What Is Low Code Automation and What Are the Benefits?

Low-code automation is the use of software to automate a business process, without the need for traditional computer programming.
Compared to building a business process automation solution from scratch, a low-code automation solution offers:
  • The ability to develop, deploy and iterate on your processes quickly as business needs change.
  • A secure foundation that you can clear by IT once and then use to build out multiple processes.
  • An easy-to-use interface that allows non-technical process experts to build powerful solutions.

What is a low-code platform?

A low-code platform is a development environment that enables all types of users, including non-technical ones, to build processes without the need to code much, if at all, compared to building an application for that process from scratch. For both non-career developers and seasoned coders, these platforms are a way for you to build a custom business application or automate a process without the need to code basic functionality or back-end infrastructure elements, such as security and error handling.

By both lowering the barrier to entry to create an app, and speeding up development times, low-code automation platforms enable organizations to be more agile in response to changing needs, regulations and customer expectations.

What is meant by low-code?

Although you may see low-code platform vendors use a variety of terms to describe their offerings, they often share a common thread of digitizing key business operations in a way that’s easy for those without coding experience. This is usually achieved by providing a drag-and-drop interface that lets users design and map out logic for applications, workflows and business processes.

What is an example of low-code?

A low-code automation platform is usually good at gathering information and routing it to the right person or location. More robust platforms, like Laserfiche, with enterprise content management (ECM) technology, can store information as well without the need of a third-party application to support it. Below is an example of a low-code automation platform for a generic request:
Diagram showing a low code process that gathers information, routs information, and stores information.

Gather information: Low-code automation platforms can gather information either directly from a digital form, or a scanned paper form. When dealing with paper, these platforms usually use AI to sort and classify applicable data points from the document and stores them as metadata.

Route information: Using a workflow designer, you can make sure your low-code automation platform routes information based on certain criteria and sets up the logic as you see fit. This example routes a request based on whether it is approved or rejected. However, it’s important to note that you can route information based on a number of criteria and down a variety paths outside of “accept or reject.” This flexibility allows you to create a variety of applications on the same platform.

Store information: At this point, many platforms would integrate with a third-party system to store and archive any information relevant to the automated business process. Although third-party integrations are an important feature of many low-code platforms, they are not always necessary when it comes to storage and archival. If a low-code platform also works as an ECM platform, it can store and archive information in a centralized repository, with added features that enhance an organization’s ability to store and archive information in a way that remains in compliance with industry regulations and organizational policies.

What can you do with low-code platforms?

With the right low-code platform, the possibilities of what you can build are virtually limitless. Some platforms even offer marketplaces for solutions, which allows creators to share what they’ve built and for others to get started faster with pre-built templates. One example is the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, which has pre-built workflows for many of your everyday processes.

The below infographic “Laserfiche 4 Steps to Innovation” shows how those that use the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace can not only deploy solutions quickly, but get involved with a larger community of innovators.Infographic showing the Laserfiche's four steps to innovation: asking what needs to be automated, seeing how others use Laserfiche, downloading and using solutions and sharing with others.

Below are a few examples of processes you can automate with a low-code platform:
  • HR onboarding: Have new hires fill out and sign paperwork digitally and route the forms to your repository for storage and archival.
  • Expense reimbursement: Streamline expense reimbursement requests by routing them directly to approvers for quick decisions.
  • Accounts payable: Gather relevant information from incoming documents and apply business rules to verify matching POs and invoices.

Which low-code platform is best?

There are a lot of low-code platforms out there, but not all offer the same level of functionality. Here’s a quick list of core features to look for in a low-code platform:

Drag-and-drop: If a low-code platform doesn’t include a drag-and-drop or other visual interface, it may require more coding and other complexities than you expect. See if you can get a demo or product walkthrough that explores how the low-code platform works before making a decision.

Integrations: You want to make sure that any low-code platform you use interacts with the digital ecosystem you already have in place. Check documentation for your desired low-code platform and any applications you plan to integrate it with before investing in a solution.

ECM features: While many low-code platforms can integrate with an ECM system to manage the storage and archival of documents, some of them offer an ECM within the product itself. This allows you to not only build applications around content, but actively manage the content throughout its lifecycle using the same application, making the deployment of these types of solutions more streamlined and centralized.

What is the difference between low-code and no-code?

A no-code platform, as its name suggests, requires no code from the user to program a solution. Low code, on the other hand, involves some level of scripting or manual coding from technical staff.

Solutions made using no-code can come in the form of a reporting dashboard or digital form where you’re putting together prepackaged UI elements. Some no-code platforms may allow you to build content management applications, digital workflows or mobile and web apps without code, although potentially with some limitations — it’s not that you can’t create an app without using code, it’s just that without the potential to add code, a platform may be needlessly limiting its own capabilities.

On the other hand, that little bit of code you add doesn’t have to be incredibly complex either, while still providing a great deal of customizability to your applications. Common use cases for these kinds of platforms, include making calculations based on incoming data and integrating with an application that has an application programming interface (API).

What does low-code have to do with APIs?

