Data is most likely to be one of the most prized possession of a modern company. Years ago, it was a common occurrence to have file cabinets filled to the brim with paper documents. Nowadays, a more sophisticated system (namely an electronic document storage system) is needed. This new system, nevertheless, has a few shortfalls that outsiders can exploit. For example, documents are now easy to share and so leaks of sensitive files have become rampant.
As the owner of a company, there are steps you can take to make your documents easier to manage and to ensure their safety. One of these steps is to use an enterprise content management system. Of course, you can expect various perks once your company incorporates such a system. Below, we discuss the areas that will most likely be improved.
Security
Losses are inevitable with document leaks, especially if the leaks involve company and trade secrets. However, a good enterprise content management system will allow you to determine how documents can be used.
For example, you can decide who gets access to view a specific document. You can do this according to the hierarchy in your organization or by some other metric of your choice. Ultimately, you pick out the people to receive a file and what they can do with it. Also, users cannot share files. So, it is unlikely that those with whom you share access will leak your documents.
In addition, you can lock documents to your organization. You can do this by limiting it to a set of IP addresses or even to a country. It is up to you to determine the location(s) in which you are willing to allow your authorized users to open your documents.
Document Management
Using a secure document management system, you can make changes from the administrator system which will affect all the available electronic copies of the document, even after you have shared the document. This is especially useful when trying to delete all copies of a particular document or when revoking access to a document. Also, if you suddenly need to allow prints of a document for all authorized users of the document, you can do so with the click of a button.
Document and User Logging
Sometimes keeping an eye on document usage is necessary. For example, you may need to check if an unauthorized user is accessing particular documents. It is easier to flag this if you keep regular tabs.
Unusual use patterns are just as bad. They may indicate potential document safety threats from the inside and you need to look into such patterns. But, you can only do so if you are aware of it and a sound document monitoring system will point out any strange occurrences.
Some measurement metrics that you can use include:
- The number of views of a document;
- The number of prints of a document; and
- The most accessed and printed documents.
Search Capabilities
You likely have multiple electronic documents and may sometimes need to look for a certain one. Using a content management system, you can set some search parameters to narrow down a search to specific documents. For example, you can search for financial documents or even human resources ones by applying filters. You can also search for “print enabled documents”. The search process is a whole lot easier with the right system in place.
Administrator and Sub-Administrator Rights
If you run a large organization, it would be unreasonable to only have one administrator doing all the work. So, a few people under the administrator could help by taking on some of the workloads. With an enterprise content management system, you can hand out sub-administrator privileges. These sub-administrators can then control document sharing and monitor the system. And, with their different login credentials and a log of their activities, it will be easy for the administrator to know if any one of them is acting out of character.
Rights Transfer
The general trend is that user rights are locked to a specific device. However, a need may arise where the rights need to be transferred (for example when the original device is no longer used). So, you would then need to transfer the license. It is possible to do so with a content management system.
Reporting
A point to remember is that in organizations most employees have to answer to a manager. So, reports are generally passed up the chain and give a summary of the conditions present. An enterprise content management system can assist in creating and generating the reports, depending on various parameters, such as document use numbers.
Conclusion
An enterprise content management system is an asset in modern-day document use and should be used in all organizations. Companies that have not yet employed such a system are leaving themselves open to risk which must be rectified.