For a business to survive in today’s rapidly changing climate it demands that you constantly be on top of things, which is physically impossible. To stay on top of things, businesses need the aid of technology to ensure you won’t miss any finer details. 1.A greater emphasis to capture external documents Previously, companies only focused on collecting data pertaining to their day-to-day transactions and focused on forecasts that would let them know what they would need in the near future. But there is a focus on collecting information concerning a company’s customers and includes capturing information about their partners, vendors and suppliers, which can be done through collecting click-stream data, telling you how your customers are interacting with you on your website. Information like this needs to be placed in a secure location, easily found, properly managed and analysed. 2.Cloud storage gets user-friendly Thanks to social sharing, exclusivity is a thing of the past. As B2C metaphorically puts it, before an employee “accessed what they needed in the ‘vault’ and then quickly put it back.” Modern cloud storage solutions allow employees to access documents and share it with colleagues, smoothing the collaboration process. Security is important, but it must not cause red tape and hamper collaboration and productivity, but provides companies with the best of both worlds, denying and giving access where applicable. 3.Mobility With today’s workforce constantly on the go, there is a need for quicker access to important documents on the go. Companies need to match their employee’s need for on the go access by applying software that is compatible with mobile within the office environment. The concept of mobile document management is increasingly in demand especially within the sales, logistics and distribution landscapes where mobility is critical. Bearing in mind that accessibility isn’t enough, the software needs to be user-friendly as well to enable your employees to understand what it is they are looking at, at a quick glance. 4.Information governance Safe file deletion and curbing liability, costs and risk-factor is topping the business priority list in terms of document management trends. You can retrieve accidently deleted files easily if your IT department continually backs up files on a daily basis. The more people that have access to documents the highly the risk of accidental deletion, by delegating who is allowed access to any given document you can subsequently reduce that risk factor. A sound document management system gives you the ability to define folder access rights in line with the company’s policies regarding this matter. This management system ensures that only you and those you share the given document with is able to delete it. 5.Document management in the field We have seen an easy shift for office documents being turned into electronic files, but when employees go out into field to do a construction project for instance, they are reluctant to go paperless. At the end of a job it becomes a mammoth task for a general contractor to collect all the paperwork and sort out what needs to go from subcontractors to the engineers and architects. In theory it works, however construction practitioners still run into the problem of working from outdated drawings and modules, who simply do not have the time to check that they are working on the right document because they are already pressed for time to complete the project. Yes, it’s true that a contractor cannot take their computer with them in the field. But thanks to today’s smart technology like tablets and smart phones, metaphorically bringing your computer with you has just gotten easier.