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Why a cloud-based co-authoring solution is crucial for efficient document management

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Silje Stensland

03.08.2020

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4 min

What are the common characteristics of documents such as bids and proposals, contracts, reports and studies? Most obvious, they are large documents that typically span hundreds of pages, making them complex to both produce and maintain. More importantly, they are business-critical documents that are published externally or shared internally, making quality of content an essential feature.

Perhaps less obvious, these documents require the collaborative and simultaneous effort of several contributors, both within and outside the organization. In a fiercely competitive environment, organizations must have the ability to create content that is compelling, accurate and timely. 

The reality, however, is that many organizations are limited by the deficits and challenges inherent with on-premise, file-based document solutions. Authors can spend more time managing the assembly of content versus actually contributing to the content.  

To enable true document collaboration with all your contributors, internally or externally, locally or globally, you need a cloud-based co-authoring solution. Here are six reasons why a cloud solution is key to efficient document management in 2020.

 

It safeguards your sensitive data

When multiple contributors and stakeholders are working on the same document, critical intellectual property and data are more exposed than ever. A cloud-based co-authoring solution safeguards your confidential information, by offering a secured database-driven content repository that allows access to only those who are authorized to access it.

 

It standardizes your workflow

Workflows are essential to document collaboration. Through it, data will not leave your hands without approval, and incorrect data cannot be published. A workflow streamlines the process, by assigning tasks to each team member, sending them reminders and saving changes, comments and edits. Your document cannot be published or sent without going through each process in the workflow.

 

It streamlines the document creation process

Creating, collaborating on, approving and distributing your documents in one user-friendly solution eliminates the need for complicated processes that depend on disparate systems.

  • You can allocate tasks and contributions to team members, track and report on their progress, and push their responses through reviews before being presented back to you.
  • Your team members and external SMEs can co-author a single version of the document to reduce the risk of using multiple formats. This increases collaboration and avoids local versions of the same document.
  • As a document team manager, you can track throughput of content, identify bottlenecks and see the progress of allocated tasks. This means you’re able to manage the whole document process more effectively and have complete deadline control.

 

It gives you seamless access to a central location

Imagine that you need to make some last-minute additions or changes to your document while you are out of the office. A cloud-based co-authoring solution gives you access to the system from anywhere in the world, and from any device. All you need is an Internet connection.

Round-the-clock accessibility is by far the greatest benefit of a document collaboration solution in the cloud. You can store everything in one central, cloud-based location and access it from anywhere you get online. You can assign access to multiple team members as necessary, at any time, and collaborate in real time.

Templates and previously created documents can also be accessed from a central location, massively reducing time and effort spent on searching for and re-using content.

 

It prevents document crashes

Business documents typically consist of vast amounts of graphics and images. The bigger they are, the more unwieldy they become. What happens if your document crashes one hour before the deadline? A nightmare scenario.

A heavy-duty cloud-based co-authoring solution is built to handle documents of any size and complexity.

 

It is compatible with your other systems

In today’s highly integrated business environment, stand-alone products, lacking compatibility with other systems, will soon become obsolete.

Cloud-based co-authoring software can be easily integrated with other applications or software, including CRM (i.e. Salesforce), contract management, ERP or project systems.

It is this compatibility, ensuring that one central pool of data is used across your organization, that makes cloud-based co-authoring solutions an even more crucial choice for your company.

 

Conclusion

Knowledge workers need to be more flexible and efficient in creating and managing documents, and collaborating around them. In far too many companies, siloed content repositories and disconnected process applications create an environment in which information workers must act as human system integrators, copying and pasting information from where it is stored to where it is needed. Can they trust that critical data is accurate, up-to-date or protected from security threats? No.  

A truly collaborative document solution includes all the common features of a word processor, but it is custom-designed to enable real-time co-authoring and streamlined workflow.. This helps automate the joint creation process, while removing the inefficiencies and risks associated with the use of traditional word processors, such as lack of visibility and access control, and difficulties with maintaining consistent formatting and layout.

Moving to a cloud-based co-authoring solution helps you take advantage of document collaboration as a new competitive advantage, by working smarter, safer and more efficiently.

 

Do you need document collaboration software?

 

Author picture

Silje Stensland

Silje is the Chief Marketing Officer of Xait. She holds a Bachelor in Marketing Communication and an Executive Master in Business Administration. She is an analytical, efficient and results-focused marketing and communications professional and her career spans over 15 years within real estate, oil & gas and IT. When Silje is not busy growing the Xait brand, you can find her at her family cabin in picturesque Sirdal, Norway, hiking, trekking and cross-country skiing.

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