Author: Laura Bulmer
With the modern demands of collaboration and document sharing, having a uniform document control process is essential. Organisations are under pressure to stay efficient, organised, compliant, and competitive.
Depending on your industry, your focus may be weighed more heavily to one or more of these than others.
From small businesses to multinational corporations, the ability to manage documents effectively can significantly impact productivity, decision-making, and regulatory compliance. However, many companies overlook the importance of evaluating and optimising their document control processes, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and missed opportunities.
Understanding Document Control: Learn what a document control process is, why it matters, and how it underpins efficient, compliant, and collaborative document management across your organisation.
Five Key Strategies for Effective Control: Discover practical steps to improve your document management from setting clear policies and centralising storage, to automating workflows, auditing performance, and engaging employees.
Leveraging Technology for Continuous Improvement: See how modern document management systems (DMS) and built-in automation, analytics, and compliance tools can streamline processes, enhance security, and support ongoing optimisation.
A document control process defines how your organisation creates, manages, reviews, approves, shares, and stores its documents throughout their lifecycle. A strong process ensures accuracy, security, and compliance while enabling teams to collaborate efficiently.
To build an effective document control process, you should:
Identify critical document types that require strict versioning, approval workflows, or compliance oversight.
Assign ownership and accountability by defining who can create, review, and approve each document type.
Establish secure storage and access controls using cloud-based document management systems (DMS) or enterprise platforms like SharePoint, Google Workspace, or M-Files.
Implement version control and audit trails to track changes, approvals, and document history.
Integrate collaboration tools that allow real-time co-authoring while maintaining governance and data protection standards.
Set up automated retention and archiving policies to ensure old versions are securely stored or deleted in line with regulatory requirements.
When reviewing your document control process, ask yourself:
“Do our teams have the tools and workflows they need to collaborate effectively, maintain compliance, and keep information securewithout slowing down productivity?”
Listen to Stockport Homes Group talk about how they knew they needed a more formal document management system:
The cornerstone of an effective document control process is having clear, well-documented policies and procedures. These guidelines define how documents are created, approved, shared, and maintained ensuring consistency, compliance, and efficiency across your organisation.
Your document control procedures should clearly outline:
Roles and responsibilities – Define who is responsible for creating, reviewing, approving, and maintaining documents.
Approval workflows – Map out digital workflows that streamline sign-offs and maintain visibility across teams.
Version control and change tracking – Specify how document versions are managed and how edits or updates are recorded.
Retention and disposal policies – Establish how long documents are kept and how outdated materials are securely archived or deleted.
By standardising these processes and communicating them clearly, your organisation can reduce errors, strengthen compliance, and foster accountability. Modern document management platforms can help enforce these rules automatically, ensuring that every document follows the right path from creation to archival without relying solely on manual oversight.
A centralised document management system (DMS) is fundamental to efficient document control processes. Rather than relying on disjointed files and folders across various digital locations, a document management system provides a single, secure repository for all documents, accessible to authorised users from anywhere at any time.
Modern DMS platforms offer features such as version control, audit trails, metadata tagging, and search functionality, which all streamline document retrieval. It is key that users have the security to know they are accessing the most up-to-date information. Implementing a robust DMS not only improves efficiency but also enhances security and compliance.
A document management system can help with document control by managing user roles and permissions. These are the tools that enable the specific access, editing and approving of documents.
Manual document control processes are prone to delays, process bottlenecks, and human error. By automating repetitive tasks such as document routing, review, and approval, organisations can accelerate turnaround times and reduce administrative burden.
Automated workflows can be configured to trigger notifications for pending tasks, deadline reminders, and document status updates, keeping stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the process.
Leveraging technology to streamline document workflows not only saves time but also enhances visibility and accountability across the organisation.
A document management system builds on the fundamental document controls put in place. Documents are stored centrally and the digital document control functionality is able to manage:
Document control isn’t a “set it and forget it” process it requires ongoing evaluation and refinement. Regular audits and reviews ensure your document management practices remain efficient, compliant, and aligned with evolving business and regulatory requirements.
By conducting periodic assessments of your document workflows, user activity, and system performance, you can:
Identify bottlenecks or outdated procedures.
Address compliance or security gaps before they become risks.
Gather user feedback to improve usability and adoption.
Optimise workflows for better collaboration and productivity.
Modern digital document management systems (DMS) make this process easier through built-in audit trails, compliance tracking, and business intelligence (BI) dashboards that visualise document status, approvals, and user interactions in real time.
By leveraging these insights, your organisation can foster a culture of continuous improvement ensuring that your document control process remains effective, secure, and scalable as your business grows.
No document control process can succeed without the active participation and buy-in of employees.
Providing comprehensive training on document management policies, procedures, and any tools such as a DMS ensures that staff members understand their roles and responsibilities in maintaining document integrity and security.
Encouraging employee engagement through open communication channels, feedback mechanisms, and recognition programs fosters a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. When employees are empowered and motivated to adhere to document control best practices, the entire organisation benefits from increased efficiency and compliance.
In conclusion, evaluating and optimising your document control process is critical to maximising efficiency, minimising risks, and achieving organisational goals. By implementing clear policies and procedures, adopting a centralised document management system, automating workflows, conducting regular audits, and investing in employee training and engagement, you can create a robust document control framework that drives productivity, innovation, and regulatory compliance.
Ensuring optimal document control is not a destination but a journey, and continuous improvement is the key to success in today's rapidly evolving business landscape.
At DocTech, we believe that with a dedicated document management system in place, the inbuilt rules, user permissions and associated workflows will make achieving optimal document control far more achievable for most organisations.
info@doctech.co.uk
0161 647 7040