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What Are Content Services?

In 2017, the analyst firm Gartner redefined what enterprise content management could be by coining a new term: content services.

Fundamentally, content services are a collection of platforms, applications, and components intended to solve a variety of unique business challenges.

Providers of content services platforms may use the term “enterprise content management” to describe their offerings, given its familiarity with customers. Still, most modern offerings are considered “content services”, even if a particular vendor chooses a different term.

What’s the Difference Between Content Services and ECM?

The fundamental difference between what was traditionally known as ECM and what is now content services is based on the concept of “composition.”

This concept formed out of the need for different, specialized user experiences based on roles. For example, the HR department has different demands on their enterprise software than the IT department – or to put it another way, help desk tickets and job applications aren’t necessarily processed the same way.

Even with a robust process automation platform, you may want a specialized solution for that last mile towards an end-to-end user experience. Although traditional ECM could create unique views for different job roles, it was a separate destination. These solutions thus largely relied on importing content from external applications, rather than exchanging information with them dynamically.

With cloud solutions for specialized software offering low operating costs, and the increased popularity of integrations and APIs, a content services approach with the goal of including specialized content experiences becomes more attractive.

Composition, essentially, is the creation of a unique user experience through a combination of platforms, services and tools connected through APIs and other integrations. These unique experiences are thus a sum of the parts that compose them.

According to Gartner, these parts come in three main categories:

Content services platforms (CSPs): These platforms provide basic services, such as content storage, and can also act as a central hub that integrates and sends information between the other parts of a composition.
Content services applications (CSAs): These applications provide specialized services for a particular role, such as recruiting or IT.
Content services components (CSCs): These components provide a specific functionality, such as digital signatures or document imaging and are primarily designed to be integrated.

*To learn more about composing experiences, we recommend reading the following report from Gartner: Future of Applications: Delivering the Composable Enterprise.*

How Can Organizations Benefit from Content Services?

Organizations like yours can put content services into action by taking a proactive approach to integrating content with enterprise solutions you already have. Exploring opportunities to connect applications through APIs and other integration tools can save time and money while producing lasting operational benefits.

*Integrating CSPs, applications and components is key to composing specialized experiences for different roles or departments.*

Here are three examples of how software integrations can increase efficiency:

Contract management: Easily extract contact information from a CRM system into a CSP using workflow automation software, populate the information into a contract, and gather client signatures using a digital signature tool.

HR management: Quickly access all employee information from a single interface by integrating an ECM system or CSP with HR automation software.

Accounting and finance: Easily generate invoices by using process automation software to pull information from emails, PDFs or paper documents and send it to an accounting application.

*Platforms like Laserfiche can play a key role in composing your HR department’s experience, by routing employment applications for review and approval.*

Combining different CSPs, applications and components allows organizations to take advantage of what each solution does best.

For example, while an ECM system or CSP can excel for reviewing, marking up and protecting content, a CSA such as a student information system is already specialized to manage and process student data. Combining the advantages of both can make for a more seamless and efficient process.

Same Goals, Different Approach

Ultimately, traditional ECM systems and CSPs seek to achieve the same goals, but they each take a different approach in doing so.

While CSPs and modern ECM systems are aimed to integrate with other tools to create composed experiences, ECM solutions were historically designed for most or all content interactions to occur within a single system.

Whether your organization uses the content services to compose experiences, or prefers a centralized experience of a traditional ECM system, it can gain valuable perspective by taking each of these solutions into account.

If you’re in the market for a content services platform and want to compare top vendors, we recommend taking a look at the Gartner Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’: Content Services Platforms Report, which you can download here.

4 Ways Document Management Software Saves Time and Money

The inefficiencies of pushing paper and using manual processes in today’s office can add up. With the demand for information—contracts, forms, approvals, invoices—to be both accessible and secure, the old business practice of manually filing documents and creating paper trails severely limits an organization’s ability to compete.

Document management solutions exist to make the most of business’s most critical resources: time and money.