An application programming interface (API) works as a means for outside applications to interact with the one that the API is designed around. In the same way that a human needs some sort of an interface to interact with technology, like a graphical user interface (GUI) on an application or simply the buttons on a household appliance, an API gives outside applications a specific set of functions it can ask of the application providing the API.

APIs are useful in that they both give a low-code automation platform the ability to interact with other applications it might not otherwise have been able to, while sticking with the theme of simplicity that no-code provides. APIs are usually designed to just take in simple inputs and provide a simple output, with the rest of the logic inside the application providing the API. This makes most API functions light on code, and thus some of the easiest coding snippets to add to automated processes using a low-code platform.

Why is low-code popular?

Low-code is popular because it makes organizations more efficient. Especially in a business climate that can experience large, seismic shifts in an instant, the ability for organizations to develop and deploy solutions quickly is of upmost importance. There’s also a need to remain flexible and adapt the development or use of an automated process to meet new business needs. Although this era was inevitable given advances in technology and communications, its arrival was accelerated by the harsh realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is low-code really the future?

Although opinions may vary, things seem to be trending toward low-code platforms becoming the norm. Analyst firm Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications will be developed using low-code or no-code technology. The most telling sign that low-code is the future, however, is that future is already here.

Although this may not be the case with some enterprise applications, some kinds of low-code applications and platforms have been around for a while now, from game engines that help create interactive digital experiences, to website builders that empower small businesses to create more robust websites.

While the future of low-code is technically uncertain, it’s likely safe to say that building applications and processes from scratch is largely a thing of the past.

Should developers learn low-code?

Software programmers will probably be some of the first people to tell you that there are multiple solutions to a problem, and that the highest effort one is not the best solution. With that in mind, developers would be of sound decision-making to consider developing on a low-code platform. It allows them to develop faster from the start, and more quickly adapt to changes to a business process’s requirements or specifications. It’s also important for those in IT to have knowledge of the platforms and how they work, to ensure that the platform their organization chooses to deploy meets security needs and other requirements.

Further reading

Want to learn more about how you can design low-code processes with Laserfiche? Visit our low code automation product page.

If you’re interested in choosing the right kind of low-code process automation platform your organization, check out our Process Automation Buyer’s Guide.

What You Need to Know About the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace

With its easy-to-use, no-code workflows, forms and content management offerings for both cloud and on-premises deployments, Laserfiche makes it easy for all types of teams and individuals to streamline their day-to-day processes.

Since early 2022, customers now have a faster way to innovate on everyday workplace processes with the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, a hub for Laserfiche community members to explore solution templates from Laserfiche, its industry partners, third-party vendors and even citizen developers.

What is the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace?

The Laserfiche Solution Marketplace is a place for users to download solution templates that include pre-built forms, workflows and other resources for the Laserfiche platform. It’s also a community hub where Laserfiche users can share their owns solutions with each other. (Want to contribute? You can submit your solutions here.)

Watch the video below for a quick overview of the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, and read on to take a deep dive into how the marketplace can help you deploy solutions faster.

While the ability to create many of these solutions exists for most Laserfiche users, it can be much easier and faster — especially for resource-strapped individuals and organizations — to use or build upon what other platform experts have already created.

What kinds of solutions are available on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace?

Here are a few examples of the types of resources you can find on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace:

What are the benefits of using the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace?

While the time-savings are readily apparent in the use of pre-built solutions, there are also additional benefits one can get from using the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace:

  • Put your ROI in overdrive: A faster start from pre-built solutions means less lead-up time to enjoy the efficiency and productivity benefits of the Laserfiche platform.
  • Enjoy solutions with built-in expertise: Many pre-built solutions are created by industry leaders and already have best practices baked into them.
  • Democratize big ideas: Enable employees across departments and disciplines to take the role of citizen developers, combining and building on solutions to foster innovation.

How do I get started with the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace?

Visit the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace site to explore a growing library of 100+ solution templates for Laserfiche self-hosted deployments and Laserfiche Cloud.

Also be sure to check out the below infographic “Laserfiche 4 Steps to Innovation” for a step-by-step guide on how to get started deploying solutions and sharing your innovations with the larger Laserfiche community.Infographic showing the Laserfiche's four steps to innovation: asking what needs to be automated, seeing how others use Laserfiche, downloading and using solutions and sharing with others.

Calling all innovators! Stake your claim as a digital transformation pioneer by being one of the first to have their innovative ideas on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace. Community members looking to submit their own templates can do so here.

Everything You Need to Know About AP Automation

Accounts payable automation can help you streamline invoice processing times, putting your organization on track to getting all the benefits that come with paying vendors promptly and accurately. Read on to learn more about each step in the AP process and where a process automation platform can assist.

How do you automate an AP process?

For the uninitiated, Accounts Payable, or AP for short, consists of four main steps:

  • Purchasing a product or service
  • Receiving an invoice
  • Reviewing an invoice
  • Paying for products or services

Overview of AP invoice processing.

Automating an AP process involves digitizing these steps and the documents involved. Read on to learn more about how each step is transformed with technology.

