About the answer to the question “Why does your company need electronic document management?” depends at least half of the success of the system implementation project electronic document management(SED). Oddly enough, very often you can hear an answer like: “A competitor / partner already has one - why are we worse?” But if you set such a goal for the introduction of an EDMS, the results are unlikely to be impressive.

So what are the goals for a company implementation of EDMS? Consider the possible options.

Since the achievement of each of these goals consistently increases both the budget of an automation project and the risks that the project will not be successfully completed, setting high goals should be treated with the utmost caution.

Another common mistake when implementing a system is the expectation that automation itself will help to optimize the workflow process itself. But as programmers say in such cases: “When automating chaos, you will only get "automated chaos"».

By the way, an important note on the formation of the project budget: it must be calculated based on the total number of employees in the company. Pilot projects such as “let's try in one department” in most cases will not even help to understand whether a company needs an electronic document management system or not.

When the goal is set, and the automation tasks are defined, you can proceed to the next stage - the choice of an electronic document management system.

How to choose?

Almost until the second half of the 2000s, the EDMS market in Russia was focused exclusively on large customers, small and medium-sized companies had no choice: there was a very small circle of “boxed” EDMS suitable for implementation in companies of this size. Moreover, in most cases, these EDMS were only cut-down versions of "large" systems, which means that the cost of purchase and maintenance, the complexity of use were not quite adequate to the expectations of small and medium-sized companies.

V last years The EDMS market for small and medium-sized businesses has expanded significantly: suppliers have formed a vision for automating the workflow of medium and small businesses, and many new solutions have appeared that are focused specifically on this market segment. Therefore, the choice of an electronic document management system is now a rather difficult task. Let's try to systematize the process of choosing an EDMS based on the goals that the company sets for itself by introducing electronic document management.

All electronic document management systems can be divided into 3 large groups:

Systems for organizing an archive (storage) of documents.
Office automation systems with elements of workflow.
Complex systems of workflow automation.

Most modern EDMS contains elements of each of the three groups, but "full-fledged generalists" are rare. As a rule, each system is focused on automating a certain group of processes.

1. Document archive organization systems

The term "archive (repository) of documents" has two meanings. These systems mean:

Specialized storage and processing systems for super-large volumes of documents. Such systems are necessary for a narrow circle of companies, for example, queuing organizations ( public Utilities, public sector, insurance, credit and banking sector). There are not so many such systems, they solve a rather narrow range of problems, and we will not consider them in this article.
"Lightweight" document management systems that provide only basic functionality work with documents: centralized storage of document files and organization of employee access to them.

If we talk about the archive of documents as a “lightweight” document management system, then the following solutions are most popular in this approach to document management automation:

In general, the organization of document circulation in the form of an “archive of documents” makes sense either for small enterprises (with a managerial staff of less than 10 people), or for enterprises with a small amount of document circulation (up to 10-20 documents per month). The main bonus of such systems is only their cheapness and ease of use.

2. Office automation systems with elements of workflow

Office automation systems with workflow elements now make up the majority of those offered on Russian market SED. Generic Functions systems of this group:

Archive of documents:

storage and archiving of documents,
search by details of registration and control cards of documents, full-text search by documents,
scanning and recognition of documents;

office work(in this group of systems, the office automation unit is the most developed):

registration of documents,
organization of the nomenclature of cases,
differentiation of access rights.

Document flow:

document routing,
issuing orders,
visualization of business processes.

All systems have almost identical characteristics, but each, of course, has its own competitive advantages. Detailed information about the systems can be obtained at http://www.doc-online.ru and on the websites of EDMS manufacturers.

3. Integrated workflow automation systems

This group of systems is the most “strong” in automating processes related to document management and operational management enterprises, - issuing and monitoring the execution of instructions, routing documents, etc.

The introduction of such EDMS is rather justified in large organizations (holdings) due to the fact that systems of this class are developed only on order, and therefore, they are expensive, rather difficult to master, and require the participation of IT specialists during implementation. However, the choice of EDMS of this group also provides great opportunities by modifying the system to the needs of the company, you can create a system that is balanced in terms of functions both in the field of office work and in the field of document management.