By implementing document management solutions, organizations can:

1. Automate Tasks and Increase Process Efficiency

Document management software can help employees work more quickly with instant access to information. This type of software also enables organizations to set up workflow automation that speed reviews and approvals, keeping business processes moving.

Further, a document management system can help organizations:

Use intelligent search methods that support searching with any criteria
Streamline document distribution with automated workflow routing and notification, improving accountability
Reduce labor and clerical mistakes with automated optical character recognition and indexing
Better manage organizational archives from a desktop computer
Minimize lost documents
Create copies and distribute documents as simply as sending an email

To streamline staff requisitions, St. Louis Public School District recently digitized its archives and active paper storage, and quickly automated new hiring. The district has 47,000 employees and maintains over 4.5 million documents.

According to Clarissa Buckley, HR Information System Coordinator for the district, staffing requisitions are now completed in three hours instead of three weeks. This increase in efficiency allows the district to invest their resources in new endeavors and explore new opportunities.

2. Improve Communication between Departments and throughout the Organization

Document management systems make it easy to share documents electronically with colleagues and clients, whether you’re at the office or on the go. A quality document management solution can:

Be accessed remotely or online, allowing documents to be viewed and retrieved anywhere you have access to the internet.
Integrate seamlessly with your website, presenting a consistent face to customers and allowing you to securely share read-only documents with the public
Balance accessibility with security, retaining strict control over which documents are available to staff and the public
Work from virtually anywhere: web browsers, smartphones, tablets, operating systems and hardware

Oakland County, MI, has more than 60 cities, villages and townships with over 1.2 million people living within its borders. By digitizing information and automating processes, the county aims to empower government employees to streamline operations and improve citizen services. “We want to make processes more efficient, more automatic and better for the public,” says Bill Jobes, Program Manager at Oakland County.

They’re now able to increase access to information for authorized government employees and to citizens through online portals. The county has enhanced transparency of processes, to keep citizens informed. “In order to grow, we have to innovate,” says Jobes.

3. Shift Time from Filing Documents to Focus on Business-Critical Objectives

By implementing a document management solution, an organization make better use of time to:

Retrieve documents and essential information without employees leaving their workstation
Keep track of documents that must be viewed and signed by other personnel
Meet with clients and close deals
Instantaneously answer information requests from auditors and clients to eliminate call-backs and phone tag
Respond more quickly to customer queries
Provide quality customer service, which ultimately leads to more business

Halquist Stone, one of the largest stone quarries in the Midwest, generates sales orders that require the cooperation of several departments, across seven facilities. According to Wade Balson, CFO of Halquist Stone, the supervisors “were spending two to three hours a day manually inputting data.”

Supervisors now enter orders on iPads, and information is automatically routed to the relevant departments to be processed. “Now we’re automating processes.” said Balson. “That just increases my return exponentially.”

4. Increase Bottom-Line Benefits by Minimizing Costs of Paper Storage, Office Space and Additional Hiring

Implementing a document management system requires upfront costs. That said, various market studies and case studies have shown that it does lead to long-term savings. Organizations can save money in the long-term by:

Eliminating the filing, duplication and retrieval costs of off-site storage
Reducing organization downtime in the case of disasters like floods, fires or theft
Replacing paper storage space with more workstations or other productive revenue-generating activities

For instance, to ensure workplace safety for 3 million citizens each year, the Arkansas Department of Labor recently upgraded their manual system to enterprise content management. Staff created an electronic form enabling any citizen to submit wage claims online. The claims are stored in a digital repository and easily accessed by inspectors.

The department can complete wage claims in about a quarter of the time, saving the department $60,000 annually, producing significant ROI for the use of taxpayer dollars. Their investment in technology will continue to benefit citizens long after the initial implementation.

Bottom Line

Document management software is a tool that can completely overhaul manual processes. Digitizing documents and controlling electronic documents allows organizations to eliminate paper storage, streamline operations, and improve communication. Organizations will reap the benefits of this boost in efficiency by shifting resources from clerical tasks towards revenue-producing tasks.