How do you automate purchasing a product or service?

For many organizations, the purchasing process starts with creating a purchase order, or PO, that lists the goods and services you want from a vendor.

One way automation helps with this process is allowing you to scan invoices individually or in bulk and store them in an enterprise content management, or ECM system. These systems digitize your everyday documents so you can retrieve them easily, avoid losing them and lessen your organization’s reliance on physical paper. Using intelligent content capture technology, an ECM system can also extract metadata for easy search, retrieval, and invoice matching (more on that later.)

Side note: when sharing POs and other documents with vendors, be sure to do so securely. We recommend using secure file sharing on your platform of choice.

How do you automate receiving an invoice?

Once an organization lets a vendor know they want to purchase a good or service, whether it’s through PO or something else, the next step usually involves an invoice. This is a document provided by the vendor, outlining the goods and services they will provide for the requesting organization.

However, not all invoices are alike. Formatting can differ greatly between invoices from different vendors, making automation more difficult when it comes to scanning and extracting information from documents. Thus, AP personnel are often required to enter invoice information manually.

Luckily, some process automation platforms can help you minimize the challenges of inconsistent invoice formats. How? By using a type of artificial intelligence, or AI, called machine learning, or ML. This technology helps your process automation platform learn from experience how to read these invoices, extract the data, and store it in a more consistent, digital format, along with the scan of the full document.

How do you automate reviewing an invoice?

When an invoice is received from a vendor, it needs to be cross-referenced with the purchase order given to them by the purchasing organization, through a process called invoice matching. This is to make sure that the goods requested are the ones to be delivered, and to address any discrepancies between the two.

Automation platforms would do a similar job to what an accounts payable department’s employees would have to do manually — compare each data point with the invoice to its companion on the purchase order, and verify they match.

These data points of comparison are usually presented as metadata, or pieces of information associated with a particular document on an enterprise content management platform, such as an invoice number, a purchased item’s name or the price for a particular service.

For most platforms, users can manually enter metadata, however if you used intelligent content capture for the invoice and the PO using an enterprise content management platform, there’s little if any data entry necessary.

How do you automate paying an invoice?

Generally, the last part of the AP process, once the purchase order and invoice are generated, stored, and matched, is to pay for any purchase items or services. Although this may seem like a simple step, there are plenty of opportunities for automation.

One way you can automate this part of the process is to leverage the integrations available to an enterprise content management system. These integrations are usually baked-in to an enterprise content management platform or can be obtained from that platform’s marketplace. These integrations allow you to do things like payment processing and signature gathering on other platforms and fold these processes into your existing digital workflows.

You can also use an enterprise content management system’s digital workflows to automatically send emails to appropriate stakeholders to notify them of a particular event, such as when a payment is on its way to a vendor.

What are the benefits of AP automation?

The most obvious benefit of automating any process is the time savings you get from not having to manually enter data, route documents, and the like. However, let’s dig a bit deeper and look at the various benefits you can get by streamlining your AP department’s processes:

  • Boost your AP team’s productivity by automatically capturing relevant invoice data and minimizing manual data entry.
  • Quickly maximize ROI from your enterprise content management platform with tools such as intelligent content capture, that associate searchable data points with your invoices, regardless of format, when they’re imported.
  • Improve transparency across your AP department and your entire organization with digital workflows that make it easy to see where an invoice or PO is in the AP process.
  • Bolster your efforts to protect against fraud with an enterprise content management platform that automatically validates invoice data against previously approved POs to identify discrepancies and routes to stakeholders to uphold a high standard of accountability.
  • Build on your initiatives to improve cash flow, automating reminders for key stakeholders and other parts of the AP process to avoid late fees and streamline payment cycles.
  • Enhance your information governance and compliance toolkit by leveraging granular user security, audit trails and records management tools to bolster your efforts to protect confidential data and enforce standards for invoice-related content.

See how organizations are doing more with AP automation: thanks to its cloud content management system, Mercer Island School District was able to streamline its AP processes and dedicate more time to serving its students. Learn more here.

What is the best accounts payable automation solution?

Deciding which AP automation solution is best is often up to preference and needs. Your organization’s needs may differ from others. One place to get started is to look at review sites, such as G2, that compare popular vendors.

If you want to learn more about how Laserfiche could help transform your AP department’s processes, check out our product page here. In addition to offering AP automation as part of a robust enterprise content management platform for multiple types of deployments, Laserfiche also recently launched its solution marketplace, which offers templates for organizations looking to jumpstart any digital transformation effort, whether it’s aimed at AP or elsewhere, in order to save time and focus on what matters.

Cloud Document Management Is the Future — Here’s Why

Today’s organizations have been using some form of document management for years, whether it be on paper, on a computer or online. While we at Laserfiche have encouraged customers to digitize documents for decades, many organizations are just starting to move their document management systems to the cloud. Read on to see why cloud-based document management systems are becoming so popular that they’re the norm rather than the exception.

What is a cloud-based document management system?

