Document management for Salesforce is becoming an imperative to operations in an array of industries. With an objective to help organizations manage their sales lifecycle with greater efficiency, Salesforce has integrated with many different document management platforms for the betterment of the paperless office and the sales cycles its solution facilitates.
The interplay between document management and CRM can sometimes be viewed with drear, as many small to mid-sized businesses have trouble leveraging a CRM such as Salesforce without a ton of capital to potentiate the solution.
When document management is woven is woven into the equation, it becomes document management for Salesforce, and this interplay creates an even broader range of questions. In this article, we’ll reveal how you can simplify the document management system and Salesforce integration with a document management software platform.
Dispelling the Cloudy Meanings in Salesforce and Document Management
As a cloud database service, which supplants the traditional cloud model where an information technology department’s structure is run via a virtual machine, Salesforce is a DBaaS, running as a subscription-based service.
However, for many prospective users of both document management solutions and Salesforce, this can be confusing—many document management systems are mistaken for cloud storage, resulting in confusion as to why Salesforce needs to be supplemented with a document management system at all.
Although Salesforce is deservingly the world’s leading CRM solution, it lacks many things a typical document management solution doesn’t: certain encryption standards, security enhancements, and document automation processes, to name a few.
Additionally, in business, hyper-native Salesforce options have limitations, so it’s important to pick the right document management vendor. Otherwise you may end up with enforced file size limitations, or lose deals in a broken pipeline stocked full of scattered documents.
One more caveat: the level of integrative capacity between document management vendors varies significantly, which may detract from the user experience and successful launching of an integrated process platform.
Organize DMS File Structure in Alignment with Salesforce
Synchronizing file structures among the document management for Salesforce pipeline is crucial to a successful software integration.
Although Salesforce is not strictly a document management solution, as a CRM, it contains documentable data, which adds an important question to the prospect of going paperless: Will you adapt your document structure to the data in Salesforce, or adapt your Salesforce structure to the document structure you develop with your document management system (s)?
Although answering this question usually hinges upon whether document management or Salesforce is implemented first, most sales-oriented organizations should consider tailoring their Salesforce data and other factors to the document management structure. For instance, document management in the insurance and financial services industry should focus first on beginning with the assessment of preexisting Salesforce data prior to leveraging the document capture and imaging process.
Saving Storage Space in Document Management for Salesforce Matters
Document management for Salesforce cannot be actualized without using the free storage space a document management solution can give you. The previous section of this post sets the stage for this benefit: Deciding what documents you’ll place within the document management system and which documents you’ll place within Salesforce opens the floodgates for more storage and, therefore, reduced operational costs.
Identify a Subset of Document and Process Overlaps
Document management for Salesforce requires an understanding of which files are needed for each system and which files are needed for both systems. To harness a greater understanding of where Salesforce leaves off and document management for salesforce begins, understand the following as the essential office capabilities document management must offer when supplemented with Salesforce CRM:
Document Retrieval
Document retrieval and search within Salesforce does have a few limitations that can be mitigated by document management for Salesforce solutions.
Predefined document names and automated document routing, for instance, make the file naming and retrieval process less arbitrary—harnessing the power of the document management system to make information identifiable and leverageable, no matter how complex the query within the system. Additionally, structuring documents within most CRMs poses its own set of limitations.
A lack of metadata harnessing requires document management for Salesforce, too, metadata simply meaning “data about data.” This is one of the many facets of document management’s power when integrated with Salesforce. Instead of having to manually enter data, automated form fills can make you less of a records manager and more of a professional paid to do the job you were hired to do.
Collaborative Limitations
Although Salesforce has an incredible platform, document management for Salesforce is necessary because Salesforce data oftentimes needs to be de-siloed. Most document management vendors achieve this de-siloing to free up collaboration through workflow, BPM, or other forms of collaboration.
Templatization
Templatization can help organizations use document management to leverage the automation capacities yet to be built-in to Salesforce. This feature lets users apply preexisting folder structures across a larger range of structures, decreasing the analog file management that significantly detracts from efficiency, productivity, and day to day operations.
Seamless Digital Signatures
Document management for Salesforce allows for an Open API, and therefore 3rd party integration and configuration capacities beyond what the typical document management vendor would offer. Additionally, the use of digital signatures, including their authentication keys, makes document management software a great complement to the existing Salesforce product offering.
Mobile App Augmentation
Mobile apps are becoming increasingly important to the business landscape, especially when it comes to solutions that span the entire business process.
Many Salesforce users already rely on the mobile app for this solution, but want the document management functionalities outlined above within the mobile context. When a document management software has a mobile app that’s Android and iOS compatible, it makes document management functionality accessible on a greater level.
This is becoming an imperative in sales-centric organizations such as insurance, financial services, and manufacturing.
About the Author:
This guest post is courtesy of Jesse Wood. He is the CEO of document management software vendor, eFileCabinet. Founded in 2001, eFileCabinet, Inc. began as a cutting-edge tool to digitally store records in accounting firms. As it grew in popularity, eFileCabinet developed into a full-fledged electronic document management solution designed to help organizations automate redundant processes, ensure security, and solve common office problems.
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