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 everything you need to know to find the right document management software for your office.

SAAS vs. On-Premises: 8 Factors to Consider

Back in the day, there was this thing called timesharing. You rented space on a machine owned by someone else, and in return you were able to run software on that piece of machine while other people took care of it. As time went on, it became more popular to own your own hardware and software, and be responsible for maintaining it. Now the pendulum is swinging again.

Instead of timesharing, though, this methodology is more likely to be called Software as a Service (SaaS). The analyst firm Gartner defines SaaS as “software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at any time on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.”

That’s fine, but for the question of SaaS vs. on-premises, which is better for your organization? Here are some factors to consider when making your decision.

Cost. Typically SaaS ends up costing less than an on-premises solution, at least in terms of upfront costs. SaaS usually is billed at a certain amount per month, while on-premises hardware and software usually involves paying all the money up front. On the other hand, depending on how long you keep a particular solution around could mean that eventually paying every month could add up to more than just buying the software and hardware outright.

Budgeting. Buying something like hardware or some software often is considered a “capital expense,” because it is considered an asset that is subject to depreciation. Buying something for a fixed cost every month often is considered an “operational expense” and isn’t subject to depreciation. Also, depending on the organization, it might be more or less challenging to be allocated capital or operational funding during the budget cycle.

Staff. If the software or hardware are on-premises, typically that is going to mean that the staffers to support it are employees, or at least contractors, and the company is required to hire them, directly or indirectly. If the software or hardware is SaaS, typically the hosting company is going to hire the staff, including paying staff salaries, hiring and firing, and managing. On the other hand, the advantage of hiring your own staff is that you then have control over them, and they aren’t splitting their time among multiple clients.

Security. Opinion varies as to whether SaaS or on-premises is more secure. Certainly, to a certain extent, it depends on your organization, the hosting organization, and how much of an issue security typically is in your region. In any event, with SaaS, the hosting organization will typically be responsible for providing security, while on-premises your company will. Only you can tell in your particular situation which is going to be more secure.

Mobility. Software that is set up on the cloud for access by other people is typically going to be easier for staff to run from anywhere, whether they’re traveling, working in a sales office, or working from home. “The difficulties of trying to connect to an on-premises solution remotely (navigating through VPNs, firewalls, intranets, etc.) disappear when working in a cloud environment; an Internet connection and browser are typically all that’s needed to connect to the application,” writes Tony DiPoalo in InsideCounsel. “Such convenience lends itself to increased efficiency. As mobile workforces and telecommuting increase in popularity, using SaaS solutions is a straightforward tactic to keep mobile workers connected and productive.”

Upgrades and maintenance. Usually, in a SaaS situation, the hosting company is responsible for upgrading and maintaining the hardware or software. In an on-premises situation, usually you will be responsible for upgrades. On the other hand, an on-premises situation may give you more freedom as to when—or even whether—you upgrade to a new version of hardware or software. SaaS is also typically more scalable because additional resources can more easily be added when needed, DiPoalo adds.

Flexibility. While SaaS can work well for a fairly standard installation, it may be more difficult to set up if you have a particularly unusual use case. While some SaaS systems allow for some personalization, controlling true customization in terms of rewriting code can be much more limited, especially in multi-tenant systems, writes Adam Boyce in TechTarget. Minimizing customization certainly saves time and money, but it can also make your system less usable, he writes. “Out-of-the-box functionality is fundamental to SaaS as a way to control and minimize cost,” DiPoalo agrees. “An on-premises solution is probably a better option for organizations looking to build in specific functionality or integrations with other software.”

Compliance. Depending on the geographic area and the industry, different organizations have different compliance regulations. Is data required to reside in a particular country? To what degree do vendors need to make customer data available to the government—or protect it from the government? How much control does the company need to maintain over the data in general? “Businesses should take heed of other legal, regulatory, or reputational risks that may exist,” warn write Justice Opara-Martins, Reza Sahandi, and Feng Tian in the Journal of Cloud Computing.. “This is vitally important if the data involved is not just for testing, but constitutes real corporate data, perhaps even confidential or personal data.”