According to the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), document management is “the software that controls and organizes documents throughout an organization.” According to Merriam-Webster, cloud computing is “the practice of storing regularly used computer data on multiple servers that can be accessed through the Internet.”

In summary, cloud-based document management system is a platform that controls and organizes documents stored on multiple servers and accessed through the internet.

Why is cloud the future of document management?

Cloud is the future for document management because it is the easiest, most efficient way to access and organize your documents – no matter where your work takes you. In fact, the software as a service (SaaS) industry is expected to expand to a value of over $400 billion by 2025. Why is this the case?

The workplace is becoming remote. Like it or not, remote work is here to stay. According to the AP, Amazon, one of the world’s largest employers, announced in 2021 that it would allow many of its employees to work from home indefinitely. This new world of work means that employees need to access work-related content via the internet, and that’s where cloud document management becomes a necessity.

Cybersecurity is getting more complicated. Even the most robust IT teams face challenges creating in-house enterprise solutions for any and all cyberthreats. These threats are growing in number and complexity, which can strain IT teams that are also deploying solutions and answering helpdesk tickets. Cloud allows internal teams to offload security overhead to the vendor (or a firm dedicated to protecting cloud assets), enabling businesses to stay up-to-date with their security while distributing IT resources effectively.

The digital ecosystem is evolving. Changing trends are informing how we do our everyday work. Largely gone are the days where every line of business was managed within the same application or family of applications. Today’s modern enterprise links different platforms together with content services platforms and others like it. This concept of bringing applications together to form a unique experience, called composition, is essential as modern applications are becoming more specialized and connected.

What are the benefits of cloud-based document management?

Managing documents and content in the cloud offers a variety of benefits, including:

Robust backups of your data — Unlike an in-house solution, cloud content is backed up dozens or even thousands of times, ensuring that you don’t lose key information. This information can help you make informed decisions and keep business moving. Many cloud providers host backups in multiple data centers, which can support business continuity and help you recover from disaster quickly — if one of these facilities is down, your data and services generally aren’t.

Protect sensitive information — In addition to providing backups and multiple availability zones for your data, cloud services also often come with automatic updates and patches, and likely have more staff dedicated to securing information that is stored or moved to and from the cloud. Some cloud vendors may even offer specialized solutions based on the needs of heavily regulated industries, such as finance, that are either built into, or can be added onto, your existing cloud solution – with minimal setup on your organization’s end. This is great for organizations that can’t, or don’t want to, dedicate extensive staff or technological resources to cybersecurity.

Anywhere access — In the era of remote work, many professionals are moving out of established industry hubs and setting up home offices elsewhere. Cloud services make it easier for both remote and in-person teams to collaborate and communicate, making your organization more flexible in how it acquires and supports talent. In addition, anywhere access can simply help business processes move faster. Let’s say there’s a disruption to a time-sensitive process that needs a specific employee or role to get moving again — if this process is on the cloud, that employee or someone in that role can do what they need to do, even if they aren’t able to get to the office in a timely fashion. An ability to address these situations makes your business more efficient while giving it the ability to respond quickly to market forces and changes.

Low maintenance — A cloud solution often implies low to no hardware costs, as well as automatic updates that keep systems current for everyone. With your IT team free to offload some of these items, as well as security and data backups to another vendor or service, they can focus on new projects, procurements or respond to tickets faster. An agile IT team means a sturdier business, especially when it comes to business continuity.

How do I choose the right cloud document management system?

Ultimately, even when the decision to move to cloud is clear, it becomes even clearer that not all cloud document management systems are created equal. Although there are no hard and fast rules, here are some factors you may want to consider when shopping solutions:

Flexibility — in both capability and pricing, flexibility can be important dependent on your needs. Industries can change in an instant, so it’s important for your organization to be able to adapt as quickly as possible to disruptions and shifts in the market.

Robust capability — whether your cloud document management system can handle a task on its own, or integrate with a platform that does, you want to make sure it can handle your organization’s current needs, and potential future initiatives.

Compatibility — although these systems can be revolutionary, you want to have a new system to deploy seamlessly within most or all of the digital ecosystems you have already developed. Siloed systems should be avoided as much as possible in the age of content services, where different lines of business exchange information frequently.

The journey to find the right cloud document management system can be a daunting one — download our guide to learn more about why organizations need document management, and how you can procure the right solution for your organization.

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What Is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that enlists the help of bots, programs that can perform repetitive tasks directly from a user interface. Fast to deploy and easy to update, bots can be a powerful catalyst for system integrations.

Bots can also help further business process automation initiatives.

Bots fill a special niche within a business process automation platform — where traditional automation methods would leave gaps in processes, bots can fill them in by working directly with the front ends of applications to simulate how a human would interact with the software.

Imagine a robot sitting in front of a computer looking at the same applications and performing the same keystrokes as a person would — while you hold the remote control that tells the robot when and how to work.

So, for example, in a process where you previously had to manually review a documennt, enter data or transfer information between systems, the robot fills in these gaps in what could be a more automated process. In addition, the bot by its nature will be more accurate and efficient than a human user.

