Mastering document management: new features to enhance your collaboration and control
What’s the worst part of your job? Ask ten technicians, and nine of them will probably say paperwork.
Finding and updating documentation often takes up way more time than it should. Yet, 45% of SMEs still rely on paper records to manage essential information. Even within larger organisations, document management is less streamlined than other engineering tasks.
If information inefficiency is impacting your team’s performance, it’s time to go digital. Moving to an online document management system can increase collaboration and control – especially if those features are included within your CMMS software.
Why does document management matter?
It’s easy to underestimate the impact of poor document management on your performance. After all, it’s just paperwork – right?
Yet, how your team coordinates asset information affects your operational success. If you’re not using a centralised document management system, you’re vulnerable to:
- Critical information being lost or misplaced
- Skilled workers wasting time – according to McKinsey, professionals spend up to nine hours per week searching for documentation
- Breakdown in business collaboration
- Problems with consistency and version control; 83% of employees will recreate documents if they can’t find them on the company network
- Lack of paper trail for customer enquiries audits, resulting in non-compliance
Poor document management can also cause safety issues, as technical staff can’t access instructions when servicing machinery.
How can digital document management improve business collaboration?
Centralising documents in your CMMS software can help your company run maintenance more efficiently. In fact, studies have shown that digital file-sharing processes are up to 80% quicker than manual systems.
Elecosoft recently updated ShireSystem with new document management features. Each feature addresses common challenges and offers intuitive solutions to maintenance challenges – including:
- Easy access to real-time information. Accessibility in document management is an important starting point for improving asset control. ShireSystem’s new document management features are browser-based, so your team can access essential instructions anywhere with an internet connection.
Chester Zoo, the UK’s most popular conservation zoo, uses ShireSystem to centralise asset documentation. As Chester Zoo’s Deputy Facilities Manager, Nick Farrell, notes: “We want every engineer to have the information they need in the palm of their hands. It doesn’t matter who is picking up that job; they have all the details they need to get on with it. One stop for everything, accessible to everyone. That’s our goal.”
Our software is also mobile-compatible, so your team can check documents in the field or start jobs on their smartphones and finish them on their laptops or tablets.
Read more: how Chester Zoo uses ShireSystem to optimise site maintenance.
- Quick collaboration capabilities. Our online document management features enable your team to edit paperwork and share real-time updates so everyone’s aligned. No more waiting until the next team meeting to catch up!
With ShireSystem, every maintenance team member can access simple sharing, viewing, and editing options. Colleagues can easily interact, as they receive an email notification whenever changes are made to technical documentation.
Plus, using CMMS software as a central document repository means your staff members rely on one tool to manage their workload. There’s no need to learn two separate systems.
- Guaranteed version control. With ShireSystem’s new document management features, your team can access information from a central digital location. There’s no concern about version control.
You can use ShireSystem to track changes and updates to asset information, capturing a complete history of who edited each document. This detailed document history gives your company complete data integrity in the event of customer requests and audits – something ShireSystem customer, North Air, finds particularly useful.
“When customers ask for maintenance records or details, it’s easy to log into ShireSystem and download what we need,” shares Shell Guida, North Air’s Engineering and Maintenance Manager. “If we were still working under the old paper-based system, this would be a much more time-consuming task. And we can easily tailor the information they want to receive.”
Read more: how North Air fuels growth through better asset management.
You can even use ShireSystem for internal accountability, as our document management features allow you to see who has viewed each document.
- Intuitive search facilities. With so much data at your fingertips, it’s easy to lose time looking for one piece of information. ShireSystem includes a powerful document search engine with metadata tagging, so you can easily categorise and look up information.
In addition to saving you time, our search function helps to ensure accurate document retrieval, reducing maintenance team errors.
Choose CMMS software with built-in document management features
Greater accessibility in document management is helping maintenance teams to increase operational control. Working from accurate, real-time information can improve business collaboration and ensure your team upholds safety and compliance standards.
Companies choosing CMMS software with built-in document management features (like ShireSystem) benefit from a system that can coordinate multiple aspects of your maintenance workload.
ShireSystem’s latest document management features demonstrate our commitment to continuous improvement. We provide technology to help your maintenance team meet evolving demands and enhance asset performance.
But don’t just take our word for it; see for yourself how ShireSystem can change how you handle technical information.
Book a 30-minute ShireSystem demo to transform your document management processes.