Ultimately, keep in mind that SaaS vs. on-premises is not an all-or-nothing affair. It’s certainly possible to migrate some more standard applications, such as email and messaging, to SaaS while keeping more customized apps on-premises.

Using ‘Run-Grow-Transform’ to Change Your Business

We’ve all done it. Maybe it was for a New Year’s resolution. Maybe it was for a birthday. Maybe it was even at the beginning of fall. But we’ve all decided to simultaneously be more productive at the office, lose weight, exercise more, eat healthfully, get more organized, save money, keep the house clean, spend more time with the kids, listen to NPR, and get involved with the community. Chances are, by trying to change so much at once, we failed utterly at all of them.

Instead, you may have found that what worked was to change your diet one month. When that habit got ingrained, then you added exercise. In the process, you lost weight. And so on. By changing just one thing at a time, you succeeded.

Similarly, it’s not unusual for companies to try to change many different things at once. They might try to sell more, achieve higher customer satisfaction, streamline business processes, and upgrade all the software, all at the same time. Needless to say, this doesn’t work any better with companies than it does with individuals.

At the same time, you want to keep track of the things you’re going to want to change later but just haven’t gotten to yet. Otherwise, you could have great intentions for the next thing you plan to change, and then forget all about it as you struggle with the day-to-day issues of keeping the network lights on.

That’s where Run-Grow-Transform comes in.

According to Gartner, which popularized the concept, here’s what the three words mean in this context, writes Richard Hunter, vice president and Gartner Fellow in Gartner’s CIO Research Group.

Run: Carry out essential enterprise activities that do not connect directly to a particular customer segment (or, to put it another way, to a particular revenue stream)
Grow: Enhance business performance in established markets serving established customer segments with established value propositions
Transform: Enter new markets with new value propositions for new customer segments

The Run-Grow-Transform model is also useful for budgeting, writes Karim Vaes in his blog. “Run covers the general day to day expenses of keeping the IT infrastructure running,” he writes. “Grow covers the expenses for expansion of services or growth of the company. Transform covers the costs that are made to change your nature.”

“According to Gartner, companies on average spend 66 percent of their IT budgets to run the business (maintain IT systems) and they spend the rest on growth or transformation projects,” writes Mehmet Erdem in Hospitality Technology. “The ideal, according to Gartner, is a 50/50 split, but achieving it isn’t easy.” For example, even though the hospitality industry has been focusing on using technology to improve guest satisfaction, hotels report that they are still spending 53 percent of the total IT budget on running the business, 29 percent to grow the business, and 18 percent on transformative projects, he writes.

At the very least, any approved budget should include all your Run items and at least some Grow items, Vaes writes. “This part of the budget is in reality the minimal level you need to stay on par,” he writes. “A lower level will force you to start phasing out services from your service catalog!” Cutting Run items could introduce operational risk such as a server failure or a security breach, he warns.

But it’s also important to include more than just “Run” items in a budget. “It’s hard to innovate when most of your money goes toward keeping the lights on,” writes Erin Carson in ZDNet, noting that just day-to-day operations can take up more than half the budget. “The money that’s going towards doing the bare minimum is money that can’t go toward innovation.”

Ignoring the run-grow-transform model can also end up limiting the potential growth in your own job, Florida State College CIO Chris Markham relates in CIO Insight. While many organizations are starting to look at the CIO as the chief innovation officer, focusing too much on the day-to-day “run” aspects creates the risk of pigeonholing the CIO as chief infrastructure officer. “CIOs that don’t effect change are never going to embrace the Gartner strategy of run-grow-transform the business,” he says. “Some will choose to simply run the business, and you really need a good balance of all three.”