Processes that are automated end-to-end, and more robust integrations for your systems mean more time for employees to concentrate on high-impact projects. Part of the beauty of robotic process automation technology is that it offers even non-technical employees the power to automate parts of their own workflows and gain the benefits that come from doing so.

The basics of robotic process automation (RPA)

Today’s organizations use a wide variety of business applications. When a legacy platform, web application, or in-house system lacks enterprise integration functionality, it’s likely that employees have to do manual work to keep information and content moving between systems as part of a business process. These manual steps in automated processes are sometimes called “automation gaps”.

RPA bots work directly from an application’s user interface, mimicking human actions, including logging in and out, copying and pasting data, opening emails and attachments and filling out forms. As they can act like a human, while still working with speed, efficiency and a lack of human intervention, these bots are particularly suited to fill automation gaps in business processes.

While this functionality may sound similar to screen-scraping or application macros, RPA has evolved beyond these solutions. For example, while macros follow a pre-determined script of fixed, linear commands, bots have the flexibility to learn over time and intuitively respond to changes in business processes. Also, in cases where you need multiple tools to run scripts for each business application, RPA can simplify the way users automate tasks by interacting with multiple applications at once.

The dynamic nature of robotic process automation makes it ideal for organizations that want to deploy integrations and automation solutions quickly in response to a need or a changing business climate.

What are the benefits of RPA?

As a user-friendly and cost-effective tool, robotic process automation provides a number of advantages that are drawing interest from organizations across industries.

The business benefits of RPA include:
  • Low technical barriers: Programming skills are not necessary to configure a bot. Non-technical staff can use a process recorder feature to teach the bot how to perform a previously manual step in an automated business process, and integrate the bot-based automation into a larger automated workflow using a drag-and-drop process designer or similar tool.
  • Increased accuracy: Like many tools available as part of a process automation suite, bots are extremely accurate and consistent – they are much less prone to making mistakes or typos than a human worker. This can apply to common processes such as setting up or removing user accounts, copying information from one system to another, onboarding and off-boarding employees or populating forms based on information from another system.
  • Meet regulatory compliance standards: Bots only follow the instructions they have been configured to follow and provide an audit trail history for each step. The controlled nature of bots makes robotic process automation well suited for organizations that want to automate their business processes end-to-end while still meeting strict compliance standards.
  • No interruption of work: Bots can work tirelessly work around the clock, autonomously without requiring employees to re-activate them, allowing a more flexible schedule for business processes.
  • Existing systems remain in place: Unlike traditional integrations that may require extensive developer resources, RPA doesn’t require any changes to the systems you already use every day to be included as part of your automated business processes. Bots work directly from a user interface, just as a person would. This makes robotic process automation especially useful for integrating legacy systems, where APIs may not be immediately available, or in situations where organizations do not have the time or employee resources to develop custom code-based integrations.
  • Improved employee morale and employee experience: By utilizing robotic process automation as part of their automation tooklkit, organizations can open up further opportunities for employees to dedicate more of their time and talent to other work. While bots fill out forms, enter data and look up information from websites, employees can focus on high-impact projects that further drive growth.
  • Increased productivity: Process cycle times are more efficient and can be completed at a faster speed compared to manual processes.

What processes are relevant to RPA?

Robotic process automation is a versatile, scalable technology that can be applied throughout the enterprise in a variety of industries. Top candidates for optimization with RPA are typically:
  • Consistent and routine
  • High volume
  • Prone to human error
  • Limited in requiring a person to make a decision
  • Manual data entry

In many cases, RPA can bring immediate value to core business processes including:
  • Payroll
  • Employee status changes
  • New hire recruitment and onboarding
  • Accounts receivable and accounts payable
  • Invoice processing
  • Inventory management
  • Report creation
  • CRM data updates
  • Software installations
  • Data migration
  • Vendor onboarding

For example, if a wealth management firm needs to update CRM data with contact details from a spreadsheet, RPA can record the actions that need to be replicated, map fields between the two interfaces and automate this repeatable task, saving hours of employees’ valuable time.

A virtual business assistant

We may think of RPA in the context of organization-wide processes, but it can be applied as a personal productivity tool as well. Employees will be able to identify many opportunities for robotic process automation in their daily work where bots can assist.

With RPA, employees are empowered to automate their more routine daily tasks, regardless of technical expertise. This low barrier to entry enables employees across the enterprise to benefit from RPA, even if there isn’t a resource-intensive, organization-wide deployment.

Furthermore, since all bots can be monitored and audited over a centralized server, IT would still be able to manage bots in use, while promoting flexibility in the organization for employees to deploy their own custom solutions.

Having a bot as a de-facto virtual business assistant can help employees offload time-consuming, routine tasks in favor of high-impact projects and elevating the customer experience.

Bridging integration gaps with RPA

One of the immediate benefits of robotic process automation is its ability to integrate systems where gaps previously existed. Enterprises that rely on legacy systems or third-party, external sites for everyday operations but currently do not have the resources or the means to integrate them using other methods can deploy bots to do so. Fast to deploy and easy to update, syncing data and processes without human intervention. Bots enable organizations to quickly deploy integrations that sync data and processes without human intervention, filling in gaps between systems for more complete, end-to-end automation solutions.

