10 Best Document Management Software for Enterprises in Canada in 2024
Poor file version control cripples your enterprise.
Without proper document archiving and indexing, your employees create multiple versions of a document but can’t track the changes. Therefore, it’s easy for your staff to work with outdated files, and this causes project delays and reworks.
So if your Canada-based enterprise lacks file version controls, your workflow’s productivity slows down while your project failure rates increase.
Additionally, your employees waste time recreating documents.
In fact, Gartner recently established that 47% of employees struggle to find up-to-date information they need for work. This has greatly lowered their output as they have to recreate existing documents.
However, you can improve document traceability with a great file management system so that your staff is always working on up-to-the-minute data.
In this guide, I’ll take you through the best document management software in Canada for enterprises that will help you improve regulatory compliance and also elevate productivity and revenue.
Quick summary:
1. FileCenter – Best for editing PDF documents.
2. Egnyte – Best for secure document collaboration.
3. DynaFile – Best for managing HR documents.
4. PandaDoc – Best for managing enterprise contracts.
5. LogicalDOC – Best for multi-purpose file management.
Let’s get started.
How to Choose a Document Management Software in Canada
a) Consider your target processes
What specific process improvement goals do you have? This will help you choose a highly-specific solution to streamline your enterprise’s most inefficient tasks.
For example, if managing essential HR documents & workflows better is your need of the hour, go for a HR-specific tool when choosing a document management software.
b) Think about integration options
Since your enterprise in Canada already relies on underlying tools like ERPs, CRMs, and others, you want a solution that will help you hit the ground running.
For instance, you should assess integration with Microsoft 365. This is a top factor for selecting a document management system as it eases collaboration & implementation.
c) Examine document versioning
Additionally, I recommend that you go with a software that has comprehensive versioning capabilities that will allow you to roll back any undesired changes.
If you’re keen on improving change document managementation, this is a top tip for choosing a document management software that lets you eliminate redundant tasks.
d) Scrutinize deployment options
With on-site document management systems, your Canadian enterprise has complete authority and discretion over how you organize, set up, and access your data.
However, you can lower your IT burden with cloud-based file management. So when selecting a document management software, ensure it meets your data storage goals.
e) Assess industry-specific compliance
Finally, it should be a software that has industry-specific compliance features that’ll help you meet rigorous compliances like SOX, FERP, HIPAA, and others.
Better yet, you should prioritize regulatory compliance features like file retention & disposal triggers when choosing a document management software as this will help automate your compliance efforts.
1. FileCenter
FileCetner creates a highly consistent filing system.
You can use it to create custom folders that appear alongside your Word editor, enabling you to find all the information you need to prepare reports without leaving the Word interface.
Moreover, you can scan files and turn images into searchable text content, which helps you enhance data visibility for your Canada-based enterprise.
You also get versatile PDF editing capabilities that allow you to add data into PDFs, take out pages, and even convert them into different forms for compatibility purposes or to fit in with your enterprise’s internal policies.
Furthermore, FileCenter’s integration with DropBox, Google Drive, and other cloud services gives your enterprise remote access to data to enable remote work.
Best features:
- You can automate file and folder naming to create custom filling conventions that ensure your staff can easily navigate shared work no matter who created it.
- Its file preview feature allows you to view snippets of files without opening them, which saves you time when you’re hunting for specific data or renaming files.
- FileCenter allows you to send files via email as a password-protected PDF, which helps you to provide secure information sharing & prevent unauthorized access.
Pricing:
- 14-day free trial.
- Starting plan: $5/user per month.
Verdict
Due to its versatile PDF editor that comes at no extra cost, I find that FileCenter is the best document management software in Canada for PDF editing. Moreover, our software is compatible with many other file formats so you can process all sorts of data.
2. Egnyte
Egnyte enforces strict control over enterprise data.
Its strong data governance features help you to not just secure data from digital threats but also elevate your data quality. In turn, your Canadian enterprise can enjoy accurate business intelligence that sharpens your competitive edge.
