What Is Document Metadata?

Document metadata is information assigned to a document to provide additional context. This metadata describes such characteristics as what the document is, who created it and when it was created.

Applying metadata to documents can help ensure information accuracy, simplify document search and retrieval, and automate business processes using an enterprise content management system.

Let’s take a deeper dive into what metadata is and the best practices for putting it to work in your organization.

What is document metadata used for?

A document’s metadata provides context that can help you better organize content. Additionally, search tools can usually read metadata much faster than a document’s full text, saving you time when searching.

Types of document metadata

Metadata holding document information can take on a variety of forms, including:

Fields and templates
Tags
Links to other resources or documents
Version information
Digital signatures

Fields and templates

Fields store metadata about a document or folder. They can contain information including but not limited to words, lists, numbers, and dates.

Multi-value fields can be assigned multiple values at once. For example, someone may create a multi-value “author” field since some books may have multiple co-authors. Multi-value field groups enable someone to group together related fields. For example, you may group together “first name” and “last name” fields.

The most advanced cloud content management systems allow you to customize how fields are viewed to enhance the user experience. In addition, many systems offer the option to set fields as “required” so that users have to enter necessary metadata when creating or importing a new document.

A template is a group of document metadata fields. A template allows you to immediately apply a set of fields to a document, organized in a way that you want. Dynamic fields are useful when you want the list of options in one field of document metadata to depend on another. For example, a form on a government site may have a “county” field that depends on the “state” a user chooses.

Templates allow you to quickly apply related metadata fields to documents.

Links

Flexible, reliable content management systems support document links – a type of metadata that associates a document with another. Two important document link types are:

Document relationships, which connect two documents
Link groups, which connect larger groups of documents

Document relationships are useful whenever you want to be able to keep two documents associated with each other—especially if they are stored in different parts of your digital repository. For example, you might file email messages in a “Communications” folder by date or sender, but put the email attachments in other folders depending on their content. If you connected emails with their attachments using a document relationship, you could quickly find an attachment that goes with a particular email message no matter where in the repository the two documents are stored.

A link group is a collection of related documents, each with their own metadata, location, and other information. You can create a link group from any document, add or remove documents in the group, import documents into that group, or comment on documents in the group. Similar to document relationships, you can quickly access any of the documents in the group from any other document in the group.

Versions

Versions are useful for making reversible and trackable changes to documents. If you scan or save a document as a new version, the old version of the document remains intact in its version history, eliminating the risk of accidentally losing information by overwriting. In addition, a document’s version history allows you to see and compare the changes made in previous versions and to revert to a previous version, if necessary.

Digital signatures

A digital signature is a way to indicate a document’s authenticity, confirming the signee’s identity, and providing a digital footprint that the signature itself has not been modified. For example, a manager can use a digital signature to indicate that he or she has approved a document. Later, a user can look up this signature to verify who signed it and if that signature was modified.

Document metadata best practices

Document metadata is typically accessed by two parties in an organization: administrators, and users. Administrators have control over modifying types of metadata, permissions and rules (for example, making certain fields required when a user edits a document). Users may access metadata to update a search for and modify a document, or to organize a portion of the digital repository.

When establishing a system of metadata use within an organization, the administrator should set the following best practices:

Design a document metadata plan

As an administrator, it is a good idea to plan out the use of document metadata as early as possible.

Deliberately designing your metadata allows for a more structured, streamlined and intuitive system than adding metadata elements to your documents at will, which can result in duplicate fields and a cluttered environment.

For example, if you plan your fields ahead, you can create a single “Customer” field that can be used for all templates, which reduces the total number of fields a user must contend with and simplifies search and retrieval.

In contrast, if users create fields as they go, one user might create an “Invoice Customer” field and another user might create a “Customer Report” field, creating unneeded redundancy as both fields would contain customer names.

Streamline document metadata

As a standard, you should use as few document metadata types as you can while still storing all the information you need. The more metadata elements you have in your repository, the more performance (i.e. speed of search) will be affected.

In many cases, a single metadata element can serve more than one purpose. For example, it’s not necessary to have five different “Vendor” fields just because you have five different templates. If all of those fields will contain a vendor name, you should create a single “Vendor” field and use it in all of the templates.

Use the right document metadata types

Certain kinds of information can be stored in more than one way, by more than one document metadata type. Occasionally, several metadata types will be equally suited to a task; however, in most cases, one type will be most appropriate. Consider how the information will be set and used, and choose the type most suited to the task.

Want to learn more about how digital document management can simplify business operations? Download the Document Management Software Buyer’s Guide.

What Is Workflow Automation?

Every business’s day-to-day operations can be broken down to its compromising tasks and communications. While changes in the organization may cause a rift in the system, most of these daily processes – also called workflows – are routine and stay rather consistent despite outside disruptions or changes.