RPA as part of the digital transformation journey

RPA can be an important tool in solving automation challenges and pushing organizations to grow into digital workplaces. However, it is just one part of an organization’s digital transformation toolkit.

Going beyond automating everyday repetitive tasks, RPA combined with traditional content services and business process management technologies can help organizations further maximize their potential as they make the most of their of automation strategies.

Robotic process automation is an ideal technology for reducing costs and increasing productivity. Whether optimizing end-to-end automation initiatives or enabling employees to be more efficient in handling projects, RPA is a powerful addition to any business process automation platform.

Laserfiche’s enterprise content management (ECM) and business process automation capabilities have long fueled digital transformation initiatives for organizations worldwide. By adding RPA to its process automation ecosystem, Laserfiche further enables employees to focus their talents on high-impact projects that drive growth.

Looking to make Laserfiche your BPA and RPA solution? Customers can get started more quickly than ever with the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, which has pre-built workflows for many of your everyday processes, including contract management, onboarding, front desk sign-ins, help desk requests and more!

Want to Learn More?

Download the Guide to Robotic Process Automation to take a closer look at the features, benefits and use cases of RPA.

Researching digital process automation platforms? Check out the G2 grid to compare top vendors.
G2 Grid® for Digital Process Automation (DPA) Software

What Is Information Management?

Information management (IM) is “the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences.”

Information management can take on many forms. In fact, it’s all around us. Your email inbox, the file system on your computer or phone, and even a physical filing cabinet are all examples of information management.

Still, with so many forms of information—such as text, audio, videos and more—along with swaths of new and old devices distributing it, it’s hard to keep track of all that’s coming in. This is especially cumbersome in a business environment, where up-to-date and accurate information is crucial.

Although the components of information management can be difficult to define, we’ll break down this concept into three key categories: accessibility, storage and governance.

Accessibility

Accessibility in the context of information management comes down to whether or not data is easy for users to access when they need it. Features such as full-text search and metadata fields can support organization and search-ability, which are essential to making information available to users once they have access to a system.

For a look at how information management principles could play out in the physical world, let’s use the example of a local library.

Here, the public can browse books organized alphabetically by metadata such as author and title. This way, if someone were looking for a work by one of their favorite writers, it would be accessible and easy for them to find. They can also always ask the librarian, whose encyclopedic knowledge of book titles, authors and famous quotes makes them almost like a human search engine, enabling them to find books even faster. A library not using these information management strategies might just have books of varying authors, titles and genres mixed, stacked and sorted any which way along with an unfortunately empty front desk—putting the burden entirely on eager readers to find what they need.

Storage and Preservation

Another key component of information management is ensuring that processes and methodologies are in place for the proper storage, maintenance and disposal of data. Certain laws and regulations even establish special retention rules for important or sensitive information types. In addition, it’s imperative to keep data updated to avoid confusion and protect it in case of disaster.

Let’s return to our imaginary library. To establish some retention rules, the library might only keep out the most recent five years of magazines and newspapers, and retire older issues to an archives room in the back of the building or in the basement—save for historically significant issues kept for students and curious historians.

The library might also preserve all issues, new and old, in a secure environment such as plastic sleeves to keep them from wear and tear.

Lastly, to ensure that reference materials have the most updated information, encyclopedias and dictionaries would be put under some form of version control—always available in the most recent edition, with earlier editions available by special request.

Governance

Good governance is about having controls in place to ensure that processes and procedures are followed. It’s also especially important to establish and enforce security policies so that only those authorized to view or edit information can do so.

For a library to enforce strict information governance, it might need to take some controversial measures. For one, it might enforce access rights by keeping books under lock and key to make sure unauthorized users can’t read or tamper with them. Second, to ensure information remains intact and reduce fraud, books would need to be returned by the person that borrowed them unless they get express written permission from the library. To track activity, the library might also want to install security cameras to make sure visitors are following the rules, and put trackers on each book that would beep in case of theft. Lastly, the classic check-in and check-out log practices might have to be revised to include permanent ink and a preserved archive of all logs for each and every book, in case this library was audited by a governing body and needed to present a thorough report.

Information Management Solutions for the Real World

It can be difficult to support information management principles in a non-digital setting. That’s why organizations seeking to better manage information need a scalable solution that gives them the tools and capabilities for success.

With a digital system, not only can you easily create and follow the rules, you barely need to lift a finger with the help of process automation suites or digital bots that learn your day-to-day tasks. Most of all, a digital system can more accurately keep an audit trail for compliance purposes.

In terms of the future and innovations in the information management space, intelligent information management (IIM) is becoming increasingly popular. This methodology aims to take the core principles of information management and enhance them to account for new analytics technologies and forms of content, such as social media.

To summarize, information management, in a business sense, is a way for staff to easily access and share information, while also keeping it up-to-date, preserved and secure. While you can manage your information by conventional, paper-based methods, it is far more cost-effective to do so with digital, innovative solutions.