What's next?

After you have decided on the favorites for the purchase, do not forget to consider the following aspects that will definitely affect the success of the EDMS implementation project:

Ask what the system has opportunities for growth so that, with the growth of the scale of the business, you do not have to spend money on the introduction of a new EDMS.
When comparing the cost of systems evaluate full cost project. Very often, a significant part of the cost is hidden in additional modules, infrastructure software, survey services, implementation and maintenance of the system.
Before the purchase look at the system "live", and even better - at the customers of the solution provider. Not a single beautiful presentation or "laboratory" demonstration of the system will show the real features of working with it.
Some of the systems on the market are so-called "boxed" SED. This means the ability to install and configure the system on their own. Calculate, this option may be more profitable, even if you have to send your IT specialists for training.
Make sure that your company's employees "pull" the system- any automation usually leads to an increase in the amount of work, especially at the implementation stage. If the company has a shortage of personnel, it is necessary either to increase its number, or to choose an EDMS with simpler functions.
System Implementation Procedure is an important element of project success. Before buying a system, be sure to plan this stage in advance and discuss its features with the solution provider! Very often, without a thorough study of this stage, the EDMS hangs like a "dead weight" on the company.

The introduction of an electronic document management system is a responsible step for a company, especially for medium and small companies, where any expenses significantly affect the "vitality". Therefore, the correct choice of an EDMS and a solution provider that takes into account the specifics of the work of medium and small businesses is very important. important factor. In this article, we tried to give an idea of the current state of the EDMS market for medium and small businesses and help in choosing the right electronic document management system. I wish you success.

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When selecting an EDMS, you can apply for analytical information to the sites http://www.doc-online.ru and http://www.docflow.ru, as well as directly to the developers:

System "BOSS-Referent" of the company "Ai-Ti". Site http://www.boss-referent.ru
System "DELO" of the company "EOS". Site http://www.eos.ru
Euphrates-document management system by Cognitive Technologies. Site http://www.evfrat.ru
"CompanyMedia" system of "InterTrust" company. Site http://www.intertrust.ru
The NauDoc system of the Naumen company. Site http://www.naumen.ru
Acta system by DuxSoft. Site http://www.duxsoft.ru

The sector of medium and small businesses, which gained momentum even before the crisis, in spite of everything, remains the fastest growing and most promising in the domestic economy. Of course, during the period of active development of electronic services and the transition to an electronic state, SMB sector companies, like their larger counterparts, feel much more confident and comfortable being “in the know” regarding the use of modern IT solutions. There are more than enough corresponding offers on the IT market, including those from developers of electronic document management systems. However, in a crisis and saving both budgets and labor resources, the question of the advisability of deploying an EDMS in small companies still arises. What should be considered when solving it?

EDMS is smart documentation

Let's start with an indisputable fact: documenting your work is more than just the responsibility of any organization, regardless of its size and form of ownership. Quite often, well-composed, executed, neatly kept documents play an important role both in achieving the company's success in the market, and, in some cases, in its survival. Moreover, competent documentation in itself can become a mechanism for improving the quality of business processes. And in what IT solution such literacy was originally incorporated? Of course, in the electronic document management system. It is the EDMS that can not only create, draw up, send, receive and store documents, but also teach how to do it beautifully, correctly, rationally.

EDMS is efficient spending

successful and competitive in modern market are companies that use all reserves to improve the efficiency of their activities and reduce inefficient costs. This also applies to small and medium-sized businesses! Automation of workflow allows you to eliminate such errors in doing business as the lack of proper control and executive discipline, tools for teamwork and knowledge management, failure to meet deadlines for tasks and projects, "opacity" of what is happening in the company, unnecessary waste of working time on coordinating documents, sending letters, search for information, data processing. Even the smallest company is not immune from them. But even the largest holding is able to cope with them - including with the help of the EDMS.

