5 Ways to Maximize User Adoption of Your Document Management System 2025

Want to increase user adoption rates? 

An excellent document management software (DMS) is a valuable business asset. 

However, you may not reap its full potential and extract maximum value and return-on-investment from your DMS if user adoption is extremely poor.  

A survey by Userlane revealed 96% of business leaders struggle with digital adoption. Many have thrown in the towel after wasting huge financial resources. 

In order to help you get full value out of your document management system, I’ve rounded up some key DMS adoption tips. These will empower you to get around common end-user fears to help your staff hit the ground running. 

When you implement these pointers, you can also streamline your document workflow and increase productivity and efficiency by ensuring proper software usage. 

If you’re keen to streamline your HR processes, check out this article I wrote about the best HR document management software for boosting productivity.

In this article, we’ll discuss some crucial ways to maximize user adoption of your document management system in 2025 to increase ROI and business success. 

Let’s get started. 

What is user adoption in the first place?

So what is user adoption and why does it matter? 

User adoption refers to the process of getting your end users, such as your small business’s employees, for example, to start using a new product, service or technology as part of their daily workflow. 

By measuring user adoption, you can determine how staff interact with your new document management system to help increase engagement and retention.

When this happens, you can enhance user satisfaction, and also maximize software utilization so that your business reduces churn, increases process efficiency and generally gets full value from its document management tool.

Some important document management statistics and software metrics you’ll want to track to get a better picture of engagement is your adoption rate. You can calculate this by dividing your new active users by the total number of enrolled users as a percentage. 

That said, tracking the right adoption metrics is one of the most crucial DMS adoption tips, because it can help you streamline bottlenecks that can easily fly under the radar.

Other important metrics that I also recommend tracking include retention, which involves measuring how many users stop using the DMS over time. You can also carry out employee feedback surveys to get a feel of satisfaction and common challenges.

Why employees may resist new document management software

a) Fear of change & disruption 

Change is never easy or comfortable.

This is especially true when it comes to bringing a new technology into the picture like a document management software, which may require your employees to transition from existing workflows they’re already comfortable with. 

Furthermore, when your staff are worried about the time and effort required to learn a new system,  they may ultimately view the new DMS as unnecessary. 

A survey by Statista brought to light that 39% of businesses blamed employee resistance to change for their digital transformation struggles and failures. This made it the second largest challenge overall, after a lack of digital skills which took top spot. 

The first step to solving the fear of change is to acknowledge their concerns openly, because ignoring these only elevates uncertainty, stress and frustration. 

I also recommend getting employees involved right from the get go, allowing them to test drive a new document workflow on their own terms by way of a software trail. It’s one of top DMS adoption tips because it helps to overcome the fear of the unknown. 

So why not start your free FileCenter trail today? 

You can get employees to sign up to remove uncertainty and demystify change. 

With our software trial, your workers can amass hands-on experience, increase confidence & even build enthusiasm when they see real time-saving features in action. 

b) Lack of perceived personal value

How will the technology help your staff personally? 

When rolling out new projects such as a document management system, it’s easy for you to focus on company wide benefits, and largely advocate for the software from the big picture perspective of how it may help your small business as a whole. 

However, when your staff don’t perceive any clear benefits and value on a personal basis, they may be less motivated to make it part of their daily workflow. 

A Pendo survey discovered 80% of software features are underutilized, partly because employees don’t fully grasp the personal value they offer. This proves just how big a problem the lack of perceived personal value really is.

So how can you overcome this challenge? 

Well, one of the top DMS adoption tips I can give is to customize messaging to show role-specific benefits of your document management software. 

You can, for instance, show how it helps HR employees to solve very specific pain points that they encounter on a daily basis. This could be anything from finding important HR files in time to protecting sensitive information in critical employee files.

