Launching your product in the market takes immense effort, not only from your end but from your team's end as well. They have to go back and forth, collaborate with different stakeholders, take care of all requirements, and improve interdepartmental collaboration. Product managers, back-end & front-end developers, and other tech team members sit together to brainstorm before launching any new releases. Going through this process means preparing multiple docs. How hectic is that for your team?
In times like these, having a platform that offers content customization, flexibility, and knowledge management features becomes a necessity. You get the shield you need while planning, tracking, communicating, and evaluating your project.
Why is there a need for customization in documentation?¶
Every project has its magnitude and importance. The size, complexity, scope, and risks related to a project decide how you need to adjust customization in documentation. Maintaining a knowledge base and adjusting a project's requirements with content customization tools play a pivotal role in helping you save time, avoid confusion, and align your team better.
But how will you know if you need a customization tool for better project flow? Do you need to go through a certain set of procedures? Well, read on the next section to understand how to assess your need for project documentation.
How to assess project documentation needs?¶
The golden rule of business is to not hop onto anything without measuring the pros and cons of your decision. But let's keep the need for content customization away from this golden rule.
To assess the need for project customization tools, you must consider the objectives, requirements, and expectations of your project documentation from different angles. To get clarity, you must ask questions relating to:
The scope of project documentation
Audiences and users
Uses of the product
Product-related standards and guidelines
Asking these questions will give you a clear picture on what platform to choose and what features to look for when planning to implement documentation tools.
How to identify the best match for a content customization tool?¶
In the last report published by M-File on Intelligent Information Management, they found that having an inefficient content customization tool can lead to workflow challenges. 65% of respondents in that survey mentioned they face challenges in reviewing, approving, and signing documents in the absence of a proper tool for knowledge base and content customization.
It makes finding the right tool even more necessary. But how will you find that perfect match? Here are a few points to consider when looking for tools offering customization in documentation.
Identify a suitable mode of operation¶
Enterprise documentation has two modes: an on-site enterprise document management system and a cloud-based document management system. On-site DMS allows companies to access data from their own server but to use this tool, you must be present in the office's campus. However, cloud-based DMS tools offer greater flexibility to the remote workforce as they can get access to the data from anywhere.
Consider the cost factor¶
Cost is a deciding factor here. If you are going for an on-site DMS, expect to shell out large upfront costs to make team collaboration easier. However, if you are planning for a cloud-based system, you can expect the entire setup to be done in half the cost of on-site DMS.
Look for data security¶
Data security is a no-brainer. Your documents must be hacked-proof without even asking for it. In the case of on-site DMS, you have more control over security while the ownership of security lies on the shoulders of your service provider in the case of cloud-based DMS.
Option for backing up files¶
In the case of on-site DMS, the data files need to be backed up frequently as there is no automatic backup option. Therefore, the chances of data loss are higher. In the cloud-based system, the backup happens on its own. So you don't have to worry about data loss in case of unfortunate events.
5 features to look for in documentation software¶
Creating a collaborative team space becomes easy when you have the right tools with you. Here is a list of features that you must look for when selecting the right documentation tools for your organisation.
1. Document Sharing¶
When working with multiple stakeholders, you have to keep everyone on the same page. One of the ways to keep everyone involved in a project is by taking their opinions and making changes to the product in accordance with the valuable inputs received. A documentation content management platform should give the flexibility of sharing data in-house with clients and stakeholders.
2. Security¶
Security should be the top priority when selecting documentation software suitable for your organization. Your preferred choice should have the latest security tools and software to ensure that only authorized people have access to data.
3. Editing options¶
Finding the right document should not be a struggle for your team. 83% of employees lose their precious time recreating documents that already exist. Therefore, the DMS should have the option of showing the updated version of the document first. Moreover, people with editing access to the doc must be able to make changes to it directly.