What’s the Difference Between Document and Records Management Systems?

Most document management systems can be considered records management systems, but not all. Thus, a robust DMS can set up your organization for success. Read on to see why knowing the difference between the core concepts of document and records management can help you make the right choice when choosing software for your organization.

Below are definitions of each term, followed by the three key characteristics that distinguish these practices from one another.

What is document management system?


A document management system involves the capture, storage, modification and sharing of physical files within an organization.

Generally speaking, practicing document management offers opportunities to:
  • Reduce lost and misfiled documents.
  • Provide faster search and retrieval of documents.
  • Help better organize existing documents.
  • Improve business processes and organizational efficiency.
  • Reduce the amount of physical space used to store documents, such as file cabinets, boxes and shelving.

Want to know more? Download the document management software buyer’s guide.

What is a records management system?

Records management systems establish policies and standards for maintaining diverse types of records. Some, but not all, documents within an organization become records.

Records management can be thought of as a subset of document management that can also bolster efforts to:
  • Distinguish non-record content from records.
  • Apply required retention periods to records.
  • Identify the owners of records.
  • Determine that a chain of custody and a proper audit trail both exist for each record.
  • Assist in e-discovery issues and applying legal holds to records when needed.
  • Manage the proper and timely disposition of records.
  • Develop and administer records policy and procedures for electronic or paper records.
  • Preserve records throughout their life cycle.

Want to dig deeper? Learn even more about records management here.

What makes document and records management systems different?

Although you may use the same system for document management and records management, these types of content are managed differently. These differences in management practices include: the goal, or purpose of each practice, the information or content involved in each practice, methodology, or the way each practice is performed.

1. Goal

The goal of document management is efficiency. Approving documents faster, reducing manual data entry and automating recurring tasks are some of the many functions of document management that work toward this goal.

The goal of records management is compliance. A well-maintained records management system helps organizations avoid penalties when audited by regulators, auditors and other governing bodies.

Document management and records management share a common goal of business continuity. Shortcomings in either can contribute to organization-wide challenges. However, when both document and records management work toward their goals (efficiency and compliance), organization resiliency is better within your reach.

2. Information

The information of document management is comprised of transient content. Invoices are signed and then sent off to the next approver, older drafts are discarded for revised ones, forms pass from submitter to reviewer and so on.

The information of records management is comprised of historical content. The status of a document is determined by different phases of the records lifecycle, as shown below:
Diagram outlining the records management lifecycle.
Different phases of the records lifecycle

3. Methodology

The methodology of document management is content-driven. As mentioned above, content is the catalyst for all document-related activity. Therefore, document repositories are usually organized with the needs of general users in mind: finding documents by keyword or title, keeping all documents together by employee or project, etc.

In contrast, the methodology of records management is context-driven. Records managers care more about document types (insurance records, employment applications, etc.) than the words written on the actual documents. As a result, retention schedules are the catalyst for records-related activity, as different types of records must be kept for different lengths of time, and under different conditions.

For an overview of how document management can help your organization streamline operations, watch our webinar, ECM 101: An Introduction to Document Management Features.

Discover how to prepare for an audit, protect sensitive records across the enterprise and more in our ebook, The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Records Management.
Download the eBook: The Ultimate Guide to Records Management.

Value-Added Reseller (VAR) or Managed Service Provider (MSP)? The Line is Blurring

Whether starting an information technology business, expanding one or shopping for solutions, it’s important to know why value-added resellers and managed service providers are categorized the way they are. However, as much as these labels give context, the VAR and MSP business models have begun to overlap more and more in recent years. Let’s start with the traditional definitions of these businesses and then move on to see how these labels are changing.

What is a value-added reseller (VAR)?

A value-added reseller (VAR) is a vendor that acquires, sets up, and configures a combination of software and hardware to meet a particular business need, or provide infrastructure technologies for a business just getting started. This can include anything from phone systems to server rooms and company-wide software rollouts. The key component of a VAR is that they usually add value in the form of configuration, setup, and support for your system, with some even including training programs for a period of time following purchase. Afterwards, the customer usually manages everything themselves, with occasional calls to the VAR if necessary.

If a customer’s goal was to set up security for their building, the VAR would be the team setting up cameras, creating your dashboards, and showing clients how to monitor their building.

What are managed service providers (MSPs)?

Managed service providers are vendors that provide ongoing services for however long a customer decides to keep their contract with them. Even in the IT space, software can be part of the package but isn’t a requirement. Some contracts with MSPs, called SLAs, cover services for software clients already own or use under a separate subscription. MSP’s are particularly known for offering:

  • Software and hardware support
  • Hardware and software maintenance
  • Data storage and backups
  • Cloud services and cloud system migrations
  • System and network infrastructure management
  • Network and system security

Many organizations think of and use an MSP as an outsourced IT staff, taking care of all the day-to-day IT tasks at the scale of a larger team, so their in-house IT staff can take care of more specialized projects and rollouts.

