As businesses increasingly move away from paper documentation processes, they begin to look at detaching themselves from legacy systems for specification management as well. As an important component of a business’s document control approach, specification management can be time-consuming and inefficient using spreadsheets. Companies that are still using manual systems for specification management are wasting valuable time in paper-based processes that could be used for strategy and growth. Let’s look at why automating specification management can be a game-changer for business.
Why Invest in a Specification Management System?
Organizations across multiple industries can benefit from digitizing the document portion of specifications. Take construction, for example. The documents that describe the aspects of work that needs to be done or a product that needs creating is a requirement. It is a detailed description of the dimensions, construction, workmanship, or materials of that work that needs to be completed. In construction, the specification covers many aspects and criteria in a project, and the documentation needs to be tightly controlled. With traditional documentation systems, the vital paperwork can hamper the progress of the project when it needs to be manually sent, signed, reviewed, transferred, and secured. Using an automated specification management system can enable a construction organization to more easily and efficiently manage the documents for each project’s phase.
What Comes with a Specification Management System?
An all-inclusive specification management solution will enable you to do the following:
- Establish default behavior of review and approval.
- Assign and track action items to a specification during its lifecycle.
- Control printing to prevent hard copies from being accessible without knowing who printed and why.
- Automate notifications of workflow actions required by assigned individuals or groups.
- Search for specifications using metadata, including title, document number, created by, effective date, and more.
- Easily include and manage related documents in a bill of materials (BOM).
- Organize documents that are alike into binders to better control their status and lifecycles.
- Configure your security to grant or prevent content access to only those who need access.
- Have full audit capability to gain visibility into who did what and when to every document at every stage in its lifecycle.
Using Specification Management to Help You Stay Organized in 2020
Spreadsheets don’t cut it anymore, and they will hamper your security and organizational efforts in the coming years. Electronic documentation software is creating competitive advantages for businesses right and left. Those that have adopted digital documentation systems are already ahead of the pack. Whether an organization onboards electronic specification management on their premises or uses it in the cloud, it will help keep documents controlled, secure, and accessible. This year and the decade to come will see the continued digitization of document processes, and specification management is a necessary component of those processes. For businesses across all types of industries, using a specification management system will be a crucial part of staying organized in the future.
The right solution won’t take you months to set up, either. Customizable, out-of-the-box specification management systems will enable you to quickly set up your automated workflow with the controls your business needs. Explore electronic specification management to keep your business organized and competitive in 2020.
