Is Google Drive a Document Management System?

2022-10-21 16:36:20

Yes, Google is free, but does that mean you can't do better for your business?

With no costs and universal accessibility, Google might seem the obvious option. While it offers the basic needs for digitising your document records, it has limits. You want technology to give you the most advanced options at your disposal when you need them, and it must work for you to benefit your business.

You want to invest in the best systems to run your company, which means finding solutions that work for you. At Daisy Solutions, we design advanced document management systems tailored to individual and organisational needs.

Please keep reading to see what we offer in enhanced document management solutions.

The Basics of Electronic Document Management

Document management systems are foundational for your company's organisational structure. In the day, companies had entire rooms, basements, and buildings, most likely for storing their paper records and files. One person or a small team whose job was to search would manually sift through reams of these files to locate a single form. While we admire the labour and tears that file clerks offered businesses for many years, their jobs have become exponentially easier, if not obsolete. Nowadays, instead of running around gathering paper files, all of these records and documents collectively exist in a singular digital filing system that enables a person to search for and retrieve that one file the boss has asked for without leaving your desk.

Features of an Online Document Management Program

With the digitisation of filing systems and record keeping, businesses now have many accessible tools and possibilities for what these electronic systems offer. Here are some of the many benefits of electronic document organisation.

Keyword Search

You can now find any file, record, or document within seconds just by typing in search terms. Labelling each file with unique keywords is easy and categorises them effectively as document systems utilise metadata and keyword tags to simplify the process of retrieving specific files.

Document Edit System and Restoration

Document systems allow users to track all the versions of a document as it undergoes edits. You can also restore previously revised or deleted material from a record, which helps to see who edited it and every version after that as the document undergoes multiple editing stages.

Auto-Deleting Documents Once They've Become Outdated

These days, the task of destroying paper records is outsourced by companies to contractors because it's so time-consuming.

However, a significant advantage of document management solutions is that the system automatically deletes documents after a specific date.

Companies can set up their controls and regulations to automatically save and delete documents as needed.

Setting Up Permissions to Access Certain Documents

Create a hierarchical system that allows different levels of access for specific employees and lets you control who in the company can see and even edit files and documents.

Mobile Access for Online Documents

Electronic document management systems allow employees to access files, edit documents, and share them from their phones, which is helpful when you need to retrieve or share documents during meetings or when you're not at your desk.

What Google Does Well

Google Docs and Google Workspace offer essential solutions for electronically organising digital files in your business. They provide the following core features for all users:

Secure and encrypted accessibility for files
Easy-to-integrate files from Docs, Slides, and Sheets into one workspace
Storage of most file types like Word Docx, images, PDFs, CAD files, and more without having to convert them to a specific form
Tools enabling simple, easy collaboration between teams.

These are great features for your company's electronic filing system as they offer the foundational features for any great design. However, your business needs might extend beyond the basics, and that's where Google has limits.

File Storage Limitations

Google offers a free service for any user; however, its offerings have limits. If you need more advanced features or better offerings from Google, you have to pay to receive those levels of benefits and features.

The base amount of storage a non-paying user can access is 15GB of space which is sufficient if you have a small business or work on your own.

But businesses with even a small staff or larger organisations with a complex network of documents spread across multiple departments have much more significant needs. And yes, while Google offers more storage based on a paid tier system, it might not be the best deal that it initially seems to be.

Google is a company with a product like any other; they intend for more people to pay for their products. With their reputation and considerable presence, they can offer preview features that persuade users they'll gradually need more over time, which costs more in the long run for less space and features.

What eDMS Providers Can Offer You and Your Business

Your business may need highly specialised services to operate your organisational and filing systems. Some of the advanced features that Daisy Solutions' products can offer for your Electronic Management Systems include:

Advanced document controls
Options to incorporate multiple workflows
More optimised reporting tools
Creating customised metadata and tags
More advanced software versions and permission levels.

Why jump through many levels of increasing paywalls to gain access to the features your business requires when you can outsource to software companies that specialise in designing EDMS products? Comprehensive pricing packages offer more tools for what you pay.

Daisy Provides Personalised Business Solutions

Daisy Solutions started as a small company and has been in business for over 30 years. As our company has grown, our specialised tools have evolved and advanced into products that enable companies to streamline their electronic document management solutions.