A versatile document management system
September 22, 2022

A versatile document management system

Blaine Howell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with PowerDMS

PowerDMS is a crucial aspect of CFAI accreditation management for our department. Policies, procedures, and accreditation documents themselves are easily managed. Review and revision of documents through workflows ensures compliance.
  • Document review reminders
  • Workflows
  • Employee e-signatures for important documents
  • Allowing modifications to existing workflows
  • I wish the search function would only search the current document, not the left task bar
  • No ability to print comment on documents without "editing on desktop"
  • Formal, reviewed, and signed documents
  • Ability to link documents to other documents for accreditation
  • Automatic review reminders
  • Accreditation documentation management
  • General operating guidelines: record of signatures
It is the only platform we have used. We never seriously evaluated any other platform before implementing PowerDMS. We had first-hand reviews from our police department and a neighboring fire department.

Do you think PowerDMS by NEOGOV delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with PowerDMS by NEOGOV's feature set?

Yes

Did PowerDMS by NEOGOV live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of PowerDMS by NEOGOV go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy PowerDMS by NEOGOV again?

Yes

General Operating (GOG) management is efficient. Review reminders are available to be scheduled automatically. CFAI accreditation management is also efficient, allowing managers to track revisions, create workflows for updates, and even retrieve archived documents for reference.

My agency has never used PowerDMS tests or surveys; unsure of how well they work.

Using PowerDMS

38 - All employees, from line personnel to managers, supervisors, and administrators, use the platform.
1 - Everything you need to succeed as an administrator is available in the PowerDMS University. As long as you can dedicate yourself to some initial training, most issues can be resolved in-house.
  • Accreditation documentation
  • General operating guidelines
  • City policies
  • Training documentation
  • Meeting minutes and departmental reports
Because we are established in the platform and know how to manage the platform. It would take a yet unseen, catastrophic event for us not to renew our use of PowerDMS.

Evaluating PowerDMS and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Prior Experience with the Product
We knew that we needed to jump out of the "paper" age in order to succeed in our initial accreditation bid. Our police department and a neighboring fire department were already using PowerDMS. Based upon their recommendations and demonstrations, we based much of the reason for selection upon the prior experience of trusted allied agencies.
We would likely take a look at other platforms as well as PowerDMS. However, I have not evaluated another platform that would better suit our needs since we started using PowerDMS, so we would likely come to the same conclusion.

Using PowerDMS

While not necessarily user-intuitive, with a small amount of dedication to training and learning how the system functions, it becomes very usable. I would say that the usability scale is quite user-dependent. For a standard user that just needs to review and sign documents, it is very easily used. On the other end, management does a bit more of a learning curve.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • Review assigned documents
  • e-Sign assigned documents
  • Workflows, especially if modifications are necessary
  • It can be difficult to get the info you want inside the reporting module
Yes - It works well, allowing users to view, review, or e-sign documents anywhere, anytime.