Why You Need to Supercharge Your Document Management Search With Multi-Tool Search

Are disconnected apps draining your employees’ time and sapping their productivity? According to a survey conducted by Zapier on how employees spend their time, “76 percent of respondents said they spend 1–3 hours a day simply moving data from one place to another. Additionally, 73 percent of workers spend 1–3 hours just trying to find information or a particular document.”

SaaS (software as a service) apps offer a lot in terms of features and functionality, but the massive collection of tools most organizations use to operate on a daily basis is taking its toll. Employees are spending too much time looking for files and information. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Using a document management search tool that works across platforms makes finding files and information much easier and faster.

Multi-Tool Search Unburdens Employees Overloaded With Apps

Current workflows in most organizations include many different apps, each with its own unique features and capabilities. Employees depend on these tools to their jobs every day, but this way of working comes at a cost: Employees are overwhelmed and constantly switching between tools.

When computers entered daily office life in the ’90s, most employees were using only a handful of programs at work, but things quickly changed with the proliferation of software and technological advancements. Three decades later, work processes depend more and more on an ever-growing tech stack while employees are left to figure out how to manage it all.

Worldwide, employees are now using 10 apps per day and switching between apps an average of 25 times every day. In the U.S., the numbers are even higher: The same Asana study found that U.S. employees are using an average of 13 tools each day and switching an average of 30 times a day.

All that toggling between apps is wearing on employees. Twenty-six percent of respondents from the same survey cited above said app overload makes employees less efficient. A different survey on employee productivity by Cornell University’s Ellis Idea Lab and Qatalog found that 45% said app switching made them less productive and that it took an average of nine and a half minutes for employees to get focused again after switching apps.

It’s not practical to search each document management platform one by one – employees need one tool that can search everything at once. For example, say your company uses Google Docs primarily for document management. It’s great for composing and editing documents, but when it comes to finding information within those documents, things can get complicated fast. It’s also likely that not all information employees need to access is stored in Google Docs. So, anytime an employee is looking for a specific piece of information, they have to know exactly where it was located or spend their time going from app to app, looking.

They might start the search in Google Docs, not find what they’re looking for, and then go to email. If they don’t find it there, then they might search the most likely channels in Slack, and from there, end up in Notion when they finally remember the file they’re looking for was uploaded in a direct message in Slack. This is how employees find themselves spending 1–3 hours a day – simply looking for information.

How many apps do employees use at your organization? How much time would they save if they could simply search every document management platform at once?

Multi-Platform Tools Can Reduce App Switching Without Restricting App Access

Employees don’t want to spend all that time tracking down files, and leadership at enterprises don’t want disgruntled employees. Many advice articles on app overload recommend reducing the number of apps employees use. That might sound simple in theory, but it’s not always easy to limit apps. Teams use tools for a reason, and employees may not want to just stop using the apps that work best for them.

Adopting software to connect the tools your employees already use can reduce the amount of time they have to spend tracking down information. And it can do that without forcing employees to stop using the tools they already know and like. It takes time and effort for employees to adjust when you add or remove software from their current tech stack; working within the current stack cuts that out of the equation.

The right tool can bridge many different apps together to reduce context switching between apps. A well-built document management tool incorporates into employee workflow, letting them keep the tools that work for them while also providing a single space. Employees only have to pull up one tool and enter the name of the document once – the tool will automatically search every document management app integrated and deliver the results in one place.

Your employees have a dedicated place to go that acts as your document management search tool for every document management platform you use while simultaneously searching your emails, Slack messages, and any other tool you’ve integrated. Even when the document wasn’t downloaded and is still living in an email, it’s instantly findable with a single search.

Stop switching between Google Docs, your computer, Dropbox, your email account, and however many other places a file could be every time you need it. And while much of the advice on the subject recommends reducing the number of apps used, there’s another option: Use a document management search tool that can bridge your apps and reduce the need for employees to constantly switch between tools.

The Right Tool Can Simplify Document Management Search and Get Employees Back to Work

Unleash can search everything at once – your document management tools as well as email, project management tools, Slack, and more. And to reduce employee app switching even more, Unleash not only connects your apps, but it also functions as a central workspace that links all your platforms. You can search inside all of your apps, documents, emails, and the web in one place, and once you find what you need, you can launch apps, start composing messages, create documents, and view your schedule.

Unleash integrates with over 40 cloud services, including tools for a wide variety of industries and roles, such as project management, HR, engineering, software development, customer support, and more. And if that’s not enough, you can build custom integrations with our exposed SDKs (software development kits) to connect the custom tools in your organization. No matter what apps you use, Unleash can streamline your workflows and increase productivity.

Learn more about how Unleash can simplify document management at your organization.