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Help Teams Get Efficient with Document Analytics

By Daniel Chalef posted 09-14-2011 10:24

  

Business users depend on documents to get work done. Sales builds contracts. Marketing makes collateral. Finance approves invoices. And legal vets contracts. Each process depends on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

We know that business users depend on documents. And teams work with hundreds or thousands of documents. That makes management difficult and raises three big issues for business users. Each of which stems from a lack of insight into the documents that run the business:
  1. Which version of the contract is the most recent? Does the sales pitch include the latest content? Hidden content means productivity drains. Teams shouldn't be storing content only to have it lost in a document black hole.
  2. As users identify great content, like new collateral or useful templates, it should be surfaced to colleagues. By taking advantage of documents that co-workers find valuable, teams can get productive. But how to spot useful content when so much is created?
  3. Documents are integral to business processes. So, it’s imperative to manage their lifecycle. But if you can’t tell where a document is in the approval process, then it is likely to get stuck. And that means inefficient business activities.
So, how do users get in control again? “Smart” insights into your document vault are the right approach. Analytics and dashboards shine a light on documents and their business processes, making documents matter again. What analytics should you look for?
  • Analytics must locate document gems that teams need. Insights and dashboards put useful documents in context, front-and-center to boost team productivity. They find:
    • New Documents: As new documents are created, say a new sales presentation, the team should be aware of it. Lists of “What’s New” documents should be prominent.
    • Great Documents: As teams work with documents, they are bound to find pieces that are especially useful. By “liking” a document, as you would in Facebook or LinkedIn, you can help colleagues find content that you suggest.
  • Smart Trends highlight how documents can be improved and managed. That means that document quality rises and stalled approvals evaporate.
    • Popular Documents: Which documents are being downloaded the most? Which are most frequently viewed? Those types of documents that teams use are probably useful to you; so they should be highlighted.
    • Top Authors: The best documents often come from a select number of people. You can keep on top of who’s creating new content by listing who is creating the most new documents.
  • Smart Feeds keep team members engaged and on top of changing documents. The document black hole vanishes and you can work smarter with colleagues.
    • Latest Activity: When team members add or change documents, or when they like, view, or comment on a document, it is helpful to know. That allows you to find documents that your colleagues are working on or value.
These kinds of analytics are driven from multiple sources. But you’ll notice the impact of social elements. That is, using the responses of team members to guide which documents make sense for others. If many of your colleagues “like”, view, or comment on a document, it likely should be of interest to a peer. Social aspects apply just as well in a business context as they do in the consumer world.
 
By incorporating analytics into business-centric document management teams can surface great content and keep document processes running efficiently. We’ve collected additional views and best practices into a useful, free eBook on document management.  Please download the “Make Documents Matter” eBook here.


#analytics #documentmanagement #actionableinsight
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