With Egnyte’s file locking, you can temporarily restrict editing access to a file to prevent editing conflicts and manage your files and directories better.
Additionally, you can co-edit documents in real-time with your co-workers via Office Desktop apps to further boost innovation and teamwork for your enterprise.
It also offers a mobile app that allows your teams to collaborate via their own mobile devices. Therefore, Egnyte is a great document management software if your enterprise wants to implement a secure bring-your-own-device policy that lowers hardware costs.
Best features:
- It offers many integrations, including Salesforce, Office, and Google Workspace, which allows your enterprise to enhance productivity and hit the ground running.
- Egyntes enables you to implement intelligent content classification and automate metadata tagging so that you don’t have to tediously perform file sorting.
- You can implement Egnyte’s content-sharing and access-restriction controls to help your enterprise protect all its information across its entire lifecycle.
Pricing:
- 15-day free trial.
- Starting plan: $20/user per month.
Verdict
Ultimately, Engyte’s many secure collaboration features help you improve teamwork and business intelligence for your enterprise. However, I find that since it has many different user modules, it can take your employees a lot of time to fully master and implement it.
3. DynaFile
DynaFile is primarily a HR file management solution.
It allows you to create electronic onboarding forms, which help your new hires to fill out their paperwork online. Besides reducing iterative work for your enterprise’s HR team, it also helps your new employees to acclimatize faster to your workflow.
Moreover, DynaFile’s barcode cover sheets enable you to digitize, split, and sort client and employee files more conveniently for your enterprise in Canada.
You can even utilize DynaFile’s batch processing feature to quickly digitize incoming paperwork and set standard file management policies. This comes in handy when you hire temporary employees or outsource some of your workflow functions to a third party.
Just like FileCenter, I find that it’s a top HR document management software due to its document retention automaton that helps you comply with complex government regulations.
Best features:
- Its electronic onboarding feature allows you to perform faster resume parsing and get contextual clarity that helps you hire the right candidates quickly.
- DynaFile has enterprise-grade security features that let you restrict functions like access to help you protect confidential information in employee files.
- You can also use DynaFile to create digital time sheets and work schedules for your enterprise. This helps you track work hours and allocate duties efficiently
Pricing:
- No free trial.
- Contact DynaFile for pricing.
Verdict
Being a HR-focused solution, DynaFile is designed to perfectly uplift and streamline your HR functions. However, if your HR processes are not your target, you’ll find it difficult to use these features to manage other enterprise processes.
4. PandaDoc
PandaDoc simplifies contract management work.
Its robust document analytics lets you track file recipient actions such as view time. This enables you to know when to perform follow-up while it helps to identify your recipient’s potential concerns.
You also get a versatile drag-and-drop document builder that lets you import media files to create engaging business agreements, proposals & contracts.
In addition, PandaDoc provides ready-to-use business templates in case you don’t have time to build reports from scratch, which helps you meet very tight deadlines.
With its mobile app, you can scan documents on your Android phone to affordably digitize paper files for your enterprise in Canada. I find that this makes it a great document management software if you’re not keen on buying new office equipment.
Best features:
- It has an extensive template library that helps you to quickly generate professional business documents that match every use case and project.
- PandaDoc has e-signature capabilities with reminders. So in case your recipient forgets to sign a document, they’ll get alerts that remind them to do so.
- It provides smart analytics that lets you know how your recipients interact with your documents. This will help you create more engaging documents.
Pricing:
- 14-day free trial.
- Starting plan: $19/user per month.
Verdict
Overall, it’s a top contract management solution as you’re not restricted on the number of documents you can sign, unlike most other software. That said, I’ve realized you must pay for an additional plan to use the mobile scan service and other integrations.
5. LogicalDOC
LogicalDOC enables multipurpose file management.
It offers your Canadian enterprise a content repository powered by Lucene indexing, which helps you to get faster search responses.
Beyond that, LogicalDOC allows you to create custom document actions, which guide your teammates to organize data as per your preferred criteria.
You also get a multilingual user interface that supports over 15 languages, which allows your enterprise to break down language barriers and streamline collaboration.
