7 Document Collaboration Risks

The way we do business keeps changing.

When I started in IT, we all worked in the same office, shared documents by email, and met our clients in person. Today the landscape is very different. Clients are spread across the globe, we work remotely, and documents must be shared securely.

Indeed, while many still use email, more forward-looking companies are exploring document collaboration to share their contracts, documentation and business proposals to reduce costs, especially those associated with lengthy review cycles.

What is Document Collaboration?

But, before we go any further, let’s take a step back and define document collaboration? What does this term really mean. Here’s one definition:

Document collaboration is how you share data in a consistent manner, so it can be retrieved, reviewed, approved, and audited by authorized individuals.

This means that your success in using document collaboration depends on selecting tools that provide a secure way to upload, find, and review documents – and then involving others in the review process.

Let’s take a look at some of the risks associated with sending documents over email compared to more secure methods.

7 Document Collaboration Risks

When companies come to us, they’re usually looking at how to move from email – which they know is fraught with technical and legal issues – and explore web-based tools that simplify the Document Review process.

During our workshops, we explore the risks associated with document collaboration and how they can improve their business processes. Here some examples of how we get started.

1. Guidelines – We work with organizations to develop a set of guidelines for reviewing the documents so each contributor understands what is expected of them during the review process. What may be obvious to you, especially if you are more proficient with web technologies, may be more challenging for other individuals!

2. Ownership – Each document must have a Document Owner. This person is responsible for driving the document through the review cycle and ensuring that it’s approved on time. Furthermore, this single point of contact can coordinate input from different authors and smooth out any political issues that may arise - for example, if several C Level executives are contributing to the same text.
3. Security – Sharing documents by email creates different security risks, especially for confidential documents. For instance, you're in a hurry to send an email, you type in the address, add the attachment and hit Enter. One wrong letter, character, or number – that’s all it takes. That confidential contract for Anne goes to Anna instead. You can imagine the damage this can be to one’s credibility.
4. Progress Reports – While we all enjoy the convenience of email, there is no way to tell if others have started reviewing the document or if they’ve even opened it. Wouldn’t it be great if when someone reviewed your document, you received a confirmation message telling you what they’d written? One of the nice features in Agilewords is that you choose between automatic and daily emails whenever a Reviewer provides feedback on the document. This provides an audit trail all the comments and changes over the document lifecycle.
5. Scheduling – One of the limitations of email is that while you can remind others to complete the document review by a specific date, they may ignore this or simply not see it in the email. When we developed Agilewords, we designed it so that you can schedule review tasks across the team and merge their comments into the final document, so it’s approved on time - every time. For legal firms, this helps avoid liability issues that may arise when incomplete or invalid documents are submitted.
6. Version Control – Firms have told us that most employees don’t know how to use Track Changes or Version Control features in Microsoft Word correctly. And, from one angle, they shouldn’t have to. Their expertise lies elsewhere. Time spent wrestling with documents is billable time lost. One way this can be addressed is by creating a Master copy online, which is accessible by all authorized personnel. This avoids ‘version madness’ where multiple versions of the same document are in circulation, making the review process virtually impossible. Tools like Agilewords help you avoid this since the service assigns Access Rights to each document, meaning that the right person reads the right document. Furthermore, it also ensures that someone in a junior position does not have authority to override text written by a senior manager.
7. Workflow – The true measure of success with Document Collaboration lies in improvements to the current processes, reduction in costs, and satisfied clients. You don’t want a scenario where highly-paid team members spend hours cutting and pasting between documents. The benefit that Agilewords offers our clients is that it simplifies the document review process. It reduces the steps involved in the review process, so your staff can contribute faster and move onto the next task.

Conclusion

The ‘always on’ aspect of the Internet allows us to share documents with others and receive feedback almost instantly. While email served us well in the past, the ever-changing business landscape, coupled with legal requirements, means we need to embrace accountability, audit trails, and compliance across the document lifecycle.

Proven technologies, such as Agilewords, provide a secure document collaboration system that reduces these risks. Want to learn more? Please Take The Tour here.