When businesses go beyond just performing these actions, and design new strategies or deploy innovative technologies to enhance their operations, they can achieve a higher level of efficiency and accuracy in business processes, while saving valuable resources. One of the best ways to achieve those goals is with workflow automation.

Read on to learn what workflow automation is, and how designing new workflows can improve business processes across the enterprise.

What is workflow automation?

Workflow automation is the digitization and automation of business processes to reduce manual labor and process inefficiencies. In addition, workflow design refers to the creation of these digital workflows.

When a business process has many steps, it can be difficult to eliminate bottlenecks, miscommunications and even mishandling of information. Workflow automation aids in removing human error, speeding up reviews and approvals, as well as providing insight into how you can improve these workflows going forward.

What types of workflows can be automated?

There are a few things to consider before your first workflow design. Although any workflow initially designed to require multiple, manual steps are strong candidates, below are a few examples of processes that can benefit from automation:

Filing, renaming or making changes to a document
Reviewing and approving document changes
Notifying others when a change to a document has occurred
Onboarding new employees
Accounts payable processing
Managing records retention and storage
Managing and making changes to vendor contracts
Maintaining process visibility with process management reports

What does the best workflow automation software do?

A workflow automation software solution should improve productivity, consistency and transparency across the enterprise when you use it to design new or improved workflows. When considering workflow automation, look for a solution that can:

Route documents in response to content creation or status updates
- Provide functionality to notify stakeholders of changes to or the creation of documents, as well as automatic filing capabilities.
- Extend automation across departments and integrate with existing applications
  - Automate complex processes like vendor and contract management, invoice processing, travel and expense management and records management.
  - Integrate with third-party and legacy systems for the seamless flow of information across the enterprise.
- Enable real-time editing and monitoring access to documents, workflows and reports via laptop, desktop or mobile devices.
- Monitor, report and analyze business processes
  - Provide reporting dashboards that enable process managers to view each step of a workflow to eliminate bottlenecks and improve processes over time.
  - Offer the capability to present users with a full history of all business process steps related to a document in the workflow.
- Provide a customized workflow designer for building a business process automation solution for every need
  - Enable information extraction from external sources, such as PDFs or digital forms, for automated decision-making and process updates.

Workflow automation is an important step in an organization’s digital transformation. By optimizing processes across departments, businesses can save valuable resources while improving operational speed, accuracy and transparency both internally and externally.

For an overview of how process automation can help your organization streamline operations, watch our webinar, ECM 101: An Introduction to Process Automation Capabilities.

Ready to learn more about workflow automation and how to design the right solution for your organization? Download our Process Automation Buyer’s Guide.

Download the Process Automation Buyer's Guide

Researching digital process automation platforms? Check out the G2 grid to compare top vendors.

G2 Grid® for Digital Process Automation (DPA) Software

What Is Document Management?

Document management is a set of practices that define how an organization manages, stores and tracks its documents.

Documents come in a wide variety of formats, from contracts and forms to images and emails. However, whatever form documents take, the principles of document management stay consistent. The common components of document management include:

Storage: Provide a centralized location for documents that’s easy for authorized parties to access and search.
Annotations: Add notes or comments to a document without needing to edit the document itself.
Check-in and check-out: Ensure that changes to documents by different users don’t overwrite each other, with a system that only allows for one party to make edits at a time.
Version control: Track and record changes in real time so that with each new version of the document, you can view the edit history and roll back to a previous version if needed.
Audit trails: Support your compliance initiatives by enabling authorized users to view a log of who has viewed or edited your documents, and when.
Security and access control: Do everything possible to ensure access to documents is limited only to authorized parties. This is especially important in highly regulated industries.

The common components of document management: storage, annotations, check-in and check-out, version control, audit trails and security and access control.

These components play an important role in securing your organization’s information. That’s why it is important to select the right tools and technologies to take full advantage of them. This is where a document management system comes in.

How is document management useful?

Organizations and teams increasingly rely on document management in order to conduct business. They are producing content at an ever-increasing rate, and today’s documents, now mostly digitized, stay around a lot longer than they did in the days of paper.

In fact, according to the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), “on average, organizations expect the volume of information coming into their organizations to grow from X to 4.5X over the next two years.” — © AIIM 2020

When unaddressed, these challenges can result in:

Siloed desktops
Cluttered network drives
Unorganized databases

With information scattered between individuals and teams, documents can become missing, outdated, unsecured, and in a worst-case scenario, even compromised by an unauthorized party.

For example, employees could end up working with missing or incomplete information, hindering efficiency and productivity. For heavily regulated industries, unsecured documents can be a compliance risk, and consequently a financial liability. Compromised documents can present an even more serious security risk, creating the possibility of information falling into the wrong hands.