Just like FileCenter, I rate it as a top construction file management software due to its ability to preview CAD files. This allows you to quickly reference technical drawings on-site without downloading the files and cluttering your workspace.
With its zonal OCR technology, you can extract specific information in documents, so that you only digitize data that meets your immediate needs.
Best features:
- LogicalDOC has a digital stamp feature that allows you to add stamps to documents to showcase your brand on files and confirm authenticity.
- It offers you an electronic form designer that allows you to create useful files like survey forms for collecting customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction.
- You can use its duplicates detection feature to identify possible duplicate files so that you remove them from your system to reduce your storage needs.
Pricing:
- 30-day free trial.
- Contact LogicalDOC for pricing.
Verdict
With LogicalDOC’s custom actions, you can create a multi-purpose document management software for any vertical. However, you’ll have to manually program the automation engine to fit your workflow and this makes it difficult to master.
6. M-Files
M-Files is a knowledge work automation solution.
Courtesy of intuitive metadata tags, your enterprise can easily find data regardless of its directory. So you don’t even need to organize your files first to be able to perform quick information retrieval.
Moreover, you can query M-Files’s generative AI to get report summaries and even use it to translate content to other languages and reach a wider audience.
In fact, its contract clause library is a key reason I’ve included it in my review of the best document management software in Canada as it will help you reuse professionally crafted contract clauses so you can build contracts faster.
You also get a workflow management system that allows your Canadian team to draft deliverables and immediately route them for approval without manual processing.
Best features:
- It offers meta-data-driven content collaboration, which allows you to locate and share information more accurately with external and internal stakeholders.
- M-File’s role-based document access control enables you to define specific permissions for each user to improve confidentiality, security, and compliance.
- It has a Salesforce connector that lets you centralize customer data so that you can follow up with leads more effectively to unearth more sales opportunities.
Pricing:
- 30-day free trial.
- Contact M-Files for pricing.
Verdict
M-Files can help you automate iterative document tasks for knowledge work to catalyze innovation for your enterprise. That being said, I find the user interface to be poorly designed so setting up the system is both complex and very time-consuming.
7. Tungsten Automation
Tungsten Automation offers intelligent data automation.
With its automated OmniPage Capture SDK, you get accurate and fast OCR and barcode recognition technology. This enables your enterprise in Canada to digitize information and accelerate your development cycles to decrease your time-to-market.
For instance, you can use it to automate the processing of AP documents like purchase orders so that you make accurate and timely payments to suppliers.
Additionally, I’ve noticed it’s among the most popular document management software for its comprehensive image processing features. These allow you to improve the clarity of your scanned files.
Just like FileCenter, you can password-protect your PDF files, which ensures that your enterprise can limit internal access to data to protect your intellectual property.
Via the invoice portal, your suppliers can access transactional data first-hand to save your enterprise time.
Best features:
- It supports over 125 languages and enables you to automatically detect and translate the languages in documents for faster data processing.
- Tungsten Automation offers a forms template editor that allows you to define API calls and templates. This helps you to easily extract document data.
- It supports on-premise and cloud data storage in services such as Microsoft Azure, thereby allowing you to back up your data and access it remotely.
Pricing:
- 15-day free trial.
- Contact Tungsten Automation for pricing.
Verdict
Tungsten Automation offers a top document management automation solution for technical enterprises due to its versatile APIs. However, I find that you’ll require a strong understanding of programming to customize these APIs for your enterprise.
8. OpenKM
OpenKM simplifies enterprise content management.
It enables you to create strong and custom file plans for your enterprise. Therefore, this allows you to consistently store information to make it both easier to find data and dispose of when necessary to observe document retention laws in Canada.
Notably, OpenKM’s mail archiver allows you to create a repository for your emails so that you can recover deleted emails for internal investigation purposes.
Additionally, you can overcome the challenges of e-invoicing with its electronic invoicing safeguard functions. These controls enable you to verify digital signatures on invoices to help you identify fraudulent invoices to stop financial losses & legal repercussions.
