The Document Management System You're Already Paying For

Most companies with Microsoft 365 are already paying for a document management platform without knowing it. Instead of using it, they store files in folders, track everything in Excel — or pay for a separate document management system on top. Based on MS Solutions' work with 30+ organizations, the average employee wastes €156 per month on document chaos — searching through folders, chasing approvals over email, printing and scanning contracts for signatures. That's €37,500 per year for a team of just 20 people. The platform that fixes most of this is already in your subscription.

This post breaks down what a real document management system does, what your Microsoft 365 already covers, and what it takes to close the gap.

What document chaos actually costs your company

Poor document management costs the average employee €156 per month in wasted time — and that's a conservative estimate. McKinsey research puts daily information-searching time at 1.8 hours, while IDC data shows document-related inefficiencies account for over 21% of total daily productivity loss.

According to McKinsey, employees spend an average of 1.8 hours per day just searching for information — that's nearly 25% of every working day gone. An Adobe Acrobat study found that 48% of workers regularly can't find the documents they need, and nearly two out of three have had to recreate a document because they couldn't locate the original.

In financial terms, based on MS Solutions' experience across 30+ company implementations: take an average employee with a net salary of €1,500/month (total employer cost ~€2,500/month). At 168 working hours per month, that's €14.88/hour. If that employee spends just 30 minutes a day on document tasks — searching, coordinating approvals, handling signatures, maintaining Excel registers — that's 10.5 hours per month. €156 per employee, per month. €1,875 per year. Multiply by headcount.

And these are conservative numbers. Industry research from IDC suggests the real figure is 1.8–2.5 hours per day when you include all document-related tasks.

The cost isn't just money. It's the contract that wasn't signed because someone forgot to send it. It's the owner who can't access a document without calling the office administrator. It's the new employee who has no idea where anything is saved or how files should be named.

What a document management system actually changes

A document management system replaces folders, Excel trackers, and email-based approvals with metadata-driven registers, automated workflows, and integrated electronic signing. According to industry research, 83% of employees have recreated documents from scratch because they couldn't find the original — a problem that disappears entirely with proper document management.

If you've only worked with folders and Excel, the shift to a proper document management system can seem abstract. Here's what actually changes — in practical terms.

You find anything in seconds instead of navigating folders

This is the single biggest pain point we see. Companies build elaborate folder structures — by year, by department, by partner, by document type — creating trees that are five or six levels deep. File names become absurd: 2025_Schwenk_Contract_Delivery_v3_FINAL_signed.pdf. And then someone still can't find it.

Document registers replace this entirely. Instead of organizing documents by physical location (which folder they sit in), every document gets metadata — columns like partner name, document type, date, status, responsible person, contract amount. All documents live in one place. You filter, group, sort, and search across any combination instantly. Need all active contracts with one partner? Two clicks. Need every document pending approval? One filter.

The same metadata that makes search instant is also what powers everything else — automation, workflows, access control. Without metadata, none of that is possible. This is why folders are a dead end: they store documents, but they can't do anything with them.

Nobody loses a document. Ever.

Every edit is automatically saved as a version. You see who changed what and when. You can restore any previous version with one click. Multiple people can edit the same Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document simultaneously — in real time, inside the system, without downloading, emailing, or overwriting each other's changes.

No more Contract_v2_Johns_edits_FINAL(2).docx. No more "which version is the latest?" conversations. No more fear of losing work.

Approvals and tasks run themselves — with management control

Instead of emailing a contract to three people and hoping everyone responds, a document management system handles the entire approval chain automatically. You define the workflow once: first this person approves, then a task goes to legal for review, then it moves to signing, then everyone gets notified and the status updates automatically.

The real power is conditional logic. If a purchase contract exceeds €10,000, it automatically routes through a specific approval chain. If it's under that threshold, a simpler process applies. Management defines the rules once — the system enforces them on every document, every time. No exceptions get forgotten, no shortcuts get taken.

Tasks aren't just approvals. They cover everything connected to a document: review this contract, prepare a response, check the translation, confirm the terms. All tasks across all documents — approvals, signing requests, general assignments — appear in one unified list.

Contracts get signed in days instead of weeks

According to research by WCC, 45% of companies report that getting a contract signed takes over a week. The manual process everyone knows: print, sign, scan, email to the other party, wait, remind, receive back, save manually. If three internal people need to sign first, multiply the chaos.

With integrated electronic signing, you submit a document once. The system sends signature requests to all parties — internal employees and external partners — in the sequence you define. Each person receives an email, opens a signing portal, signs using eParaksts, Smart-ID, or any EU-qualified method. When everyone has signed, the completed document returns to the system automatically. Everyone receives their copy. The entire cycle requires exactly one action from you: clicking "submit."

No printing. No scanning. No chasing. No discovering at payment time that the contract was never actually signed.

Anyone can create documents safely — not just the administrator

In most companies, document creation is centralized through one person: the document administrator. They know the numbering system, they know the folder structure, they control access. When that person is on vacation or sick, the entire document process stops.

Automated document numbering eliminates this bottleneck. The system assigns numbers automatically based on your company's nomenclature — year, document type prefix, sequential number, whatever structure you need. Combined with metadata-driven access control (access assigned automatically based on document type, department, entity — not manually for each folder), anyone in the company can safely create and register documents.