Customer spotlight: City University of Hong Kong

Learn how one university leveraged its document management system to better manage and protect the student and staff information it handles.

Browse customer reviews of Laserfiche on G2

Get insights from real customers on why Laserfiche is a top choice for organizations looking to expand their document management toolkit.

Explore the latest document management resources

Compare top document management vendors on G2

Check out the G2 Grid® for Document Management and compare top vendors on the market.

G2 Grid® for Document Management Software

Watch our webinar, ECM 101: An Introduction to Document Management Features

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

Explore Laserfiche document management

Visit our document management product page for a quick overview of available document management features within Laserfiche, and why customers trust Laserfiche as their document management solution.

Download The Document Management Software Buyer’s Guide

To learn more about the benefits and uses of document management, along with advice and insights on how to procure a system for your organization, download The Document Management Software Buyer’s Guide.

What are the benefits of a document management system?

A document management system is designed to make it easier, and in many ways, automatic, for you to implement standard document management practices and procedures. By implementing a document management system, any organization can get their documents in order and take advantage of the following benefits:

• Increase transparency across the enterprise: Whether reviewing contracts, processing invoices or collecting forms, it’s essential that employees can find the right documents when they need them. A document management system puts documents all in one place, ensuring that employees are working with the same set of information. This centralized repository of critical documents can serve as a “source of truth” across the organization.

• Quickly search through multiple documents: Regardless of size and format, the right document management system can make every document full-text searchable. This enables employees to find the information they need, whether it’s in a document’s title, its metadata or deep within the full text. New technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning can further enhance a document management system’s ability to extract information from documents.

• Securely share content internally and externally: It’s critical for many organizations to share documents with customers safely and securely. The right document management system can provide specialized functionality for this purpose, storing the document in a secure location, ensuring that it is shared for only a limited time, and enhancing transparency by logging who accessed what documents and when.

• Foster employee and organizational collaboration: When employees are working on a document together, advanced document management systems enable them to collaborate on a document in real-time. This process can be a boon in removing the back-and-forth of editing through email threads and getting final versions of documents out faster.

• Keep track of major revisions: Feature-rich document management systems have built-in version control. This helps employees track document changes and ensure that the document they’re working with is the most up-to-date version that exists.

• Protect sensitive information: With a document management system, administrators can grant or deny access to information as needed. This helps your organization ensure that documents can be accessed by authorized users and no one else.

• Support compliance efforts: Most document management systems provide audit trails – logs of system activity, including document edits, login attempts and user permission changes. This functionality helps to show auditors that your organization is following regulations and that system security measures are effective.

• Access information securely from anywhere with cloud document management: With today’s cloud technologies, employees can now access document management systems from wherever they are in the world. This ease of access, combined with the security that advanced document management systems can provide, offers a secure and effective way to ensure information can be communicated between project stakeholders, no matter where they are. Additionally, many cloud systems automatically back up content, providing a foundation for quick recovery in case of a disaster or disruption to business.

There are many ways a document management system can benefit organizations and improve their operations. In addition, as the digitization and adoption of cloud document management becomes more widespread, there are increasingly quick, efficient and secure ways of delivering this functionality to organizations.

Why Businesses and Organizations Need Secure File Sharing

With data privacy and governance rules that seem to get stricter each year, today’s businesses and organizations need to be more diligent than ever with their content. At the same time, the fast pace of business, technology and customer behavior requires content to be shared at record pace.

When an organization needs to share sensitive or confidential information with an outside source, be it a client, vendor or customer, things can get complicated. Organizations need to make this information accessible to the intended participants, while also putting in effort to preserve privacy and security – for the organization’s own benefit, and to stay in compliance with current industry laws, standards and regulations.

Finding a solution that meets your security and accessibility needs can be a tough balancing act. Many file sharing methods offer convenience at the expense of security and privacy, or the other way around.

However, secure file sharing technologies allow businesses to toe this line with ease – with a simple click of a button, you’re able to share files with others, while gaining the peace of mind of knowing your file sharing activity can be monitored and logged for auditors later.

Traditional File Sharing Isn’t Always Secure

While security of sensitive content is increasingly a concern, many organizations still rely on traditional ways of sharing files, opening up potential vulnerabilities.

These are some of the common methods today’s organizations use to share files, each with its own security challenges:

Paper

A popular method for sharing information that’s centuries old. Still, paper can get easily lost in the shuffle of day-to-day business operations, which is especially troublesome when dealing with sensitive or confidential information. Paper documents containing sensitive information can also be harder to permanently delete, usually requiring secure shredding services for proper disposal.