With universal, multi-device access and co-collaborative editing functions, your employees can easily collaborate in the creation and management of web content.
Furthermore, it lets you track specific file products and events so that you can create regulatory-compliant audit trails.
Best features:
- It delivers a multi-tenant document repository for your enterprise in Canada, which supports growth for your workflow while reducing overall costs.
- OpenKM’s barcode reading and identification modules allow you to incorporate a variety of file formats and even extend format support for new documents.
- With its automatic cataloging feature, your enterprise can set custom rules for employee data organization which helps you enforce data consistency.
Pricing:
- 14-day free trial.
- Contact OpenKM for pricing.
Verdict
OpenKM’s multi-tenant repository architecture makes it a very highly scalable solution for managing your enterprise’s content. However, I find that this multi-tenancy attracts significant complications when you’re implementing the system.
9. DocuPhase
DocuPhase is an accounting automation solution.
You can use it to set document user permissions and give approval authority to relevant parties. In doing so, you can implement automatic approval routing for financial documents to speed up your accounting processes and support compliance.
More importantly, your accounting team can automate 3-way matching and carry out more accurate AP payments for your enterprise in Canada.
Just like FileCenter, DocuPhase is a document scanning software that you can use to perform smart data capture. In just seconds, this technology enables you to collect valuable information and improves your data efficiency.
Overall, I recommend it as a top-rated document management software worth trying out as it lets you automate the management of both AR and AP documents for holistic accounting process improvement.
Best features:
- Its intelligent data capture system lets you configure parameters to capture specific document information to ease your data remediation efforts later on.
- By syncing data with your accounting and HR software, your enterprise can hit the ground running with DocuPhase since you don’t have to migrate your data.
- DocuPhase allows you to build complex web forms via a drag-and-drop builder so that you can easily capture data online according to your unique needs.
Pricing:
- No free trial.
- Contact DocuPhase for pricing.
Verdict
DocuPhase is a complete accounting automation solution that will improve both your AR and AP processes. However, I find that its features are very accounting-specific so you can’t leverage it as a holistic document solution for your enterprise.
10. NetDocuments
NetDocuments plugs inefficiencies for legal workflows.
It provides a cloud architecture that gives you access to your enterprise documents from anywhere so you can work remotely. Additionally, you also get a failover data center that provides a data restoration backup.
Via its matter-centric workspaces, you can organize files per client and view all that data on one page, allowing you to manage a huge caseload efficiently.
On top of that, the real-time data sharing and co-editing feature allows you to easily collaborate with case parties. Consequently, I recommend it as a must-try document management software in Canada for streamlining your enterprise’s legal department.
It also offers top legal document management features like a comprehensive search engine that allows you to quickly and easily find all related case data.
Best features:
- NetDocument’s integration with Office allows you to edit case proceedings, notes & other files right from the Word interface so you get a very soft learning curve.
- Its Outlook integration allows you to drag and drop emails to matters in NetDocuments so you have all the data you need for a case in one place.
- With ndSync, you can sync documents you need for a case directly to your local computer, so that you can continue working during internet outages.
Pricing:
- No free trial.
- Contact NetDocuments for pricing.
Verdict
NetDocuments is a great legal document management system that’s easy to learn and very reliable. However, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t have a native digital signature feature so you’ll need to purchase an add-on for that separately.
Conclusion
Manual processes lead to poor contract management.
If your enterprise handles large volumes of contracts, manual processes can hamper due diligence and lead to costly contractual errors.
Ultimately, manual document management processes can increase the financial losses you incur from contract value leakages.
In fact, you lose at least 40% of contract value per case, according to a KPMG survey. This is down to poor due diligence and the inability to actively monitor contracts.
However, you can track contracts throughout their lifecycles by leveraging the best document management software for enterprises in Canada. In particular, I recommend FileCenter as it gives you great features that enhance contract performance.
Click here to start your free FileCenter trial to implement excellent contract management that grows your enterprise’s bottom line.
With our software, you’ll also be able to boost productivity and make your enterprise less dependent on paper and more eco-friendly to enhance your brand’s reputation.
