Document Tracking: 4 Industries That Can Benefit From It

Document Tracking is a service that automates accessing, editing, and searching for documents. Thanks to this process, a company can have access to the state of their documents, quickly and easily recognize errors, and then correct them. They are also able to see who is viewing or editing a document in real-time. Ultimately this will lead to profit for the company, as document problems can affect customer satisfaction and loss of revenue.

The most common document tracking systems are in the financial or legal industries. This is mainly due to the highly sensitive nature of such documents. But they also bring benefits when used in other industries, as you’ll read about later in this article.

However, document tracking systems should not be confused with document management systems. Some of their functions do overlap, but a document tracking system is a more detailed and specialized one that also provides management options.

Document tracking systems solve some important document related issues:

They keep your documents safe, which is especially important when a company processes confidential information and sensitive data.

Increase productivity, by enabling change of control so that an entire team can be up to date about what is happening with a document.

Provide easy access to documents, allowing them to be opened from anywhere on Earth and on any device without needing to log on to a specific computer in one place.

Favor ecology, since companies reduce waste paper by organizing their documents digitally.

Have the possibility of optimization, thanks to which it is easier to carry out an archiving process.

Enable the collection of data about customers, contractors or competitors.

They are a great method for controlling if and how documents are to be used, allowing a user to know whether a document has been opened and also what parts drew the greatest attention of the recipient.

There are many industries for which the use of a document tracking system can help. This is especially important in areas where confidential information and sensitive data are managed. However, a document tracking system is also useful for conducting sales and marketing activities, or simply running an office.

A watermark is a digital stamp that is placed inside digital content. It is most often added to documents containing confidential data and the protection of intellectual property. It prevents someone from making changes to or copying the contents of a PDF document. A watermark can simply be a confidentiality stamp, or show a company logo so that an organization can easily mark its documents.

Financial institutions and banks often struggle nowadays with the information overload caused by the digital transformation. Customers require banking and financial services to be performed online, but also organizations cannot imagine carrying out certain processes offline despite us living in a highly digitized world. Even more so as the pressure of competition is great and financial institutions are trying to outdo each other with new amenities for their clients.

Finding information quickly is essential for productivity and customer service. A basic requirement for financial institutions and banks is also keeping electronic records. Therefore, it is important to use a document tracking system that will allow them to control the flow of these documents, as well as what happens to them. When submitting loan, credit forms, or account agreements to a customer, the bank can see which documents have been opened and which have not. Has the customer already filled out their application or not, have they been sent a loan granting decision, and has it been read?

What’s more, if the amount of documents in the financial industry had to be tracked manually, it would be frustrating both for customers and employees. The former would be waiting a long time for information that they want to obtain quickly, while the latter would have to spend their time on these tasks rather than some less automatic ones.

In the legal industry, as in the financial industry, digitization is moving forward enormously. In the past, lawyers working in an office would have to enter a specific room that served as an archive and take the necessary files out of storage. In fact, even if manual monitoring was carried out, e.g. in an Excel table, no one had exact control over what was happening with the documents. Often, any deficiencies or errors that were made “by hand” would only come to light on the occasion of an audit.

Law firms handle a huge amount of sensitive data, over which it is good to have as much control as possible. They may concern pending court cases, bailiffs or notary documents. Therefore, it is a good idea for a law firm or other legal entity (e.g. a corporate department or an individual lawyer working within an institution) to use document tracking. Thanks to this, when a case remains open, they can immediately create specific tasks in the system that will contain documents related to that case. Tracking allows one to see who is using the archive, who is downloading documents, and what they are doing with them.

The medical industry is another large area that deals with a huge amount of documentation, from the medical records of each patient to the documents used to manage medical units (hospitals, clinics, or offices). Documentation is also needed in pharmacies, as well as for clinical trials. You can only imagine how many important documents that contain various sensitive data must be used to guide activities in the medical industry. Each hospital and clinic accepts from a few individuals to several hundred or even thousand people a day. Sometimes documents have to be transferred from ward to ward, from doctor to doctor. Therefore, it is important to keep track of documents, the flow of which can be very dynamic. In a document tracking system, one can see who is using them and how, as well as mark and check their status.

Document tracking will also come in handy in marketing and sales. While in these industries the number of documents is usually much smaller than in the industries we discussed earlier, there are many processes where document tracking is very useful. For example, they can be used when sending offers to potential customers. This allows the sender to know if the recipient has opened a document and how they worked with it. Document tracking is also useful for the transmission of any internal confidential content between company employees regarding customers.

In addition to the industry-specific situations described above, document tracking can also be applied in other areas. How? First, to attach documents to emails. Thanks to this, the transmitted document is more secure, and you can have control over what happens with it. Additionally, you can protect this content with a password, which is especially useful for sensitive content.

Another example is to protect PDF files from being copied. This is especially important in content marketing, when materials need to be unique and not appear in other undesirable places. The owner can then check on a continuous basis whether individual elements or an entire article are being copied. It’s even possible to go a step further and block the option of downloading or printing a document.

A third example is sending a document (such as an offer or an article) and being able to track which part of it attracted the most attention of the recipient. Thanks to this, a company has the chance to get to know the specificity of its client. However, if a user needs to make a change to a shared document, they can also do so without having to upload another document.

The last feature that can be useful in virtually any industry is setting the expiry date of a document. This prevents out-of-date documents from being viewed.

If after reading the article you feel that you need a document tracking system in your daily work, it is worth introducing this tool to your activities. HelpRange greatly supports teams with the easy and safe sharing of PDF documents, as well as with analyzing how they are used. It offers all the options you need to track documents. Thanks to this, you can see how your colleagues and customers use your sales content. If you don’t want it to be printed or downloaded, you can block this option.

Document tracking systems facilitate working with documents and also help the automation of daily work in most industries operating on the market. Thanks to this, one doesn’t have to work on individual documents manually, but does have full control over documents and what happens with them. The insights that can be learnt from how people interact with such documents are also invaluable.

HelpRange is "Next-Gen Data Room For Documents Protection & Analytics". HelpRange is a cutting-edge virtual data room platform for document access controls and in-depth analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.