EDMS is a quick interaction with partners

It happens that small companies, when implementing EDMS, do it “for the sake of image”: “the competitor already has EDMS, let us have it too.” And if it is not always reasonable to spend energy on being a match for competitors, then it is worth taking care of partners and counterparties. For most companies, not excluding small and medium-sized firms, it is important to properly organize the management of interaction with customers, partners and other organizations with which the company is actively working, that is, to establish an external document flow. And in this vein, the launch of the same EDMS as that of key counterparties, or a compatible solution, greatly facilitates the communication process. The time of couriers with folders of paper documents in briefcases is over!

EDMS is a convenient interaction with e-government

Small and medium-sized businesses are currently paying close attention to small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, the Ministry of Economic Development continues to develop the system of providing public services on the principle of "one stop shop" based on the MFC in accordance with the relevant program for 2016-2018. Particular emphasis is placed on the creation of MFCs focused on the provision of public services to SMEs: for example, it is planned to develop a special information service, which ensures the interaction of JSC "Federal Corporation for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises" and the MFC in in electronic format. In many EDMS, as is known, there are mechanisms for interaction with electronic services. So - who has an EDMS, even more handy tool to maintain contact not only with colleagues in the market, but also with regulators.

What to look for when choosing an EDMS for SMB?

Most analysts agree that there are, by and large, only two main parameters that should be taken into account when choosing an EDMS for SMEs. And first of all, of course, this is a price issue, and it is necessary to take into account not only the price of licenses, but also the cost of ownership.

Secondly, it is easy to install, configure and administer. Of course, if the user is a company that itself operates in the IT market and consists entirely of highly qualified IT bison, then this factor is not relevant. In cases where the IT service is represented by one or two administrators, paraphrasing a well-known statement, we can say that "simplicity is the key to health!". Moreover, the health of not only the IT system, but also the user's nervous system. Not surprisingly, the statistics also confirm: the request for a “simple EDMS” is especially often observed among customers from the SMB sector.

Is there life without SED?

There is, but its quality is significantly lower than that of users of a correctly selected and successfully implemented EDMS. In general, a few years ago there was an opinion that small companies do not need an EDMS at all - MS Office is enough. It still occurs to this day, although not so often - the above advantages, in general, are not a secret to anyone.

However, it is no secret that in a small company, due to its small scale, the effect of using an EDMS will not be as obvious as in a large counterpart. And what, in principle, if the organization has only a couple of dozen employees, it is quite possible to register and record documents in Excel, store document images in the cloud - for example, in Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365, and route in Outlook. Yes, it is possible to survive in this way - however, at the cost of automating the basics of the basics, office work.

And, of course, there are always those who want to save money by using unlicensed software. And here, in parallel with the growth of savings, the danger of information vulnerability is also growing. Statistics show that almost half of small and medium-sized enterprises do not take elementary measures to protect their information resources, and that it is SMBs that are the easiest target for information spies. It also reminds that a virus attack aimed at computing machines small businesses, can put them out of action for a few days. What growth without that small business will, of course, be of no use.

Shiraz Ahmed
November 29, 2011 11:46 am

Awareness of electronic document management has grown over the past few years, but many of its aspects are still not clear to the general public. It is often confused with file management, enterprise information resource management (of which electronic document management is a part), office work organization, etc.

Here we will try to debunk five myths about electronic document management from a small business perspective.

Myth #1: I have an OCWindowsfor file management, and I don't need a separate electronic document management system.

Reality: Windows Explorer certainly helps you manage your files/documents, but it's just a basic tool, largely limited to storing files in a hierarchical folder structure. On the other hand, a good document management system will allow you to store document type-specific metadata based on the unique requirements of your organization. So, for each scanned image of an invoice, you can define metadata for storage: Date of invoice, Amount of invoice, Company, Status (Paid / Not paid), etc. This greatly increases the number of ways you can search and group documents. In addition to this, electronic document management systems often allow you to establish links between documents, create annotations to them and set various access rights to documents (for example, the user can view, but not edit). As you can see, this is much more than what your operating system has to offer.

