Trying to understand DocuWare vs SharePoint when there's such an array of solutions, software options and variable price ranges on offer is hard. Choosing the best tool for your organisation's document management needs can feel very overwhelming.
It can be hard to know which direction to take so in this article we hope to make things a little easier to understand. As a DocuWare provider for 30 years, we will share some of the journeys our clients go from paper to solutions such as SharePoint and why and how they might then implement a solution such as DocuWare.
DocuWare vs SharePoint – What’s the Difference?
Discover how these two platforms compare when it comes to managing documents, automating workflows, and improving business efficiency.
Why Businesses Choose DocuWare Over SharePoint
Learn why organisations like Stockport Homes Group moved from SharePoint to DocuWare for a more structured and powerful document management solution.
Get Expert Guidance from DocTech
Find out how DocTech’s experienced team can assess your needs and recommend the right system to transform your document processes.
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DocuWare is a web-based digital solution designed to help businesses store, organise, manage, and track electronic documents within a secure, centralised system. By replacing paper-based filing, shared folders, and informal online document storage tools, DMS brings structure and efficiency to the way documents are handled. It streamlines storage, retrieval, and processing, making it faster and easier to access, share, and find documents—typically optimised for specific processes such as accounts payable.
Key features of document management software include version control, user permissions, automated workflows, and audit trails, all aimed at boosting efficiency, collaboration, and compliance. Our document management solutions allow employees to work more collaboratively and productively, reducing the time spent tracking approvals or searching for documents across various locations. Manual data entry and chasing paperwork become things of the past.
Using dedicated document management software prevents document chaos, duplication, and loss, enabling us to clearly demonstrate a return on investment with every project.
SharePoint is a platform used to manage content and to allow easy collaboration between employees. It enables a user to save a document on their PC in Manchester, then easily open, read and edit it on a mobile in London.
Our Client Stockport Homes Group wanted a more formal document management system that could integrate with their other main systems. They previously used SharePoint.
Hear their IT Manager's thoughts on the transition from SharePoint to DocuWare and how it has improved their document based processes:
The full Stockport Homes Group Case Study is available HERE.
DocuWare is configured to meet your exact business requirements from day one. It can work as a standalone solution or integrate with existing applications such as an ERP system or finance package. The focus is on improving processes by streamlining and automating tasks.
After implementation, admin level users are able to manage DocuWare tasks themselves such as setting up new digital filing cabinets and changing document type options.
With SharePoint you start with the basic platform and there are multiple add-ons needed for it to meet the specific requirements of your business. It also requires work to be comprehensibly used as a Document Management System. Custom development is often required which will need to be outsourced depending on the knowledge of your IT team.
DocuWare comes with optical character recognition, full text search and Intelligent Indexing which all make storing and finding documents much easier.
Information is accurately captured from any document and converted into structured and useable data. This data is then used as the criteria to store a document against, and subsequently search with.
SharePoint does offer data capture capabilities but this is only possible through a separate application.
SharePoint works in a similar way to Google OneDrive and can work as a repository for information. It relies on the good habits of employees however, which can be risky where multiple users are involved.
Documents need to be saved in a unified way to be easily found, and there is nothing to enforce this uniformity, which is where it differs from DocuWare. If pricing documents are saved using different names such as quote, quotation, fee proposal etc. time is wasted trying to find what you're looking for. There is also no way to view them altogether.
If your organisation has been using SharePoint for some time, we can understand the reluctance to change. This is why DocuWare can seamlessly integrate with SharePoint if required.
SharePoint allows employees to collaborate on projects which in turn creates huge volumes of digital documents. These all need to fit in with business processes as well as comply with various legal regulations around data protection and retention.
Documents can be stored into DocuWare straight from SharePoint and employees do not need to leave SharePoint to do so.
A search of documents within SharePoint will simultaneously provide a results list from DocuWare, with documents automatically indexed and securely stored.
Once in DocuWare, any digital document workflow can begin where task management, audit trails and approvals and be applied.
Our inhouse technical and sales teams have more than 80 years of combined experience in document management software. We work with organisations varying in size and sector building solutions to automate business processes which meet bespoke requirements.
There is no doubt that DocuWare and SharePoint can improve business processes; they increase efficiency and improve communication. Organisations need to understand what their challenges are and why changes are needed before looking at any software solution. This is where DocTech can help.
We will provide a free assessment of your business processes to understand how your business works and what problems you're having. We will then suggest the best solution to meet your requirements and implement a plan of action together. Contact us on info@doctech.co.uk 0161 647 7040 or book a meeting below.
info@doctech.co.uk
0161 647 7040