Once you zero in on how the technology can improve individual efficiency, which employees tend to care more about compared to company-wide benefits, then it becomes so much easier for your small business to win over its employees. 

c) Past software implementation failures

Have you tried & failed to implement new tools before?

Then this may be one more reason why your employees develop cold feet when it comes to your small business’s new document management software solution. 

If previous technology projects didn’t really take off, this can lead to change fatigue and also staff resistance since employees may expect it to eventually fail. 

It’s unfortunate that 48% of staff have become resistant to new technologies after a poor experience with past tools, as per a survey by Gartner. It shows just how massive the repercussions of past failures can be with nearly half of staff opposing new solutions. 

In order to get rid of the possible perception your new software is “just another disaster waiting to happen,” you need to acknowledge past failures. 

Once you’ve identified specific reasons why a past project didn’t work out, maybe you jump into the latest document management trends without a detailed follow through plan, then you can create a strategy for addressing and solving these failure points.

Moreover, I recommend roping employees in very early on in the decision making processes and also demonstrating that you’re committed to its long-term success. 

When you implement these DMS adoption tips we’ve discussed in this section, you can rebuild the trust that may have been lost from failed past digital transformation projects.

Tips for maximizing user adoption rates for your DMS

1. Prioritize simple software

Is the document management software easy to learn? 

This is one of the first questions you should ask when you’re looking to purchase a document management software for your small business and maximize adoption, because it massively influences end-user attitudes. 

When your document management software has a complex interface and is very challenging to master, chances are high you’ll face huge user resistance. 

Unfortunately, at least 47% of employees said their company’s digital filing system is not easy to use and navigate, according to a survey by Adobe. Many of them end up abandoning the new DMS in favor of conventional tools.

Worse yet, the study revealed that aside from shackling productivity, a hard-to-use digital file organization system even made them think of quitting their jobs. 

So, ultimately, you need to choose the right document management system in the first place if you’re keen to smoothen the user onboarding process for your small business.  

When the user interface is intuitive and well-designed, then the learning curve becomes very smooth. It also creates a great first impression among your end users, which is why this is one of the most important DMS adoption tips for you to keep in mind. 

If you’re looking for a simple but powerful solution, start your free FileCenter trial today to explore our user-friendly system that’s built for non-technical personnel. 

With a Windows Explorer-like functionality and a repository that doesn’t rely on any complex databases, our software is easy to learn and can help you boost adoption. 

2. Provide personalized training

Training is a key aspect of successful implementation.

However, your employees may have unique document workflows and challenges. For instance, staff in your HR department may have very different document handling requirements compared to those in your finance and legal departments. 

If your training doesn’t address user-specific needs, you may fail to personalize user experiences and demonstrate the DMS’s relevance and usefulness. 

A survey by Whatfix brought to light that 78% of employees lack the training and expert knowledge necessary for using digital tools like document management systems. In fact, many of them said they get less than one hour of training for new software. 

These statistics provide great insight into why some businesses are really struggling with getting their staff to embrace their new document management system. 

If you’d like to get higher adoption rates, I strongly recommend creating comprehensive training programs, which can help your end-users to stay more engaged. 

In order to personalize training, you can segment user groups based on role or job function. Then you can define training goals and key topics, develop personalized learning paths and make the material easily accessible for on-the-go learning. 

When you choose the right document management software partner, you may even get onboarding support when it comes to implementation. This can help lower the support burden on your in-house staff although this may come at an extra expense. 

That said, personalizing training is one of the top DMS adoption tips, because it helps to reduce frustration by ensuring users aren’t overwhelmed by unnecessary features.

3. Incentivize software usage

What’s in it for your staff when they use the new tool? 

When you roll out a new software like a document management system, you may already have an existing tool that you’re looking to augment or replace. It’s easy for your staff to remain stuck in the old ways, largely because of the fear of the unknown. 

If you fail to incentivize usage and give your employees powerful motivation to use your new DMS, they may stick to legacy file management solutions.