4. Document classification¶
Document classification and labeling errors make it difficult for employees to find the right document on time. A good DMS must have the feature to create metadata automatically for docs once they are prepared by the team. This will free the team from the responsibility of creating names for the files, thus reducing manual errors and saving time.
5. Keyword Search¶
The right documentation software should give the flexibility to the team to search for relevant documents using keywords. It should display relevant results on the screen to facilitate quicker doc search.
Having these five incredible features in a documentation tool offers platform flexibility and helps your team save time in finding and editing the right documents. These features also help your organization enhance its planning, collaboration, evaluation, and knowledge management while handling different projects.
Making the right choice with Docsie¶
Docsie offers an enterprise documentation facility to help your team collaborate easily without wasting much time. It is a one-stop solution that reduces your dependency on multiple tools. Tailor-made to serve all requirements of enterprise documentation, Docsie has incredible features that are listed below.
Enterprise-ready documentation¶
When you don't have to move from one platform to another, you can focus more on completing the task without hiccups. The centralized platform eases documentation workflows for the team and helps them improve their efficiency. You can import your existing documents & knowledge bases, align knowledge management, and design a custom portal without much effort. Docsie's exceptional customer service team ensures that you understand our basic and advanced features completely before proceeding further.
|CTA: Upgrade your document customization with Docsie| |-|### Seamless collaboration with a global workforce
You can collaborate with your remote employees, contractors, freelancers, and specialists with the new-age user roles and access control. With this Docsie feature, you can easily control who can view, edit, and publish the documents. In case you want to suggest any changes, do it by adding comments with our built-in chat feature or assigning tasks and due dates to the team members.
Interactive knowledge portals¶
Letting others know the ins and outs of your product is important to make a wise decision. With Docsie, you can create interactive knowledge portals, help sites, FAQs, knowledge bases, and self-service pages to provide the right information. You can take the benefits of knowledge base customization to publish content that relates to your customer roles and dynamics.
Customised documentation hubs¶
You can choose how you want to host your documentation hubs. We give you the option to choose from public or private cloud and on-premise DMS. With the customised documentation hubs, you can perform knowledge management, data transfer, and enable high-end security with ease.
Insights and feedbacks¶
You can see how the project is being undertaken, the progress status, and team collaboration with actionable insights and feedback. Making changes to the documents and taking the best inputs has become easier with Docsie's ability to do customization in documentation.
Tailor-made features ensure that an organization's need for documentation gets resolved on time and the team's efficiency improves. Docsie's knowledge management, content personalization, and feedback features give you the best outcome when managing multiple projects.
Key Takeaways¶
Docsie helps you secure your sensitive documents and the entire knowledge portal with encrypted passwords
Docsie provides both cloud-based and on-site document management system to store your critical files safely
Docsie allows you to share documents with freelancers and contractors by letting you add temporary passwords
Docsie gives you full customization support for your knowledge portal, knowledge base, and help sites
Conclusion¶
When working with multiple stakeholders on different projects, you need a tool that takes care of collaboration, helps in knowledge management, offers customization in documentation, simplifies workflows, and provides premium security features to streamline your project. A platform that eases document editing, sharing, and classification makes it easier for your product managers, freelancers, and tech teams to collaborate extensively without any roadblocks. Docsie is the one-stop shop you need to keep all docs in a central platform, thus saving time and simplifying workflows for your teams. Connect with our team to adopt an intelligent enterprise documentation platform.
Frequently Asked Questions¶
1. Can a freelancer or contractor collaborate with internal teams using Docsie?
Freelancers and third-party contractors can easily collaborate with the internal teams using Docsie. Product managers, writers, freelancers, and software developers can edit the documents as and when needed. However, required access is needed before making any changes to the files.
2. What security features are available on Docsie to protect high-priority documents?
You get JWT token authentication, IAM RBAC, and password protection to store sensitive data.
3. Does Docsie provide custom portals?
You get a custom portal with SSL encryption to make your documents more secure.