One of our recent clients purchased the system specifically for this reason. The company owner was tired of going through the document administrator for every contract, every letter, every request. A multi-step process that consumed time daily. Now he accesses and creates documents directly.

Your data stays yours — in your cloud, under your control

With a dedicated document management platform, your contracts, HR documents, and sensitive business data sit on the vendor's servers. You trust their security, their compliance, their data residency policies.

A document management system built on Microsoft 365 keeps everything in your own tenant — your SharePoint, your Azure cloud, your chosen data region, your compliance settings. Access management runs through the same Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD) your IT team already administers — the same groups, the same security policies, the same centralized control. No separate admin panel to learn. No external system to audit.

For IT departments evaluating solutions, this is often the deciding factor. One security framework, one identity provider, one place to manage it all. And according to Intuit research, 77% of business owners want remote access to their files — a SharePoint-based document management system delivers this by default, from any device, without VPN.

And if you ever need to connect your document management system to an external system — accounting software, ERP, CRM — Power Automate is already part of your Microsoft 365. Ready-made connectors for hundreds of systems, or custom HTTP connections for anything else. Your document management is never a dead end.

What your Microsoft 365 already gives you

Microsoft 365 — used by over 400 million commercial users worldwide — already includes SharePoint with document libraries, metadata, version history, co-authoring, full-text search, and workflow automation. Most companies use none of these capabilities for document management. And there are no per-user fees — every employee with an existing license can access it.

Here's what most companies don't realize. SharePoint — which is included in every Microsoft 365 Business Basic subscription — already provides:

• Document libraries that work as registers with metadata columns, not just folders
• Version history — automatic, on every document, with full edit tracking
• Co-authoring — multiple people editing one document simultaneously
• Full-text search — across all document content, not just file names
• Power Automate — workflow automation engine with hundreds of connectors
• Cloud access — from any device, anywhere, no VPN required
• Familiar interface — the same Microsoft environment your team already uses daily

And critically: no per-user document management fees. Every employee with an existing Microsoft 365 license can access the system. Compare that to dedicated document management platforms where you pay monthly per user — for a team of 50, that cost difference is significant.

Most companies use none of this. They store files in OneDrive or in basic SharePoint folders and don't even know that document libraries with metadata exist.

The gap — and how to close it

SharePoint provides the foundation, but turning it into a full document management system requires structured document cards, automated numbering, conditional workflows, integrated electronic signing, and metadata-driven access control. The difference between "we have SharePoint" and "we have a document management system" is configuration — and it takes one to four weeks, not months.

SharePoint provides the platform. But out of the box, it doesn't give you:

• Structured document cards with custom fields and conditional layouts
• Automated document numbering based on your company's nomenclature
• Multi-step approval and signing workflows with conditional logic
• Integrated electronic signing (eParaksts, Smart-ID) with external party support
• Automated access control based on document metadata
• Unified task management tied to documents

This is the gap between "we have SharePoint" and "we have a document management system."

Closing it requires configuration, custom components, and integrations. This is where the approach matters. You can buy a ready-made document management system — but you'll still spend weeks learning it, configuring it, working around its limitations, and adapting your processes to its logic. That time investment is real, whether vendors acknowledge it or not.

The alternative: start from a proven, configured base — document registers, metadata, numbering, search — and add what you need. Approval workflows when you're ready. Electronic signing when you need it. Conditional access rules as your structure grows. Your process dictates the system, not the other way around.

The base installs in one week. Full configuration takes one to four weeks. And everything you build is yours — no vendor lock-in, no IP restrictions. Stop working with the partner who configured it, and everything stays in your Microsoft 365.

Why document management on Microsoft 365 is worth serious consideration

Building a document management system on Microsoft 365 means no per-user fees, no external servers, no vendor lock-in, and a platform trusted by over 90% of Fortune 500 companies. You invest time in configuration — but unlike a ready-made platform, what you build is fully yours and grows with your business.

Every document management system has trade-offs. A dedicated platform gives you a ready-made interface — but with per-user fees, data on someone else's servers, and processes you adapt to rather than the other way around. And let's be honest: "ready to use" still means weeks of learning the system, figuring out workarounds, and adjusting how your team works.

A document management system built on Microsoft 365 is a different approach. Your data stays in your tenant. Your IT manages access through the same Microsoft Entra they already use. Your employees work in an interface they already know. No per-user licensing. No vendor lock-in. And the system grows exactly as you need it — start with the base, add modules when you're ready.

There's a reason Microsoft 365 has over 400 million commercial users and is trusted by over 90% of Fortune 500 companies. The platform is enterprise-grade — the security, compliance, availability, and global infrastructure are already there. You're not building on an experiment. You're building on the most widely used business platform in the world.

"Most companies spend the same amount of time learning a ready-made system as they would configuring one that actually fits their process. The difference is what you own at the end." — Mārtiņš, MS Solutions

Whether you're replacing an existing document management system that no longer fits, or implementing one for the first time — it's worth asking: why pay for a separate system when the foundation is already under your feet?