Modern companies should operate according to strictly defined rules and procedures that effectively organise their work while taking full advantage of the potential offered by disruptive and innovative technologies – this should concern in particular implementing tailor-made IT tools to meet the needs of the company by optimising and improving their efficiency in the ever-growing scope of their operations. Among these solutions, document management systems – software suites that support digital document workflows – are particularly important, as DMS-class systems speed up and streamline the flow of documentation, tasks, and information in the company, ensure better security of documents, as well as easy, fast and permission-based access to resources from any place in the world, to any number of people, which is of great importance especially in the age of remote work.
What is an electronic document workflow?
Lost documents, missed payment deadlines, and constant chaos on employees’ desks – these are just some of the numerous problems that companies complain about, as they continue to use traditional document workflows and paper documents. Seeing how the number of tasks and data processed by companies is on the rise, as well as the flood of documents, as well as the pace of changes and increasingly higher expectations of business divisions and contractors, people came up with a concept of electronic document workflow, as well as accompanying software solutions – a new paradigm of documentation to make working with documents easier and more efficient. Electronic document workflow is perfect for any company, regardless of the industry, size, or area of activity. Deploying such a solution enables them to eliminate virtually all of the key shortcomings of the traditional document workflow and significantly improve the information flow, and – as a result – the operations of the entire organisation.
In enterprise management, electronic document workflow is based on digitised documentation stored in the company’s digital assets in the cloud or on-premises servers. Electronic documents are available to authorised users around the clock and can be viewed not only while working in the office, but also during business trips or at home. Every document has access protection applied, which restricts unauthorised access to the content. What is more, the ability to display the history of changes in the document, as well as tracking process steps and people ensures full audit trail and maintaining proper control over all modifications made by authorised users, while facilitating optimising and eliminating bottlenecks in the pursuit of the so-called process excellence within the organisation.
What are the benefits of switching to electronic document workflow?
Electronic document workflow can play a very important, even game-changing role in enterprise management. Modern companies characterised by conscious growth constantly strive to improve the efficiency of their operations and to achieve better results at the lowest possible cost, which makes electronic document workflow a perfect solution, bringing a number of tangible benefits in a number of areas. The organisations which decided to implement such solutions no longer need to maintain a physical archive or staff for managing documents. What is more, they can also reduce the costs associated with the purchase of stationery and printing infrastructure maintenance.
Savings are also tangible in the area of work organisation and efficiency. Previously, staff members had to devote a lot of time and energy to working with documentation. Now, they can find the documents they need in a split second, make the necessary changes quickly and forward the letters via electronic means to the person responsible for their further processing. More advanced document management systems also offer tools that automate document and information flows, as well as related tasks, so that every document goes straight into the right hands, and the whole process is under full control. All these features have a positive impact on the speed and quality of decision-making, prevent downtime, and guarantees a smooth circulation of documents both within the organisation and in relation to external contractors or other third parties.
What is more, managing company documentation in the digital realm allows the companies to get rid of paper documents from employees’ desks and make the concept of a paperless office a reality. By significantly reducing the use of paper and printing materials, the company can more effectively implement and promote its environmental image, improving its image in the eyes of their customers and staff. Reaping these benefits is only possible if the company chooses the right software, which will allow it to make all the assumptions of electronic document workflow in a reality, and then to use its new-found potential and opportunities on a daily basis.
What innovative technologies and solutions should your new DMS be based on?
In reality, electronic document workflow in enterprise management is carried out by means of dedicated software. High-class, modern DMS-class systems are solutions with extensive feature sets, characterised by very simple and intuitive interfaces, as well as the ability to effectively handle even massive amounts of documentation. What is more, they are flexible and scalable, so that their features and operations can be tailored and aligned with the needs of organisations or business divisions, suiting all requirements resulting from the specificity of a given process or business scenario.
The best DMS-class solutions currently available on the market take full advantage of innovative technologies and disruptive mechanisms, such as business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), optical character recognition (OCR), digital signature, as well as many other technologies and solutions that further enrich their basic feature set, increase their capabilities and bring numerous benefits – not only to the IT division but above all, to the entire business.
Innovative low-code platforms hold a special place among document management workflow systems since they enable companies to not only create and manage new process scenarios but also to efficiently and quickly implement necessary modifications with immediate result, which is possible thanks to the best solutions available on the market. This in turn enables them to adapt existing document workflows to the changing needs of the organisation over time, without affecting the integrity of running processes or disrupting the operation of previously deployed business applications. Another great advantage of low-code platforms is the fact that the full power of their feature set can be used by people who do not know programming languages.