Email

Although you may be able to password-protect an attached file (depending on the application you use to create it,) emails themselves can’t be password protected. They can be encrypted (in other words, “scrambling” the message in transit so would-be interceptors can’t read it) but this by no means implies the content is secure once it reaches its destination.

This is especially true since emails received generally don’t have an expiration date – they can stay on a machine or server indefinitely unless deleted by a user or administrator. Even without these concerns, email attachments usually have file size limits, so the document you’re sending might simply be too large to share this way in the first place.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Another option for sharing files is using an FTP server. Think of it as a network drive with a very specific way of moving files to and from it – the actual file transfer protocol itself.

On its own, FTP does not provide many built-in security features, or a way to track and monitor user activities being performed. The traditional FTP protocol doesn’t support encryption either, which means outside parties may be able to read or intercept data being sent. Your IT department may be able to create custom settings and features to make up for this lack of built-in security, however that’s only if you own the server, and would require heavy lifting as far as time and resources to make happen.

A More Secure Approach to File Sharing

Secure file sharing software offers a more locked-down alternative to paper and email, while still being easy and convenient to use. It also provides powerful security without the need for extensive infrastructure or IT resources:

Password protection helps to ensure that once a file reaches a client, constituent or customer, that it can only be viewed by those with the password.
Cloud hosted content means your organization doesn’t have to configure external-facing network security in order to share files.
Expiring URLs limit the amount of time for sharing. Largely, this reduces the risk that others will post your link online for extended periods of time.
Link deactivation can be performed by some secure file sharing tools. This functionality adds flexibility, enabling you to shut down a link regardless of its expiration date.
Audit trails are likely one of the most important reasons to choose a secure file sharing solution. Across industries, countries, states and jurisdictions, strict data governance regulations are increasingly common. One of the easiest ways to appease auditors is to keep accurate logs of your activity, including file sharing.

Improve Your File Sharing Practices

For organizations where protecting sensitive information is a priority, it’s practically essential to add secure file sharing software as part of your enterprise toolkit. Laserfiche’s secure file sharing feature, direct share, gives you the ability to share information securely, internally and externally, as part of Laserfiche’s robust enterprise content management platform.

Interested in seeing how Laserfiche can provide a way to manage your documents while supporting information governance efforts? Schedule a demo to learn more.

Transform Your Firm’s Software Revenue Model with Laserfiche ECM

Laserfiche is the leading global provider of intelligent content management and business process automation. Customers across industries — including government, education, financial services and manufacturing — rely on Laserfiche to work smarter and faster. With powerful workflows, electronic forms, document management and analytics, Laserfiche enables organizations to eliminate manual processes and automate repetitive tasks, accelerating how business gets done.

However, the platform itself is only one part of the equation. Service and support are also paramount in providing customers with the best experience possible. One of the ways Laserfiche customers receive this type of experience is through its expansive network of value-added resellers (VARs) and managed service providers (MSPs).

Read on to see how Laserfiche stands out from the pack when it comes to giving value-added resellers, managed service providers, solution providers (SPs) and other resellers the tools they need to maximize revenues and better serve their clients.

SaaS as recurring software revenue

It’s no secret that most software these days is sold as a service. It provides recurring revenue for software companies to further develop and update their offerings, with a low upfront cost for customers that can pay for software only for the time they need it.

For resellers and technology implementers this can also be a boon, with this new breed of software providing consistent revenue in a similar way to support and services. This also means that a high renewal rate is essential for resellers to fully capitalize on this revenue stream.

The Laserfiche platform provides proven and easy-to-use software that customers simply love to come back to, and 90% of Laserfiche customers renew their subscription when it comes time to do so. Customers often expand their solutions over time or spread the word to other firms in their industry, and with a license-based model, this provides even more recurring revenue for resellers, month over month, year over year.

We have your back, not your wallet

Some companies take margins of their resellers’ support and service revenue, taking a crucial piece of what many SPs, VARs and MSPs see as the core of their revenue models. These providers are putting in the hours and resources into providing services and support, and they should be getting the maximum value out of these offerings, which may include:

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

Laserfiche allows its Solution Providers to keep all revenues generated from the support and services they provide. This enables SPs to reap the rewards of their work and maximize the value of being part of the Laserfiche Solution Provider program.

However, this doesn’t mean that resellers have to go it alone when it comes to services and support. They can also decide to add services directly from Laserfiche for a flat fee, or contract out partial or complete projects to Laserfiche on an individual basis based on business needs.

In fact, Laserfiche provides additional support to its network of resellers for simply being in the program, from sales, to marketing and even product demonstrations. These offerings provide Solution Providers with the tools they need to thrive in a competitive business environment and provide the highest level of service to their customers.

