large part of any business is document management and control. Maintaining records, instructions, P.O.s, employee files, and any number of documents is simply part of a business structure, and must be handled based on the industry.
The plans for the business–and if there are any certifications, regulations, or rules in place surrounding document retention and control–will be part of it too. In turn, ensuring you have the best document management software on hand is essential to helping businesses maintain productivity and efficiency.
Document management systems are software packages that are built to allow a business to run efficiently and keep its documents in control, updated, and available to everyone who needs them.
This usually includes document storage, templates, and ideas for document creation, as well as features like revision control and routing for businesses to communicate and update their documentation.
If you have an established business or sell a product, documentation will be an inevitable part of your daily life. The implementation of a document management system and software into a business has the opportunity to provide:
No doubt, Almanac is the best document management software available, combining all functionality considerations necessary for full document management–plus document creation and storage. With async collaboration being one of its core features, Almanac has everything a business needs for managing documents with ease and efficiency.
Rich in documentation tools and integration modules, Almanac uses cloud storage for constant availability of documents for both viewing and editing, no matter where you are or what time zone you are in. Editing, approving, and viewing can be done in real-time, so there is no waiting for responses or input.
There are reports and analytics available on how involved every employee has been around the projects. And one of the best things about Almanac is that despite the richness of the program, the interface is very user-friendly and is not difficult to learn, allowing businesses to take advantage of its document management capabilities immediately.
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The goal of Confluence is to create a type of wiki for businesses to organize and share their documents simultaneously. The software focuses on remote collaboration and team communication, giving everyone who uses the software equal opportunity to give feedback about projects and documents.
Confluence is a part of the Atlassian suite and can work well for all sizes of organizations, but for a document management software that has been around since 2004, it still lacks quite a bit of usability and features. The user interface for Confluence is very simple and bland, with items that a user may easily miss if they are not actively searching for them.
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Jira is a document management platform for knowledge base management and team collaboration. While it was originally created as a problem tracking software, Jira has morphed into a planning and development tool. It keeps projects and tasks at the forefront with easy team administration, and optical character recognition makes scanning files more straightforward.
Jira is another part of the Atlassian Suite and has integrations with many applications to streamline productivity. However, Jira’s feature-rich user interface can be confusing to learn and keep up with. The number of available tabs and sections makes the dashboard very busy.
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Microsoft Sharepoint is part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Touting itself as a mobile, intelligent interface, Sharepoint relies on setting up sites for different teams or projects. A variety of different media can be shared on a site, including news, files, data, and resources. A thorough search engine and rich content management provide a comprehensive document management platform.
Microsoft Sharepoint as a standalone application is a bit lackluster. Without the integration of other Microsoft O365 suite applications, Sharepoint lacks real-time communication or collaboration features. It can also be difficult to share information on Sharepoint with other users who do not have direct access to a Sharepoint site.
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Rubex is a comprehensive document management software inside the eFileCabinet suite. It features a wide range of templates that can be transformed into a number of different documents and filed automatically. An extensive search engine with multiple-filter options makes documents easy to find, and optical character recognition helps to reduce paperwork.
The user interface is clean and relatively simple, with brand customization available. Workflows can be automated, so simple tasks like filing and retrieving do not need to be done manually. However, this platform can at times be inconsistent in its functionality, as users still report running into minor bugs and glitches.
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Rubex is part of the eFileCabinet suite, which does not display pricing online.
DocuWare is a cloud-based document management solution that promises to nullify time wastage and process uncertainty through workflow automation. Employee records and documents can be digitized and centralized for securely storing, archiving, and ease of access.
DocuWare is meant to be a full document management software program, replacing single document management apps that do not work well outside of a suite. It puts a focus on making paper-free workplaces through optical character recognition, with tasks that can be fully automated. In turn, this helps with freeing employee time and excluding menial tasks.
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DocuWare does not display pricing online.
eFileCabinet document management software promises to securely automate work across multiple departments in business organizations. eFileCabinet focuses on customizability and control of documents within the workplace through smart automation, workflows, electronic signatures, and other features.
This program can also incorporate governance, giving the ability to set permissions for users and set automation for retention time and priority tasks. Image capture is available for verification of documents and signatures.
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EFileCabinet does not display pricing online.
M-Files is a top-level content management software package that works to organize and control most aspects of a day in the life of a business. Businesses are able to distribute company policies, maintain audit trails, control who can access information, and perform document control, among many other things, through one platform.
Although feature-rich, many customer complaints regarding the non user-friendly interface of M-files have been raised in the past. However, it does appear that the devs behind the app are planning to get that rectified in the future.
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M-Files does not display pricing online.
PaperTracer is a document and contract management software that undertakes every role from creation to renewal or termination of contracts. Documents can be uploaded and managed in a central cloud, and then routed to designated employees, all within one software.
PaperTracer uses workflows to automate contract management, taking some of the work off of individual employees. Even though the software has been around for many years, not many reviews or information has been released to the public recently. Whether PaperTracer works across other browsers and devices, is still up for debate.
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PaperTracer does not display pricing online.
LogicalDOC is a document management software with a specific focus on business process automation and fast content retrieval that can be employed across all the departments of organizations. Integrations are offered with many major software names, and cloud-based storage is available, although not automatically included.
LogicalDOC was founded in 2006 and has integrated strategic growth to keep their product ahead in times when remote work tools and software are prolific. This software promises to bring simplicity both with data entry and document retrieval.
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LogicalDOC offers a free trial, but does not display pricing online.
When it comes to document management systems and software, “free” is not a term that gets thrown around a lot. However, there are a number of open-source document management software programs available for both personal use and small businesses that do not require support or training.
The main drawback of free document management software is that while they often have active developers, there is not much customer support.
There are also free options for some document management systems–like Almanac’s free plan–that you can use until you need something more robust.
Almanac, hands down, is the best document management software in 2023. With a feature-rich base, great customer support, and regularly added features and updates, this impressive document management software has everything a business needs to turn its current document control system into a comprehensive online collaboration system.
With Almanac, the tedious work of document management becomes light and easy, making work less stressful for developers, human resources departments, product managers, employee teams–and everyone in between. If you are interested in finding out how Almanac can transform the ways of your business to help it reach new heights, get in touch with their friendly sales team here.