Myth 2: Small businesses do not need electronic document management

Reality A: This is perhaps the biggest misconception. Small business owners manage limited resources and therefore often cannot hire staff to perform routine paperwork: stamping, registration, archiving, searching and returning documents, re-registration after each review. Already hired employees of a small company spend extra time on these tasks beyond those for which they were hired. Having a good electronic document management system provides access to all documents at the click of a mouse.

Myth 3: Electronic document management is too difficult to implementin small companies.

Reality: As a small business, you must be clear about your firm's basic document management needs. Once these needs are identified, affordable and easily implemented solutions will immediately become apparent. Most The best way implement a solution - "test it" for a start on one of the divisions of the company or on the solution of one of the business tasks (for example, organize the management of incoming and outgoing invoices). Check back in a month or two and see how much more effective your people have been in document management. Once you see the benefits in one department, you can replicate the solution to the rest of the organization.

Care must be taken to ensure that the solution has the following properties: it is easy to install and configure, has a simple user interface, a detailed user manual and technical support available by email or telephone.

Myth 4: Electronic document management is too expensive for small businesses

Reality: Small businesses may not need the advanced, comprehensive EDMS capabilities that are typically required large enterprises. As well as the number of users who will work with this software product is likely to be less than in larger organizations. However, there are electronic document management software products that are cost-effective for small businesses. In addition, the transition to electronic document management allows you to reduce the consumption of paper and other stationery, thereby significantly reducing your current costs. In fact, when you calculate the return on investment (ROI) for a small business electronic document management system, you will see that investing in it can actually be one of your firm's most profitable investments in the medium to long term.

Myth 5: I can eliminate all paper documents as soon as I have an electronic document management system.

Reality: You have decided to implement a document management system. Congratulations! But do not immediately run to the shredder! Many of these documents must store in paper form.

Divide all your documents into 3 groups:

1. Those documents that must be kept in paper form by law, for example, original contracts with signatures.

2. Documents that you may still need in paper form during routine work.

3. Those documents that you definitely don’t need in paper form anymore.

Before moving towards the shredder, you can only grab the last of these 3 groups. After months / years, you will no longer need to keep paper documents from the third and second groups, which will bring you even closer to paperless workflow.

Translation: Ananina Anna (DIRECTUM).

) NauDoc - to qualitatively improve the process of working with documents of managers and subject specialists of all levels, to reduce the time of routine work with documents, in other words, the automation of workflow in the enterprise

NAUDOC- software for automating office work, workflow and business processes, developed by NAUMEN. NAUDOC allows you to manage the processing of documents and control the performance discipline, receiving comprehensive information about the progress of tasks.

The NauDoc electronic document management system is optimally suited for automating the document flow of medium and small businesses, management companies, design organizations, subdivisions of holding structures, as well as for solving specific tasks of automating document flow facing subdivisions of large companies (ensuring work with regulatory documentation in accordance with ISO requirements 9001:2000, interaction between employees and personnel service, etc.).

Using NAUDOC, it is possible to organize a single repository of documents with access rights based on roles, which allows employees to access documents at any time and in as soon as possible find all the necessary information, regardless of the presence of the document owner at the workplace. Registration logs allow you to register incoming, internal and outgoing papers, tracking the movement of paper copies of documents within the enterprise.

The presence of NAUDOC control tools for performance discipline allows you to assign tasks to employees in the system, control their execution, track deadlines, send papers for approval and send approved papers for review by other users of the system. Setting life cycle for document categories, allows you to specify typical routes for the movement of documents, configure their automatic routing and assignment of tasks.

All actions with documents and tasks are performed through a web interface, connecting to the system from anywhere in the world, thereby creating a single information space for the organization, including remote branches and mobile workers.

Benefits provided by the use of the NauDoc electronic document management system:

Simplification of the procedure for the approval of documents by officials

After the document is created, the employee sends it for approval to a certain circle of people in accordance with the document approval procedure adopted in the organization.
When working collectively, all actions are performed on one instance of the document. NauDoc users who approve a document get access to it while working.
At any stage, an approval report can be generated (indicating the name and position of the approver and the exact time the document was approved).

