Content updated: September 5, 2026
In this article- 1.1 Ease of Use
- 1.2 Content and User Management
- 1.3 Scalability
- 1.4 Ease of Integration
- 1.5 Security and Support
- Practical guide: How to choose a document management system
| Fevzi Öztürk Operations Director, GGSoft |
Documents and unstructured content are among the most valuable assets of any company. They underpin a company's core business processes, its decision-making and its communication with customers. Managing these very high volumes of documents and information in compliance with legal regulations is still one of the biggest problems companies need to solve.
A company that does not use an Enterprise Document Management System will find itself at the mercy of the employees who hold all the knowledge about its content and documents. For companies that do use one, finding, accessing and changing the relevant content is as easy as running a simple search. Enterprise Document Management systems store and manage content centrally, in a single place. As a result, when a piece of content changes, it is automatically updated everywhere it is used. All users who access the content always reach its most current version.
According to a recent study by Forrester Consulting, sharing corporate content with external stakeholders has become standard practice. However, this brings legal and regulatory compliance and the security of corporate data and content to the forefront. Even though many years have passed since Enterprise Document Management systems first appeared, companies still feel pressure and concern about managing even their simplest corporate content. The same study points to two key issues in enterprise document management: “providing stakeholders with secure access to corporate content” and “complying with ever-growing and changing legal requirements.”
Gaining control over processes that were previously run on paper documents, electronic documents in shared folders or email gives a significant boost to process efficiency. This encourages companies to use Enterprise Document Management systems when sharing corporate content with their customers, suppliers and business partners.
Today every employee is also a content creator. Managing this corporate content consistently across all units and communication channels has become even harder. Yet this is a challenge every company has to overcome, especially given that a single piece of corporate content can mean many things and may be understood and handled differently depending on where it is used.
At its core, a document management system consists of software designed to store, manage and provide access to a company's corporate content.
For an ordinary user in the company, a document management system is a system with an easy-to-use interface for reaching and working on content, without needing to know what happens, or should happen, in the background. Because access to and management of content stays the same when content expires or when employees change positions or departments or leave the company, the benefits of an enterprise document management system become clearer over the long term.
For all these reasons, investing in an enterprise document management system should be seen as one of the most important technology investments a company makes.
So what features should companies look for in an enterprise document management system when making such an important investment?
Every company is different in its organizational structure and ways of working. That is why each company should make its choice of enterprise document management system based on its own expectations and success criteria.
In this article, I want to list the 5 most important features that I believe every company should evaluate when investing in an enterprise document management system, regardless of its structure and ways of working.
1.1 Ease of Use
An enterprise document management system should be easy to use for an ordinary employee as well as for tech-savvy users. Users should feel comfortable working with the document management system and should not resist the arrival of a new system in their working lives.
1.2 Content and User Management
The content management system should provide the functions that users with different profiles need to do their jobs. The document management system should offer the functions needed to create, upload, search and access content, create new versions, produce content reports and work with the metadata associated with the content.
1.3 Scalability
Given the size of the investment companies need to make, they should make sure the document management system can expand and grow in line with the company's growth, not only today and in the short term, but also over the long term.
1.4 Ease of Integration
Research shows that a piece of corporate content is used by at least 5 different systems. The content management system should support integration with the company's current and future IT systems through industry-standard integration methods.
1.5 Security and Support
Enterprise document management systems hold very large amounts of content that has commercial value and must be protected in specific ways under laws and regulations. You should therefore make sure the document management system includes the necessary security measures at every level. In any IT system, service interruptions for various reasons are inevitable. You should make sure the necessary support is available when an outage occurs. There should be a support team you can reach by phone the moment you need help and work with to solve the problem.
Every document management system has its own features and methods. I believe the system and vendor chosen for enterprise document management should, beyond all the functions they provide, offer the 5 features I have listed above.
Sources
IBM – Document management
IBM – Document workflows
IBM – Content services
Practical guide: How to choose a document management system
When choosing a document management system, evaluate ease of use, content and user management, scalability, integration, security and support using your organization's real documents. The way to make the five criteria above concrete is to try the same document and business scenario in every solution. Along with the feature list, ask for a demo that shows employees can complete their daily work.
Prepare your requirements list before the demo
Come to the first meeting with shareable samples that represent a department's real workflow. Remove sensitive information from the samples. Your requirements list should cover:
- Document types: Your priority documents, such as invoices, contracts, personnel files or quality procedures.
- Volume and growth: The existing archive, the number of new documents per month and the estimated number of users.
- Roles: The people who create, change, approve and only view documents.
- Search needs: The information documents must be findable by, such as document number, date, customer or project.
- Systems: The ERP, CRM or other applications where documents come from and where they will be used.
- Success criteria: Testable outcomes such as finding a document, accessing the current version and tracking approval status.
1. Ease of use: Try daily work from start to finish
Ask an employee to upload a sample document, enter the required information and then find it again. Include both an experienced user and an employee seeing the system for the first time in the evaluation. Record the steps where help was needed. Whether users can work with the terms they use in their own departments helps you identify training and customization needs.
2. Content and user management: The right person sees the right document
Work with two versions of the same document. Check how the current version is distinguished, how the previous version is reached and how you can track who made a change. Then open the same document with users who have different permissions. Also clarify who will be responsible for document classes, mandatory fields and access rules.
3. Scalability: Think about the second department too
Even if you start with one department in the first phase, define the next document types and user groups. See a new document class or field being added in the demo. Ask how performance will be assessed as the archive grows, how existing documents will be migrated, and which changes your internal team can make and which require project support.
4. Integration: Follow the document's path between applications
Prepare a scenario showing how a document related to a transaction record in the ERP is stored and reopened. Check the link between the document number and the transaction record. Evaluate PaperWork integration options with your existing applications. If you use SAP, also review the document management within SAP with PWSAPECM flow.
5. Security and support: Test the exceptions too
Check an unauthorized user's attempt to access a document and the effect of a role change. Review the logs of document operations. Define your retention, deletion, backup and restore requirements with the relevant teams, and clarify in writing how the solution will meet them. Include the support channel, responsibilities and service terms in your evaluation as well.
Demo evaluation table
Mark each row as “met”, “customization needed” or “to be verified”. Next to the result, note the screen shown, the work required and the person responsible.
| Scenario | Expected evidence |
|---|---|
| Finding a document again | The right document is reached using the fields you defined |
| Uploading a new version | Current and previous versions can be told apart |
| Permission control | Different roles perform only the actions they are allowed |
| Access from an application | The related document opens from the transaction record |
| Activity history | Actions performed on the document can be reviewed |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between document management and a digital archive?
A digital archive focuses on storing and finding documents. A document management evaluation also covers versions, permissions, activity history and the use of documents in enterprise applications. Describe your needs in terms of these usage scenarios.
Is artificial intelligence required for document management?
PaperWork Document Management can be used on its own for central archiving, search, version control, authorization and content services. If you need document classification and data extraction, Intelivus intelligent document processing can be evaluated separately.
How is the project scope defined?
Along with the number of documents and users, evaluate data migration, integration, authorization, training and support needs together. First define a pilot scope that covers the mandatory scenarios, then plan the next phases based on the pilot results.
Explore PaperWork Document Management features or share your requirements list to request a demo tailored to your organization.
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