Box Document Management: Importance of Metadata Templates
Using Box has become a powerful tool for many organizations around the world. Box document management can benefit businesses of all sizes to meet ever-changing needs. Plus, employees can access Box within the office or remotely — any time, anywhere. The cloud based document management solution enables users to store all documents in one repository, increasing transparency and improving cross-collaboration.
As the need for Box document management increases, using Box for business provides capabilities that enable users to tag, classify and manage incoming information. The key information extracted is known as metadata. Metadata provides context for data, ensuring that when a user conducts a search for a certain invoice, contract, document, or record, the information retrieved is relevant. They can also discover resources and distinguish dissimilar resources.
Advantages of metadata
Metadata allows users to not only define but store custom data within their files/folders. Incorporating metadata into your Box document management solution helps users as well as applications define and store custom data associated with Box files. Custom data can be set within the Box web application or via an API. Using metadata provides a number of benefits, such as:
- Content management control due to defined custom attributes.
- Basic search and content retrieval.
- Metadata migration from line-of-business (LOB) systems and Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software to Box, so content is accessible in your Box repository.
- Custom values from homegrown document management tools can be mapped to Box so legacy data is never lost.
- Effective, automated workflows triggered by metadata and business rules to control document and records management.
What’s the difference between custom metadata and metadata templates?
Custom metadata is best used for ad-hoc collaboration and one-off metadata additions. Box Metadata Templates are a logical grouping of metadata attributes that help classify content. They are best used for structured business processes since they enforce uniformity across metadata application on files.
While custom metadata and metadata templates offer basic search functionality, structured metadata templates offer a more advanced search and retrieval experience. (Here’s how to create metadata templates.)
Who benefits from metadata templates?
Once a business begins using Box Metadata Templates, users can harness the power of metadata. Before adding metadata templates, consider how they will support groups or departments. For example, Box Metadata Templates can:
- Assist with classifying legal contracts — from custom terms of service to acquisition contracts. The ability to quickly find contract terms can be very useful for discovery.
- Manage vendor contracts. This means much easier reporting and cost management.
- Organize content by product line, use case, or sales geography, to help sales representatives find important collateral, such as a sales enablement piece. This can also help manage digital assets and centralize collateral so multiple marketing assets are stored in one repository.
- Add structure, status and detail to project work plans to communicate project progress.
- Standardize the employee lifecycle by leveraging metadata to find common forms and analyzing employee data.
How can we help?
While it is relatively easy to set up your Box system, KnowledgeLake enhances user experience. We can scan, upload or import content from any source or location. Then, clean-up, convert and process in the cloud. Our solution also tags content with metadata and automatically routes it to where it needs to go.
Plus, when you need to ensure consistency or scalability or integrate complex workflows, we can help. KnowledgeLake and Nintex have been partners for almost a decade. Our cloud content management consultants are experts at integrating Nintex’s workflow offerings with Box. When combined with KnowledgeLake’s cloud capture solution you’ll have the tools needed for a unified answer to your toughest document dramas.
Let us give you an idea of how we collaborate with Nintex and integrate with Box.