Ability to register electronic and paper documents in the system

Registration of a document in the registration log occurs automatically at a certain stage of working with a document.
For paper documents, a special electronic card is created in the system; a scanned copy of the document can be attached to the card.

Speeding up the search for documents by details and content

The NauDoc system will provide you with the ability to instantly find all documents by a specific attribute (for example, a registration number or a short description).

Simplification of work with organizational and administrative documents

The user creates a document in the NauDoc system, according to a predefined template. To create a document, you need to change the values of the details in its registration card, they will be automatically put into the text of the document. If necessary, you can allow the user to change the template text.
After the document is created, the employee sends it for work to a certain circle of people in accordance with the procedure adopted in the organization.
The system “knows” the order of approval: it controls the deadlines at the stages, notifies the responsible persons, the system also sends notifications about the movement of the document from stage to stage.
Registration of a document in the registration log occurs automatically at a certain stage of working with a document. This gives the document registration number and the registration date is set.

Process management

The NauDoc system allows you to automate the production or management processes of the company. Allows you to highlight the stages, responsible persons, regulatory deadlines. This allows you to cost reports on what stage each of the process instances is at, find " narrow places» and responsible persons due to which there is a failure of deadlines, to make the process before making changes.

Simplification of work with incoming and outgoing correspondence

NauDoc can be configured as an email client, allowing you to work with incoming and outgoing documentation as with regular documents in the system.
When processing incoming correspondence, letters are received by the secretary, registers letters in the Register of Incoming Correspondence, the document is automatically assigned a registration number. After preparation, the document is sent for resolution to the head, according to the procedure adopted in the organization. After consideration, the document is sent for familiarization or execution to employees of the organization.
When processing outgoing correspondence, the employee creates a letter according to the template accepted in the organization, sends it for approval to the head, according to the procedure adopted in the organization. After approval of the document, it is automatically sent to the secretary. The Secretary registers the letter in the Register and sends it by e-mail. In this case, all documents are stored in the system and are available for search.

Creation of a corporate web portal and an Internet resource of the company

NAUDOC allows you to create Internet and intranet sites and manage content placement (ENGINE functionality). The content may be papers, graphics and other NAUDOC objects.
Convenient development and editing of resource pages in the built-in WISYWIG editor, version control.
Managing the publication of news, questionnaires and voting.
Built-in development and redesign of resource pages.
Centralized access control in the sections of the resource, the ability to coordinate documents before publishing on a web resource.

Technological features of the system

A 100% web interface allows you to connect to the system from anywhere in the world, creating a single information space for the organization, its remote branches and mobile workers.
system built with software for scanning and text recognition ABBYY FINEREADER Scripting Edition;
the system allows for authentication and authorization of people in external directory services, such as LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory;
the system has a module for working with an electronic digital signature () and it is possible to operate the digital signature of any crypto provider that supports the Microsoft CRYPTOAPI interface.

The NauDoc electronic document management system is designed for comfortable work of up to 50 users who can create up to 5,000 documents per year. These are technological limitations of the Zope software platform on which the product is developed.

From practical observations, the following factors can be distinguished:

High system reliability. For 4 years of operation not a single failure.
High degree of system security against hacker attacks
Good functionality for a free system, but extremely poor for a paid one
High load on the server even with a small database. Poor thread optimization seems to be the culprit. Hence the slow work with documents.
The inconvenience of entering data into the database.
Usability as such is missing , it seems that the programmers wrote the system for themselves, and not for sale.
The impression of the underdevelopment of the system.
Poor (slow) technical and information support on the forum, even for paying customers
In the free version, starting from a certain number of accumulated tasks, the search returns incorrect answers.
In the paid version, starting from a certain number of accumulated tasks - the search starts to make mistakes when choosing the search area, searches for documents in the wrong place, does not understand the standard logical search conditions.
The system code is open, but it is unrealistic to change anything manually.