Run-Grow-Transform, like any other model, isn’t a panacea, nor is it the One True Way. If you’re using some other method that ends up with the same basic result, there’s no reason to change. But if it feels like you’re busy all the time just trying to keep in the same place, it can be a beneficial way to help the company grow.

Looking to make Laserfiche your solution to modernizing your organization’s operations? 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!

A content services platform (CSP) can help you solve a wide variety of business challenges. Download the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Content Services Platforms to gain valuable insights into the CSP market.

Why You Need to Care About DoD 5015.2

It’s said that the wonderful thing about standards is that there’s so many of them. But when it comes to records management, one in particular stands out: Department of Defense 5015.2 (DoD 5015.2).

Formally known as Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications (you can see why most people call it 5015.2), the standard is recognized not only in government, but also in the private sector, writes David Roe in CMSwire. “By being certified, records management solutions can assist corporations to achieve compliance and reduce risk by enabling them to control how and for how long enterprise content is retained. It also ensures destruction of that content when this time has elapsed.”

DoD 5015.2 Background

DoD 5015.2 came about in the early 1990s following Congress’s investigation into the Gulf War Syndrome, a debilitating illness affecting many soldiers who fought in the war, according to the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) Records Management Application (RMA) website. This mean DoD officials had to produce millions of records from Operation Desert Storm. “Congress concluded that the Defense Department did not do a good job of managing the records and as a result, many of the needed records had been destroyed or lost,” JITC notes.

Congress ordered the Defense Department to improve its records management capabilities, so the DoD created a task force in 1993, including representatives from several military branches and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The task force published its report, specifying functional requirements and data elements for an electronic RMA, in 1995, and later developed into a testable and measurable design criteria standard by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

In 1998, NARA endorsed DoD 5015.2, which meant that federal agencies other than the DoD could adopt it as a baseline standard for records management. NARA noted, though, that this was not an exclusive endorsement—meaning it could endorse other protocols as well—and that more was required than just the standard itself. “DoD 5015.2-STD defines only a baseline set of requirements for automated records keeping,” cautioned John W. Carlin, then Archivist of the United States. “There are a number of additional questions that must be resolved in order to satisfy all the established requirements for managing federal records. Each agency must address some of these questions to fit their own environment.”

What is the purpose of DoD 5015.2?

The purpose of having DoD 5015.2 is so users have some assurance that products support records management in a standardized way as they work toward compliance with the 2012 NARA/OMB Managing Government Records Directive, OMB 12-18. That mandates that all permanent records be managed in digital format by 2019, as well as calling for management of email in electronic format by 2016.

Electronic records management software enforces organization-wide records policies and reduces the cost of regulatory compliance. Records management systems let organizations centrally, securely and electronically manage their records. This kind of software lets records managers track and store records in a variety of formats, including:
·         Imaged documents
·         Electronic documents generated by programs (e.g., Microsoft Office)
·         PDFs
·         Scanned and digital photographs
·         Audio and video files
·         Output from legacy systems
·         Physical records stored offsite

Other incentives for improving electronic records management include a 2010 requirement that U.S. agencies move to the cloud when possible, other initiatives to streamline business processes and prepare for audits, and concerns about security. Having all federal agencies supporting DoD 5015.2 makes it easier to perform such overarching tasks as populating metadata in records.

“DoD 5015.02-STD marked the beginning of the transition from paper-based systems to electronic-based systems to manage records,” writes JITC. “DoD 5015.02-STD made it possible to transfer records management responsibility from the file room to the front office, from the hands of a few, to the hands of virtually all employees.”

Now on Version 3, DoD 5015.2 includes features such as establishing requirements for managing classified records, as well as requirements to support the Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and interoperability. In particular, Version 3 was endorsed by NARA as meeting the agency’s criteria for transferring permanent electronic records to it.

Vendors certify their products against DoD 5015.2 through JITC’s software testing program for the standard. After they pass, their products are put onto a list. DoD organizations can purchase only the records management products that are on this list.