Easy-to-sell products that fit within your portfolio

For VARs, MSPs, or any firm that simply wants to add enterprise content management to its product offerings, Laserfiche makes a platform that’s easy for resellers to sell to customers.

Laserfiche has the flexibility to fit into virtually any tech stack. Used as a solution for HR, vendor management, and other departments, Laserfiche can help fill in gaps with solutions VARs and MSPs are offering to customers, or act as a catalyst that brings a reseller’s services and platforms together with its extensive integration capabilities.

In addition, any professional services and support a reseller offers for Laserfiche comes in at a very low risk. The ease-of-use that comes with the Laserfiche platform, along with the ability to use pre-configured process templates, ensures that VARs and MSPs spend their time configuring systems instead of troubleshooting them.

Most of all, Laserfiche has a transparent and easy-to-follow pricing structure. Instead of spending time browsing price lists, a reseller only has to tell Laserfiche how many licenses it needs as part of a customer order. Solutions are also bundled to meet specific customer needs, such as document management or process automation, so all the functionality a client wants is there without any surprise fees or necessary add-on features. This means resellers can build solid customer relationships while still maximizing revenues.

The simple solution for SPs, VARs and MSPs

An established product that is easy to set up, service, maintain and support, the Laserfiche platform is a powerful solution for resellers wanting to spend less time troubleshooting with their vendors and more time interacting with customers while increasing revenue across multiple streams.

To learn more about the benefits that the Laserfiche Solution Provider Program can offer SPs, VARs and MSPs – and how you can sign up – click here.

Self-hosted or Software as a Service? Making the Right Choice for Cloud Document Management

If you’re an organization considering the move to cloud document management, you might be wondering about the differences between self-hosted and SaaS solutions. Some organizations want complete control over their software and hardware. Others prefer lower maintenance costs, pre-configured security features and automatic software updates.

Read on to see how SaaS and self-hosted solutions differ, so you can make a more informed decision on how to deploy a document management system for your organization.

Software as a service (SaaS)

SaaS offers customers access to software over the internet on a subscription basis, with the software hosted by the vendor or another third-party.

There’s no installation required, and resources such as servers or storage capacity can typically be scaled up automatically, or via a quick conversation with the SaaS vendor. On top of that, using SaaS generally means you don’t need to worry about the costs of maintenance, server space or hardware that you’d need if you were maintaining your own solution in-house.

Built-in security is also a particularly attractive benefit of SaaS products. The right vendor will have security controls already in place that are continually assessed, updated and improved to respond to the latest threats. Some vendors can also provide specialized security services to support compliance concerns and industry regulations, so customers have peace of mind that they’re abiding by the rules. Some of these features and services may include:

Automatic and on-demand detection of system threats and vulnerabilities
Penetration testing and other services that simulate real-world threats
Security controls that restrict access to sensitive content and features

Software as a service platforms can also be well-suited for organizations wanting built-in business continuity measures. In many cases data stored in these solutions is replicated and encrypted in real time to multiple sites at different geographical locations, so if disaster strikes in one location, your data is safe and sound in others.

Especially as technology improves with vendors innovating on their platforms year after year, SaaS is proving to be a convenient and cost-effective solution for the modern enterprise.

Self-hosted solutions

Unlike a SaaS platform, where your back-end infrastructure is managed by experienced IT professionals outside your organization, these deployments offer ways for you to take more control of your hardware, software and updates. Organizations in certain industries, such as government or finance, may also be subject to certain regulations that restrict how they can store information, thus preventing them from deploying a SaaS solution for the time being.

However, a self-hosted solution can still be cloud-based, and therefore share some of the advantages of a SaaS platform. Let’s take a look at each of the self-hosted solution types.

On-premises

Before cloud technology systems, on-premises deployments were the de-facto standard for document management. The most notable differentiator for this type of deployment is owning and maintaining hardware, and the need to manually deploy software updates. Here’s a look at advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

Ability to purchase the highest-performance or most-specialized machines for your purposes
Security that can be configured for your organization, in-house by your own IT staff
More control over computing resource usage
Capability to increase access points for custom integrations and other add-ons

Disadvantages

Top-of-the-line hardware can be expensive
Managing backups and associated sites can be labor-intensive and time-consuming
Need to spend money and time to upgrade hardware to keep up with pace of technology
IT will need to spend time and resources to implement even basic security settings
Recurring costs such as maintenance, server rooms and extra electricity usage

Self-hosted cloud

A self-hosted cloud deployment operates in largely the same way as an on-premises deployment with the exception of maintaining your own hardware. In fact, the applications themselves are the same and simply hosted on a vendor’s servers — most of the popular platforms, such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, allow you to run standard computer operating systems on them. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

