USA
Mexico
Colombia
Costa Rica
Chile
Peru
Brazil
Spain
France
UK
Italy
Germany
Netherlands
PortugalDocument Management
Document Management System (DMS): how it works and what it’s used for
Discover what it is, what it's used for, and the benefits of having a document management system.
Isabel García
HR Consultant
10 of April, 2025
The document management system is becoming an increasingly essential piece for organizations. The amount of information created by current companies is growing vertiginously, and the old business storage systems present many shortcomings. An efficient document management software ensures organized and centralized information, something that benefits the productivity of the company. Next, you will learn what a document management system is for your company.
Before delving into the subject, we can use one of these systems as an example. Such is the case with Sesame’s human resources software, a digital tool aimed at managing many of the processes directly related to the human resources department. With Sesame, you can centralize, classify and sort documents, easily locate them when you need them, and you will be notified every time a new file is uploaded. In short, you will save a lot of time and keep systematization in order.
What is document management and why is it important?
Document management is the process of capturing, archiving, sorting, and simplifying the management of a company’s files. So that these can be quickly located by the employees or executives of the company, who often waste time searching through a massive amount of papers and folders.
Searching for documents and consulting precise information is a common practice within small or large corporations. This practice can be very complex when there are many documents saved and there is not an effective document management system.
Therefore, the importance of document management revolves around the practicality of continuous work for employees. Thanks to this, workers can consult and search for information easily, quickly, and accurately. For example, if an executive needs to search for specific information about a particular worker, but can’t remember which department they belong to, they can easily locate it if they have a correct document management process.
Additionally, within the importance of document management, it stands out that it works to speed up file sharing among interested individuals. In this way, partners, lawyers, legal managers, clients, or any other professional can have permitted access to the same information via the internet.
What is a document management system?
A software or document manager, are all those digital programs designed for the management of large amounts of documents. These track and store electronic documents or images of physical documents, that is, on paper. These documents do not have an established organization of their contents, unlike what happens with data stored in a defined database.
These systems become more sophisticated every day and can also include multimedia objects in their management. Among which can appear: images, video or audio. Although this may clash with the definition of ‘content management systems’, the intention is not to confuse them. This term of content management applies precisely to the objects and information used within a web environment.
It is important to note that, before wanting to embark on a project to implement a document management system, it is important to define the objectives. And with these, we refer to what you specifically want to achieve and thus, to be able to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the different processes to include in your management. For this, you should look for the services of experts in the field, which offer an ideal solution for any case. Only in this way can we guarantee that the investment we make in the system will allow us to achieve the expected results.
Objectives of this type of management
- Control access to backup the security of the documents. Also prevent information leakage or loss and ensure the confidentiality of the files.
- Keep the corporate information updated at all times.
- Organize files in a hierarchical and categorized manner, with the aim of optimizing the data search matrix. This is one of the most essential primary objectives of document management.
- Provide a more comprehensive visibility and without error margins of the files and documents stored by the companies.
- Allow companies to enter the world of digital transformation and have considerable cost savings. In this case, an efficient document management system allows all documents to be digitized. In this way, companies will no longer have to continue investing money in paper and printer ink for printing documents. On the other hand, this also allows the company to save physical space by having all the information digitized and centralized.
Need help?
I'm Isabel, HR consultant at Sesame HR. Book a meeting with my team to help you.