Other opportunities for record management

All that said, DoD 5015.2 isn’t a panacea. It has been criticized by some as being overly complex and unwieldy (well, it is a government standard) and outdated.

“Why is it assumed that what may be required and workable for Defense will also be viable for the civilian federal government?” writes Ron Layel, a records management contractor for NASA, noting there are several examples where the 170+ functional requirements in 5015.2 are either irrelevant or over-engineered, particularly for civilian agencies.

But as we also know, the wheels of government standard development tend to grind pretty slowly, so chances are we’ll have DoD 5015.2 Version 3 with us for some time to come. And knowing a DoD-certified system has been tested against the DoD’s rigorous standards provides reassurance to records managers at thousands of organizations across a wide variety of industries.

Unless you work for the State Government of Victoria, Australia, or the United States Department of Defense or one of its components, you are not required to select a records management system that meets the specifications of either standard. However, the downside of not complying with recordkeeping requirements on organizational reputation and value highlights the importance of investing in a records management system that helps ensure an organization’s information assets are safe and well-managed.

Researchers Use AI for Bible Interpretation

One of the first applications for any new technology is the Bible. Gutenberg published a Bible around 1454 as what is thought to be the first major book printed using mass-produced movable type. Movies about the Bible were produced as long ago as 1897. Publishers used a Univac computer to produce a concordance—a kind of index for all the words used—for a new Bible in 1955, which they said cut 23 years off the process.

Now, researchers are using image analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) to help determine when the first books of the Old Testament were written. They are using what some describe as the ancient equivalent of Post-Its. And techniques developed through such handwriting analysis could end up being useful in identifying contributors to other older documents, even if it’s just through scribbled notes in the margin.

First, some history. The first books of the Old Testament are the five books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch, as well as the books of Deuteronomy to II Kings. It was traditionally thought that they were written after the Babylonian Exile of Israel in the 6^th century BCE, writes Isabel Kershner in the New York Times. In fact, it was thought that it might not be until around 200 BCE, when archeologists again start finding inscriptions, that there were enough literate people around to write down all the material, she adds.

However, that’s all predicated on the belief that the Old Testament couldn’t have been written any earlier than the Babylonian Exile because literacy rates were low—and this new research has demonstrated that that belief could be wrong.

Research Background

The research worked like this. Applied mathematicians and archeologists got together to study messages scribbled on pieces of broken pottery, called ostraca, from the Kingdom of Judah (including and south of present-day Jerusalem) around 600 BCE. In the same way that one of us might grab a Post-It to jot down a note, military people in the Judahite army would grab an ostracon to write down an order to send to another person. While parchment was around, pottery was cheaper, especially for this sort of ephemeral note. And, particularly advantageous for the researchers, pottery lasts a long time.

First, researchers used image analysis to clarify the letters that the various people were writing, similar to the sorts of techniques researchers are using to more clearly identify letters in handwritten documents ranging from the Declaration of Independence to Einstein.

Next, they used AI to analyze the handwriting of the people writing the notes on the pottery. “The letters from pairs of texts were jumbled up and the algorithm separated them based on handwriting,” Kershner writes. “If the algorithm split the letters into two clear groups, the texts were counted as having been written by two authors. When the algorithm did not distinguish between the letters and left them together in one group, no position was taken; they may have been written by the same hand, or possibly by two people with similar styles.”

Research Results

This study determined not only how many people might have written the notes, but, using the information in the notes, where they fit into the social hierarchy. “Based on a statistical analysis of the results, and taking into account the content of the texts that were chosen for the sample, the researchers concluded that at least six different hands had written the 18 missives at around the same time,” Kershner writes. “Even soldiers in the lower ranks of the Judahite army, it appears, could read and write.”

“The commander down to the lowest water master could all communicate in writing,” Arie Shaus, a mathematician at Tel Aviv University, tells Maddie Stone in Gizmodo. “This was an extremely surprising result.”