Scalability and flexibility to grow the solution with your business
Reduced system downtime after a disruption with built-in security and backup features
Hardware infrastructure maintained by experienced IT professionals outside your organization
Capability to increase access points for integrations and other add-ons

Disadvantages

Costs of renting hardware and specialized support services can add up
Implementations aren’t completely configurable as hardware isn’t on-site or owned by you
Hardware might not be optimized for your needs (or customizable to do so)
IT will need to spend time and resources to implement even basic security settings
Recurring costs such as maintenance, server rooms and extra electricity usage

Finding the right solution

The first question you really need to ask is if you need control over the hardware itself. These days, SaaS solutions offer so many valuable benefits, like managed security, disaster recovery and automatic updates that they are a worthwhile choice unless you absolutely need to use your own hardware. Modern cloud applications offer flexibility without any of the hassle setting up hardware or paying for extra space, power or cooling for your server room. They can give your IT team extra time and resources to keep your business running smoothly.

To learn more about a document management solution that can be deployed as either an SaaS or self-hosted platform, take the Laserfiche Cloud product tour.

What is Digital Process Automation?

Digital process automation is a staple of operational success in the modern workplace. Forward-thinking businesses have prioritized automation technology in their digital transformation initiatives for its ability to increase efficiency, transparency and accuracy of information circulated throughout an organization.

Read on to learn what digital process automation is and why it’s an important component of the modern business landscape.

What is digital process automation?

Digital process automation (DPA) is a method of digitizing processes by eliminating manual steps and improving user experience for customers, vendors and staff. Like business process automation, DPA as a methodology is meant to accelerate workflows while decreasing human error. DPA is a core component of enterprise content management (ECM) software in that it supports the routing, modifying and storing of important data traveling in and out of an organization.

What is a digital process automation platform?

A digital process automation platform captures information from electronic forms and other sources to launch digital business processes. These platforms also enable users to customize digital business processes to automatically complete a variety of tasks within the scope of regular business processes, such as public records requests, travel and expense requests and job application reviews.

Most digital process automation solutions enable you to design these processes as a diagram using a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) interface. More advanced solutions offer extensive business process template libraries that are essentially plug-and-play. One example of this is the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace. Watch the below video to learn more about the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace.

Also be sure to check out the below infographic “Laserfiche 4 Steps to Innovation” to see how Laserfiche users can not only deploy solutions quickly, but get involved with a larger community of innovators.

Why is digital process automation important?

DPA software helps eliminate redundant busywork, freeing up time for staff to focus on strategic business priorities. A few immediate benefits of DPA software include:

Accelerate workflows

Users can revise, approve and complete document revisions faster with automated routing and task notifications. Users can also easily reassign tasks if someone is out of office.

Increase transparency

Custom business process reports enable process managers to measure success and eliminate workflow bottlenecks. Administrators can also get a clear picture of employee workloads with process monitoring dashboards.

Improve accessibility

Advanced DPA software solutions enable users to complete tasks from their phones as well as their desktops to keep processes moving, saving time and helping to reduce duplicate data entry by users in different locations.

What is the difference between DPA and RPA?

While both DPA and robotic process automation (RPA) technologies are designed to automate and streamline processes, they are different in one key way: how they integrate with outside applications. While a DPA will generally use a specialized API or native integration for a particular application, an RPA solution usually interacts with applications like a human would, using a user interface (UI). This makes the possibility for integrations almost endless for an RPA solution. Because RPA solutions can also be integrated into a DPA solution, to provide last-mile integrations with applications that lack traditional integration points, this means that RPA opens up the integration possibilities for DPA solutions as well.

Choosing the right DPA software solution

When selecting a DPA software solution for your business, it’s important to consider:

Scalability: Your DPA solution should be able to grow with your business.
Ease-of-use: A simple-to-learn system is key to business adoption. Be sure to look for a provider with substantial system support.
Integration capabilities: Your DPA solution should be able to complement existing systems within your digital ecosystem.
Innovative technology: If your DPA software provider isn’t prioritizing innovation, your business won’t be able to evolve at the rate it should be. Stay competitive with vendors that consistently improves upon its technology.

Why You Should Use AI for Invoice Processing

Accounts payable (AP) has been an essential part of business for decades. However, today’s organizations have more expected of them in the digital age – vendors now often want payment almost instantly and at the same time completely without error.

To keep up with the changing demands thrust upon modern AP departments, many organizations have used automation software to streamline their processes. However, AP is an incredibly complex process that may still require some manual work.

One of the largest challenges for traditional AP automation is processing data from invoices when the format changes from document to document. Oftentimes organizations design custom solutions to solve this problem. Still, they may take months of setup before AP teams can see value.

