Business activities are always associated with the creation, signing and storage of documents. In a broad sense, this process is called document processing or record keeping. The smaller the company, the easier it is to control the documentary side of its activities. The larger the organization, the greater its “paper challenges” become. And the truth is that when scaling a company, at some point all entrepreneurs come to document workflow automation. It’s not a whim; it’s a direct operational need for businesses to have an automated document management system that optimizes employees’ working hours and thus avoids unnecessary expenses. Let’s look at how this happens.
According to a 2006 study by Harvard Business School, CEOs of large companies spend up to 25% of their working time on documents: reading them, drafting them, reviewing them, and approving them. It sounds crazy: a quarter of the highest-paid employee’s time is spent working with documents. How much time does it take for other employees? And another logical question: how much money can a document automation workflow save the company in this case?
Next, we offer you data from another study by Harvard Business School: the research topic is the same, the difference is 11 years between the first and second publication. Between 2006 and 2017, the percentage of working time that CEOs spend on paperwork has decreased to almost 0%! At least, the study did not separate this category of tasks into a specific percentage group, which means that the amount of time spent on this type of task can be considered insignificant. Document management and workflow automation systems have freed up time that employees used to spend on mountains of paperwork. As a result, managers have begun to pay more attention to business strategy development and other high-level tasks.
What does this mean? It means that document workflow automation is one of the necessary stages in a company’s development. This is a global trend that really saves money and makes life easier for employees. While growing, a company goes through different stages of document management and workflow automation, but the goal is always the same: to optimize processes and direct the time of specialists to more important tasks than working with paper documents.
What is document flow automation?
Document workflow automation is the process of implementing a software system for workflow automation within the organization’s internal closed network. Special software is a tool that automates document management in an enterprise.
Document workflow automation consists of the following stages:
- analysis of the enterprise software network;
- selection of a specific workflow automation software;
- integration of the software product into the internal network of the enterprise;
- training of employees;
- gradual transition from paper-based to fully digital and automated document flow.
The stages of document workflow automation may differ slightly in steps depending on the level of the company’s system software readiness for integration as well as on the specific product chosen.
Tasks and functionality of the document management automation system
All automated document management systems, without exception, have the same goals: to help the company as much as possible, to reduce the cost of maintaining the archive, and to free up time used for paperwork in all possible forms. These are positive goals, certainly. But these tasks can be solved by completely different document workflow automation systems. After all, we talk about programs created by people: some of them work better, others worse.
All automated document systems are products that have different levels of protection. Similarly, the scalability of all of them is different. And the added value that engineers can implement is also a rhetorical question. We can’t speak for other companies because our colleagues will tell you about their services better than we or anyone else could. But we can speak for ourselves.
We offer you to consider the functionality of the automated document management system on the example of the SmartPoint DMS product by the SMART business team.
| SmartPoint DMS | Other automated document systems | Paper-based system | |
| Protection level | Equal to Microsoft network security, data is encrypted and stored in the cloud. Your information is safe. | There are systems with a hybrid type of data storage: part of the data is in the cloud; part is on physical storage devices. This is not bad, but security is lower. | Documents can burn, sink, or physically fall into the wrong hands. Security is at risk. |
| Scalability, integration | SMART business engineers can integrate the document management system into any software network. Scaling is unlimited. | There may be some issues that will be difficult to handle with the available tools, and new solutions will take longer to develop. Scaling depends on this. | Keeping a huge archive of documents at the head office is a legacy from the old dark years of document management. This is a headache you should get rid of. |
| Implementation speed | A ready-made out-of-the-box solution. It is implemented as quickly as possible, and we go through all the stages of document workflow automation together with you. | It depends on many factors, but first and foremost on the integrative capabilities of the chosen automated document management system. | Paper archiving of business documents should be avoided whenever possible. The less paperwork, the better the company’s performance. |
| Additional value | We can offer you a ready-made corporate portal, a HCM system for your specialists, an ERP system adapted to tax legislation, and a full range of other services for customizing ready-made products and expanding them. | It’s always nice when document management automation is not the only product of a company. After all, working with a single team is always more profitable than looking for contractors and managing several processes at the same time. | In our understanding, a paper archive cannot be compared to the benefits that automated document systems create. This is a completely different level of comfort and growth. |
| Compliance with current legislation | The SmartPoint DMS team provides services for integrating software into your system only after customizing the program to meet the requirements of your country’s legislation. We have clients from all over the world, and our lawyers have studied and tested in practice solutions for adapting the SmartPoint DMS automated document management system to the laws of specific countries. We advise on this issue and provide support at all stages. | Most likely, our colleagues consider the specifics of the legislation in the field of document management and workflow automation at enterprises in their client countries. However, the greatest difficulty may arise when integrating software oriented to more developed country legislation into transition or developing countries. In this case, the system may not have all the functions that are necessary in a particular case. | A paper-based document management system is likely to be one of the workflows that is allowed in all countries in the world. But this is most likely its only advantage, because in all other aspects, this method of document management is a past stage of workflow evolution. In this regard, it is unpleasant to state that sometimes the country’s legislation does not allow businesses to fully switch to automated document management system, so some papers must remain in the archive. |
Table title: Functionality of the SmartPoint DMS automated document management system
Digital automated document systems: choice factors, implementation, and integrations
Now let’s consider a situation in which you have decided to research different automated document management systems and make a choice based on your own decision. In this case, the SMART business team still has something to suggest.
What options to choose?
- Price
- Implementation speed
- Ease of migration
- Guarantees of historical data transfer
- Data security level
- User-friendly interface
- Team’s ability to support and expand the product
- Complexity of training and use of the document workflow automation system, etc.
What are the implementation options?
- An out-of-the-box solution within a single ecosystem. This is exactly what SmartPoint DMS is about: the finished product is one of many network elements that we are ready to integrate into your business.
- A ready-made solution as a separate software product. This may be convenient, but the more separate products a business uses, the more difficult it is to consolidate data in one place for protection and backup.
- Uniquely developed solution. There is an option when a company is ready to pay for the creation of a document management and workflow automation system from scratch, specifically for the needs of its organization. But these are rare cases, since adapting one of the ready-made solutions is more rational than reinventing the wheel.
How to synchronize the automated document management system with third-party programs?
This is a very good question that the software product team should have an answer to. It is wise to take the time to think two steps ahead: how difficult will it be to migrate to other systems later if necessary, or is it even technically possible? The SmartPoint DMS team recommends that you take your time and carefully compare the advantages and disadvantages of a specific automated document system before deciding to integrate it. Haste, in this case, is our enemy.
Benefits of the SmartPoint DMS solution for document management and workflow automation
So, in this article, we have analyzed the following:
- document flow automation is an evolutionary business need;
- what are the types of automated document management systems?
- what are their tasks and functionalities?
- how to choose the right one;
- SmartPoint DMS has advantages over other solutions in many points.
At the same time, we believe that the main advantage of the automated document management system SmartPoint DMS is the potential for business development. The fact is that we do not strive to provide you with services for the installation of a single product. We want to develop your business just as you want it.
SmartPoint DMS team consultants know that very often the description of one of the business tasks leads the team to completely different activities than everybody thought before. Since migration to an automated document management system is a responsible process, we must approach it comprehensively. In such a way that we can open as many ways as possible for the further development of your company’s software network. And that’s what we do.
To order a demo from SMART business consultants, use the button below. Also, we remind you that SMART business engineers can adapt and modify the automated document management system for the most demanding business areas. A special word about support: we will meet the challenges of the future with you.
Thank you for reading this article! We wish your business to grow and benefit others!
