Finding the right document manager who then implements a document management system is the key to success
Many who start to implement document management systems fail when they assign the wrong people or team to be responsible for implementation. It doesn’t stop with finding the best management software or database. Even sometimes when you find the best outsourcer, you can still end up with bad results.
Don’t pick the wrong guy and think that it is impossible to implement a document management system
Implementing a document management system is very responsible work, and not many can do it. In fact, after reviewing many contractors, all of them agreed that the person who manages and implements this process must understand the company goal, strategy, problems, services, processes, job responsibilities, and more. You can’t take someone who is great with finances and ask him to oversee the document management system for a construction company. You probably can’t even give this role to your best employee.
Why do you need to find the right person?
When it comes to document management systems, you have to understand the flow of the documents. How documents will flow through the entire organization—who can upload, who can edit, who will confirm, who will review, and most importantly, who can see them. You don’t want to make a system where all the documents are visible to anyone or where anyone can edit them. That is why you need someone who can understand the needs of your company and job positions. For example, you don’t want that your site workers can see price offers or that your project managers upload daily reports. Instead, you want that daily reports can be uploaded by site workers while financial information is visible to managers, and so on.
What are the key skills needed for document management?
Very often, when companies start to implement, they put one of their best employees in charge or they find someone who has never worked in construction. Don’t do this!
Instead, look for values in a potential candidate: whether he is open minded, whether he understands your scope and niche, how he approaches processes, and most importantly, his readiness to learn new things. He also must be a good team player, so he will teach how to use the document management system to every single person in the company. In most cases, he will be the first person to come and help when someone asks for help. Definitely, he or she must be well organized and have joy in making things right.
Coaching skills
Document management manager will not be your new coach, but he must be ready to talk and encourage others to use document management systems. As with any new change or implementation, there will be resistance until the majority adopts it and starts to help with adaptation. A great document manager must withstand this resistance.
In order to implement a document management system, you will need to find the right document manager. Who can understand your business model, job descriptions and duties for employees, document flow, be ready to talk and help other employees with adopting changes, and most importantly, be well organized and disciplined.