Platform: Windows, Linux/Unix, Solaris, FreeBSD

NAUDOC is available in 2 editions: NAUDOC Free and NAUDOC Enterprise

Leave your comment!

Small business seems important to me for the market, since the number of large federal customers is finite and almost all of them have decided on the choice of platforms and software. And the mechanisms that work there are not very market-based.

So if we talk specifically about the market, then the main expansion potential client base it's just a small business. When small businesses see the real benefits of electronic document management and when the functionality of the EDMS begins to reflect their real needs, and not reproduce the ministry in miniature, then this market will become as massive as accounting. Can one of the EDMS vendors repeat the success of 1C?

So, 5 myths about EDMS for small businesses:

Although readiness for electronic document management has grown over the past few years, people still lack understanding of some aspects of the technology. They often mistake file management for Enterprise Content Management or EDMS, which can be considered part of ECM. Here we will try to dispel five myths, especially in the focus of small business challenges.

Myth #1: I have File Explorer so I don't need a separate EDMS
Indeed, Windows Explorer allows you to manage files, but this is only a basic tool, its significant limitation is the hierarchical folder structure.

Even an elementary task, when you want to group documents by products and by customers using folders, is not solved - client A orders products X and Y. Client B - products X and Z. We want to see orders by products and by customers and any DBMS or even Excel allows you to do this. But sorting documents into folders in this way will not work.

Theoretically, you can use labels and links, but in reality this is inconvenient. It turns out that with the help of the file system it is impossible to build a convenient system for classifying and searching for documents.

Myth #2. Small businesses don't need EDMS
Nothing is further from the truth. Small business operates under severe resource constraints, no one will hire additional employees to perform routine operations with documents, to place, classify and search for them. Even those employees who are, should work more productively. The presence of an EDMS in an organization can ensure that required documents will be available with a single mouse click.
(Well, maybe two or three, which is still faster than rummaging through papers or file storage.)

Myth #3. EDMS is too complicated for small businesses
The requirements for document flow in a small business are usually simpler and the owners can formulate them in front of the contractor. There are enough products on the market that are easy to implement. You can start with one department or function, such as account management. See how this affects efficiency. Then you can expand to the entire organization. Make sure that the EDMS meets the following requirements: simple user interface, ease of installation and configuration, understandable and complete guide and availability of high-quality technical support.
(I’ll add on my own - don’t try to be like a big bureaucratic office! Save your work style. It’s better to train employees, you shouldn’t save on this. It’s better to save on analyzing and drawing business processes. You already understand them. And if not, most likely a business no longer small.)

Myth number 4. EDMS is too expensive for small businesses
Small businesses do not need overly advanced complex integrated solutions, which are usually implemented in large corporations. And you don’t need much scalability, because there will be few users. Based on this, you can choose a solution that will be quite reasonable in price. In addition, the transition to electronic document management will help reduce printing costs. (But this needs to be consciously approached and managed, otherwise the cost of paper will only increase.)
(And again, I’ll say it for myself - calculating ROI when implementing an EDMS is a dark matter. Analysts will tell you anything. Trust your intuition. In general, EDMS should help reduce costs and increase productivity.)

Myth number 5. You can completely get rid of paper documents after the introduction of EDMS
So, you have implemented EDMS in your small business. Congratulations! But do not rush for a new shredder. Paper documents are still needed. Let's divide them into three groups:
1) Documents that must be in paper form by law. For example, contracts and other official documents.
2) Documents that remain in paper form because business processes are built that way. As long as your couriers are not equipped with iPads, they need papers.
3) Documents that do not exactly have to be in paper form. All sorts of reports, memos, applications, etc. - everything that did not fall into the first two groups. They can be safely carried in the sherder.

After months and years, documents from the first two groups will gradually move into the third. Legislation is changing and technologies are developing, it may soon be easier to give each courier a tablet and not fool around with paper. This is how we will someday arrive at a paperless office.