Regularly reviewing practices and protocols for effective file management systems and procedures should be a recurring upkeep task for an organization’s operations department. Effective digital file management procedures can make a substantial difference in organizational workflows, internal communication, budget, and overall operational efficiency. We asked three industry leaders to give us their tips for how they have optimized their digital file management systems for success.
Establish an Effective File Naming System
I would say the most important part of Digital File Management is to establish a standard for file naming early on in your company history and train every employee to use the same nomenclature. We’ve all opened a file folder to find a horrific display of downloaded images, untitled word documents, and huge PDFs that may or may not relate to what you’re looking for at all. With a simple-to-use naming convention, you’re saving yourself (or some poor intern), hours of work opening, renaming, and resaving these files.
As your business grows and changes, the naming conventions should remain the same, making finding documents much easier, especially if you have multiple departments working off of a single server. A system that is familiar to all employees saves time, effort, and overall increases the productivity of your business as a whole.
– Coco Jeannine, Digital Project Manager, Inseev Interactive
Automated Backups
In my role, I curate probably 500 or so resumes per month, in addition to the dozens of employees that I have hired. One of the best tips I have for effective digital file management is to make sure you have your documents make an automated backup for every step along the way.
Filing is messy. Documents go missing. If you have a time machine or time capsule enabled, you can work with a sense of security, knowing full well that a mistake won’t be permanent.
– Pierre Tremblay, Director of Human Resources, Dupray
Organize Based on Structure of Company
Make sure to compartmentalize your online file storage system. This means organizing the system into categories and subcategories based on the structure of your company. This is especially important for large businesses with many departments. Establish uniform practices for how documents will be stored. Locating a document should be easy and intuitive. The larger your business is, the more important it is to stay organized. Each employee in an office must understand the system put in place. Filing systems will fail if everyone does not consistently comply.
– Sophie Knowles, Founder & CEO, PDF Pro
Looking to integrate digital file storage into your organization’s document management system? Bay Area Records provides digital file storage solutions and support, including document scanning services, digital mailroom services and setup, and automated accounts payable and receivable services. Learn more about Bay Area Records’ leading document management solutions.