However, technology is always evolving. New software can now harness the power of artificial intelligence to recognize not just one type of invoice, but virtually any invoice format sent its way. These new, cutting-edge tools are a boon to organizations looking for a more thoroughly automated AP process, freeing up staff to focus on strategic initiatives and new ideas instead of occupying themselves with busywork.

How AI Makes AP Better

Machine learning is a specific type of AI, used across a variety of industries, from healthcare, to government, technology and finance. The most common way for ML to work is to examine a large data set (say, for example, 1,000,000 photos of various animals) and then find patterns that result in a desired output (for example, which of those photos featured a dog.)

Going back to the challenge of processing invoices, the machine learning solution to this problem works similarly. By examining a wide variety of invoices, the ML algorithm can be trained or instructed to recognize particular patterns, learn from them, and understand fundamentally what makes an invoice, an invoice.

With this knowledge, the ML algorithm, given a group of invoices where no two are formatted the same, would still be able to identify and extract data – such as invoice number, invoice date and vendor name – from each document in the set.

Benefits of using AI for Invoice Processing

Using process automation software with AI technology offers a wide variety of tangible benefits for your organization, such as:

Accurate information: Easily extract invoice information such as invoice date, PO number, invoice number and total due.

Realize ROI faster: Implement a faster AP solution that doesn’t require extra effort to recognize different invoice formats.

Boost productivity: Minimize error-prone data entry by automatically pushing invoice data to enterprise applications.

Protect against fraud: Identify invoice discrepancies early with automated data validation against previously approved POs.

Improve cash flow: Shorten payment cycles and avoid late fees by automating reminders and streamlining payment processing.

Go Beyond What Was Possible with AI

AI technology allows you to go beyond what was possible before with AP automation. Adding the ability to recognize different invoice formats to your workflows can enable your organization to be more agile, adaptive, and efficient when it comes to paying out to vendors.

Want to see for yourself how Laserfiche® can transform your AP department with AI? Test out this technology with our invoice examples or one of your own on our smart invoice capture page.

What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technological process which converts text in a scanned or photographed image into text that can be edited, stored or searched for electronically.

OCR is an important tool for businesses working to digitize information gathered from documents or photographs into an electronic system, and it’s especially useful for processing information in large quantities of documents.

What is OCR Used For?

OCR is used across industries and departments for a variety of business processes due to its flexibility and efficiency as a scanning tool. In the context of digital content management, OCR has two primary functionalities that are applicable to any business: eliminating data entry and capturing information.

The newly captured information can then be searched for and even be used to initiate or fill in data as part of a business process workflow.

OCR takes data directly from imported or scanned documents, then makes it searchable and usable within your business processes.

OCR Eliminates Data Entry

Data entry is a standard part of many job roles — but it doesn’t need to be manual task. OCR eliminates data entry by recognizing characters (letters, numbers and symbols) in a scanned document or photograph, and pulls the information from those images into your computer or mobile device. That information can then be dealt with on a digital platform, and even stored in a digital repository for ease of search and retrieval.

One such example of OCR’s powerful capabilities is within local government administrative tasks, such as historical document preservation. Tompkins County, NY scanned over 9,000 boxes of important documents and records from 1817 to present day. Meeting agendas, deeds, citizen records and more were digitized, saving the county over $5.5 million in storage costs alone. When scanning these historical documents, employees at Tompkins County used OCR to pull important information into their electronic records management system, making the history of the county easy to access for county workers and citizens alike.

OCR Enables Intelligent Capture and Search

OCR is important to intelligent capture, or the process of retrieving specific information from a scanned or digitized image. “Intelligent capture with OCR is not just taking in all the characters on an image, it’s recognizing which words you need and grabbing the exact information you need,” says Tessa Adair, Technical Product Manager at Laserfiche.

Take, for example, you’to receive a reimbursement from your AP department. Rather than manually typing out information from the scan, OCR can pull the characters from the receipt for you. Intelligent capture with OCR takes it a step further by only targeting and saving the information you need on the receipt, such as the date and total, and ignoring the sections for the receipt you don’t need, such as the phone number or the “thank you for your business” note at the bottom. With this technology, OCR is applied in a way that enables employees to take action only the most relevant information for your business.

Once information is imported with OCR into a computer or mobile device, that data can be stored and routed to fellow employees via an electronic document management system. When users within an organization search for specific keywords within their digital repository, that information can be made readily available with the click of a mouse.

For more information on how OCR technology enables improved search and retrieval of documents and records, click here.

OCR is Powering the Future of Work

In addition to improving file searchability and speed of data entry, OCR is also enabling developing technologies like machine learning to improve the jobs of employees dealing with information-heavy business processes. In the context of document management, machine learning is an important and evolving tool for eliminating redundant and time-consuming manual tasks.