In the previously mentioned scenario where a customer was setting up security for their building, an MSP would provide the security guards themselves. They would use the customer’s existing software and hardware (security cameras and dashboards) to provide real-time service (in this case building security.)

SaaS is changing the business

Software as a Service, or SaaS has changed how software is sold. Instead of a single, one-time purchase, most if not all software these days is paid for continuously via a monthly or yearly subscription. These changes in how software is procured provides both challenges and opportunities for many types of businesses, including VARs and MSPs.

VARs now have a new way to gain more recurring revenue. However, this new way to pay challenges their business model. After initial configuration, what’s to stop a customer from choosing a cheaper subscription directly from the software vendor? This is where VARs start to change how they operate. One option is to work with a software vendor to get a commission on subscriptions, while still providing customers the software for a competitive price. Another option is to add additional services on a subscription basis, invariably transforming part of a VAR’s business model into that of an MSP.

As for businesses that have already started as MSPs, SaaS provides particular challenges in that many SaaS platforms are becoming easier to use. This means that a lot of what MSPs were previously most famous for might not be necessary as software becomes more user-friendly. However with every challenge comes new opportunity. Many cloud service providers, such as Amazon and Microsoft, already act as MSPs, but open the door for other MSPs to provide additional administration services on top of what you’d get with Amazon’s AWS or Microsoft’s Azure, with a more personalized touch for clients. Most importantly, however, MSPs can take a page from a VAR’s playbook, and start offering initial configuration and setup services for software in addition to what they’re already offering.

The future for VARs and MSPs

VARs are staring to act like MSPs. MSPs are starting to act like VARs. So what’s the real difference? Is there a name for this new type of service? Firstly, differences still largely depend on the VARs or MSPs being compared. Additionally, since the lines are beginning to blur, many VARs and MSPs can provide customers with a comprehensive and value package regardless of their label. Customers should be encouraged to compare and research VARs and MSPs on a vendor-by-vendor basis rather than depending solely on the labels to make their decision. Regardless, a name for this new type of business where the business models of VARs and MSPs begin to converge, has yet to be determined. Only time will tell.

Whatever path or label you choose for your firm, the Laserfiche Solution Provider Program provides the tools and resources you need to provide cutting-edge software to customers while providing profitable revenue streams to grow your business.

Become a Laserfiche Solution Provider to establish recurring revenue streams and grow your business.

Introducing the Laserfiche API

As our users and solution providers know, Laserfiche offers a robust toolkit of integrations to help you bring Laserfiche Cloud into your digital ecosystem.

We’re here to introduce yet another addition to your integration toolkit, the Laserfiche API, allowing all kinds of applications to interact with the Laserfiche Cloud repository.

What is the Laserfiche API?

The Laserfiche API is a RESTful application programming interface (API) for Laserfiche Cloud.

An API is a set of functions that facilitate communication between two applications. For example, in the case of the Laserfiche API, these functions help other applications interact with the Laserfiche Cloud repository.

RESTful is a standard for APIs, allowing third-party or home-grown applications in virtually any language to send and receive information from web applications in a consistent format. The Laserfiche API can also run on most operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

Future releases will also include official client libraries that make it easier for developers to work with the Laserfiche API in their preferred programming language.

In summary, an API allows communication between two applications, and the RESTful standard makes sure the applications are speaking the same language. The Laserfiche API allows your Laserfiche Cloud repository to interact with home-grown and third-party systems.

What can you do with the Laserfiche API?

The Laserfiche API enables you to interact with your Laserfiche Cloud repository in a variety of ways, including:

  • Import and export documents
  • Read and write metadata values
  • Create folder structures
  • Retrieve search results

Other exciting features, including process automation and OAuth authentication, are coming soon.

What are the use cases?

The general use case for the Laserfiche API is to facilitate information sharing between the Laserfiche Cloud repository and other system your organization uses day-to-day. For example, an educational institution may find that Laserfiche is the most cost-effective and secure enterprise content management solution available to them, but information comes to them from their student information system (SIS).

Below are some of the many system types you may want to integrate with your Laserfiche Cloud repository using the Laserfiche API:

  • Customer relationship management (CRM) – sales teams can avoid entering customer and prospect information twice. The Laserfiche API can facilitate the transfer of customer data and documentation from a CRM to Laserfiche when sales closes a deal.
  • Enterprise resource planning (ERP) – handle AP processing efficiently with a custom integration that can move invoices and receipts between Laserfiche – which can help you automatically match and capture data from invoices — and your ERP system.
  • Human resource management system (HRMS) – seamlessly move employee records, W-4s, contact information and more between your Laserfiche Cloud repository and your human resource management system (HRMS) when onboarding and offboarding employees.
  • Student information system (SIS) – Keep systems in sync, using your Laserfiche Cloud repository as a source of truth. Use the Laserfiche API to ensure that transcripts, mailing addresses and other important student information is updated across your systems and platforms.

How do I get started with the Laserfiche API?

We are incredibly excited about what developers will be able to create. To get started with the Laserfiche API, visit our developer page for how-to-guides, reference materials and more.