A study by Gartner found out that 2 out of 3 companies use financial incentives to drive transformative technology projects. It’s a strategy that has helped them encourage migration from legacy systems to newer and more efficient technologies. 

If you’d like to follow in those footsteps and increase time-to-value for your DMS, then this is one of the most important DMS adoption tips to have at the back of your mind.

They can help you reap the benefits of document management software quickly, by motivating transition and breaking down resistance to change for your small business. 

But the incentives don’t have to be monetary.

There are plenty of other things you could use such as providing credentials staff can add to their resumes. Social recognition programs like employee spotlights in social media or company news letters, can also greatly help your cause.

What’s more, you could also turn to gamification elements like leaderboards, badges and virtual rewards, which can help you encourage self-learning among your staff. 

4. Get leaders on board 

Getting leadership buy-in is critical to success. 

This is because your staff are likely to notice, pay attention and even take new projects seriously if executives and top hierarchy at large advocate for the new technology.  It helps to build credibility in the project and reassure your staff of its value. 

However, when leadership isn’t fully committed to the new document management system, adoption slows down as employees question its necessity.  

A Statista survey discovered that 25% of global organizations aren’t getting expected results from their technology investments due to leadership challenges. If your DMS software project is to succeed, you need to advocate for it starting right at the top. 

Once you bring the leadership onboard, you can solve major adoption challenges like employee resistance. 

But how do you get leadership buy-in in the first place?

I recommend demonstrating quick wins with a pilot project, featuring one department or a small group of users. Once you track the improvements in terms of cost-efficiency or productivity, you can present these findings to executives to help win them over. 

It’s also vital to create a clear implementation plan, complete with road maps of how you intend to implement the enterprise document management software, while describing clear timeliness of expected results. 

But it’s not just the executives who matter. 

You could also turn to tech-savvy, project champions within departments who hold a lot of influence over other staff. With regular employees a more trustworthy source of information compared to higher authorities, they can help break down resistance. 

5. Consider integration-friendly tools

What systems do you currently rely on? 

Your employees may already be using some sort of technology to manage and edit their documents. This may include cloud-based solutions like Google Sheets or even applications in the Microsoft Office suite such as Word and Excel. 

If your document management system doesn’t integrate well with tools your staff are already familiar with and reliant on, they may become hesitant to switch. 

Unfortunately, only 26% of document management solutions integrate well with other core applications, going by an AIIM study. This essentially means that most of them aren’t compatible with popular business technologies. 

With a DMS that doesn’t integrate well with productivity tools you use, there’s increased friction when it comes to adoption since users may need to abandon beloved solutions.

This is why I recommend prioritizing a document management system that integrates well with the software your end-users love and are already familiar with.

For example, if your small business commonly edits documents using Word, you’ll want a solution that offers integration with the MS Office suite. It minimizes complexity by ensuring that your employees are working with familiar layouts.

Speaking of which, start your free FileCenter trial now to learn how our system integrates seamlessly with some very popular business productivity tools. 

From Microsoft Office to Cloud services and QuickBooks, our software links up with your favorite systems to reduce toggling between applications. So you get more powerful document management features to increase productivity and adoption rates.

Conclusion 

The right DMS can be a game-changer. 

It enables huge efficiency improvements over traditional file management solutions. 

However, when user adoption is low, staff may not make the most out of your document management software’s capabilities, resulting in productivity losses.

A survey by Glean revealed employees lose over 25% of their workday to document issues. When your staff don’t actively engage and use your DMS, then these productivity losses are likely to go on. 

If you implement these DMS adoption tips we’ve discussed, you can maximize software utilization. That said, having a great, simple-to-use solution is also vital for increasing implementation success. 

In order to learn more, sign up for your free FileCenter trial to experience just how easy our document management software is to use. 

Coupled with excellent support and a comprehensive knowledge base, our platform helps your staff to hit the ground running and improve their document workflow quickly.