OCR is an important component of evolving tech across industries and business functions. In addition to aiding in machine learning, OCR is a keystone element of:

Intelligent character recognition (for handwriting).
Sentiment analysis.
Object recognition.
Data privacy protection.

As the digital workplace continues to grow, OCR will continue to enable businesses to automate and simplify tasks across departments to help employees do more of the work that matters.

OCR Empowers Digital Transformation

OCR is an important component in an organization’s digital transformation journey. Phase 1 of a successful digital transformation involves digitizing documents for proper storage and access across an organization, and OCR enables businesses to gather information from non-digital sources like meeting notes, agendas, photographs, letters and more for use within a digital content management system. From phase 1, the benefits only increase.

“Storing and sharing the information in an ECM system isn’t the only benefit of OCR. The bigger benefit is getting the necessary inputs needed to kick off workflow automation, inform AI-powered decision making, and enable insightful reporting,” says Tessa Adair, Technical Product Manager at Laserfiche.

Ready to learn more about the benefits of OCR and intelligent capture? The Guide to Improving Capture and Document Imaging Management provides strategies for going paperless in your organization.

Researching OCR software? Check out the G2 grid to compare top vendors.

G2 Grid® for OCR Software

Digital Filing System vs Enterprise Content Management System: What Is The Difference?

A digital filing system, as you might expect, primarily serves the purpose of converting your more traditional filing systems, such as filing cabinets and stacks of folders, into a digital format that makes it easier to search for and store documents.

An enterprise content management (ECM) system does everything digital filing system software can do and more. It adds additional layers of security, administration and collaboration that make it ideal for offices that want to become not only more organized, but also more scalable and efficient.

Read on for an in-depth look at what a digital filing system and an ECM system have in common, as well as what makes an ECM system a more robust option for organizations that need it.

Scanning Documents and Gathering Metadata

One of the most obvious advantages of any digital system is the ability to scan and capture digital or paper documents. Digital filing systems can reduce clutter and create more space around the office, while being able to store documents almost indefinitely, which can be crucial for the proper preservation of historical records.

Along with being able to scan documents, most digital filing systems allow users to fill out information about each entry — frequently referred to as metadata — that makes content more searchable and thus easy to find. This can include anything from time stamps to receipt amounts and invoice numbers, information that many organizations find essential for business operations.

Compared to a standard digital filing system, quality ECM systems include optical character recognition (OCR) technology, which can pull information directly from a document to auto-generate its associated metadata. For example, accounts payable departments across industries regularly process invoices and compare them to purchase orders sent out to vendors. With OCR, they would be able to streamline the matching process, and with the help of other technologies, likely create an entirely automated process.

Search and Storage

A key advantage of a digital filing system over a paper one is the ability to more easily search for documents. In a digital filing system, you can search for documents based on name, contents and associated metadata. Digital folders are also incredibly more flexible than physical ones, being able to expand with your organization’s needs.

ECM solutions go beyond simply making documents easy to find and store, however. ECM systems also make information easier to share and keep track of, with features such as co-authoring and version control. Most enterprises face challenges dealing with collaboration — whether multiple teams need to sign off on a document or work together, documents can be lost or contain errors if communication isn’t a priority. The collaboration features of ECM help teams collectively agree on the formatting and content of documents, while version controls assist in efforts to provide an accurate history of them. This is a boon for highly regulated industries, such as finance. An ECM solution can support these firms in their efforts to stay in compliance while providing their own staff and auditors up-to-date and correct information.

Ease of Access

With so many devices at the disposal of today’s users, most digital filing systems feature a variety of ways to access their content. A digital filing system may include different clients for desktop, web and even mobile. This is a boon for expanding enterprises as it keeps documents, ideas and projects moving.

Of course, the more accessible information is, the harder it is to control what is public or private. However, ECM systems offer tools to restrict or open up document access to meet your organization’s needs. For example, if you’re a government agency that needs to retain transparency, you can host a public portal with an ECM system that supports compliance with FOIA and allows constituents to stay informed about agency projects, initiatives, meeting minutes and more. On the other hand, the same agency can use an ECM system to restrict access to confidential documents, such as staff records.

Choosing the Best Solution for You

Although a digital system can fulfill many of your organization’s needs and facilitate the move towards a paperless office, the right enterprise content management system may be your best solution as it can offer even more benefits.

With the ability to pull data from scanned documents, foster collaboration and provide the tools to support compliance, ECM can help your organization more clearly manage its information in order to propel itself towards success.

Ready to learn more about the benefits of an enterprise content management system?

Download the Document Management Buyer’s Handbook to learn how ECM can improve business processes while saving time and resources.

Product Features

Explore More

By Industry

By Department

By Business Need

Product Education

Product Support

Insights

Events