The notes were also written well, without spelling or grammatical errors. “There is something psychological beyond the statistics,” Prof. Israel Finkelstein of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations at Tel Aviv University, one of the leaders of the project, tells Kershner. “There is an understanding of the power of literacy. And they wrote well, with hardly any mistakes.”

Obviously, if even the water boy is literate, there was a lot more literacy in that time period before the Babylonian Exile than just among scholars and priests. What it means, then, is that the Old Testament could have been written hundreds of years before it was originally thought to be, the researchers say.

Ironically, the result makes the researchers’ original goal—determining who wrote the Old Testament—that much harder. After all, if even the water boy knew how to write, just about anyone could have made a first draft of what became what is arguably the most successful book in the history of the world.

“It would imply that it wasn’t just an elite class of teachers and scholars who could have created the books of the Bible,” writes Dan Seitz in Uproxx. “It could have been, quite literally, some dude hauling water who thought it was a good idea to write this religion stuff down.”

So next time you’re writing a Post-It note, be sure to write it carefully. You never know what conclusions future historians might be making of it.

For more information on how to gather information from your content, download our ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Intelligent Content Capture.

Time to Take Another Look at BPM Benefits

It may have been around since the turn of the century—this century—but there’s still plenty of mileage in business process management (BPM), and there’s still plenty of BPM benefits, according to a recent report.

“BPM may not get the same level of recognition that many other business practices do, but having a robust BPM practice in place is vital for many organizations for achieving optimal business process performance, efficiency, effectiveness, and agility,” writes Jorge García, principal analyst for Technology Evaluations Centers in the recent report Selecting a Business Process Management (BPM) Solution for the Modern Business. This is particularly true for organizations in industries such as software, information technology, and services, he adds.

What makes BPM so important today is it’s been able to incorporate up-to-date technologies such as mobile, cloud, analytics, and increased automation, García writes. “The end result is the acceleration of business processes, encouraging agile and adaptive ways for handling changing and complex business conditions,” he writes. “Another benefit is increased data centricity, and the potential for analytics to not only improve business process monitoring and efficiency, but also increase automated decision making in business processes.”

Moreover, BPM is a methodology that can grow as an organization grows, including working with companies outside the organization, García writes. “Every organization needs to set up a series of processes to address its current operations: Processing a customer request, authorizing a budget, monitoring client requests, etc.” he writes. “As a business grows in complexity, these processes will need to be designed, executed, and controlled with the assistance of a specialized tool.”

It’s not surprising, then, that market research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that the BPM market size will grow from $6.96 billion in 2016 to $13.52 billion by 2021, for a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.2 percent.

Improving Processes

What is a process? According to García, it is a set of connected activities to achieve the optimal execution of a business transaction. Consequently, it needs to be measurable, controllable, and adaptable so that it can be improved, he writes. But many organizations still rely on inadequate tools such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to manage their business processes, writes Dennis McCafferty in CIO Insight.

BPM is particularly helpful in three process components, García writes:

Business complexity, so companies can continuously review, modify, and improve constantly changing business processes
Collaboration, which is increasing inside and outside organizations and makes efficient processes more important
Process interaction, because efforts such as just-in-time manufacturing and Agile development require constantly improving efficiency

No doubt you’ve heard of a “vicious cycle,” where things just keep getting worse and worse. Set up properly, BPM means your organization can instead have a process of continuous improvement by making changes in a business process, measuring how well they work, and then continuing to monitor the business process—including implementing new technology—to look for other changes that could be made, García writes.

This means there are three basic BPM benefits, García writes:

Efficiency by reducing waste
Effectiveness by making better decisions
Agility by being able to implement changes more quickly

Incorporating New Technologies

The advantage of new technologies is that they can help jumpstart business processes. For example, mobile and cloud mean that users can perform business processes without being tied to their desks while reducing companies’ investments in IT hardware and software resources, García writes. Social media provides new avenues for requesting and obtaining information. Automation means that software can perform routine tasks without human intervention, leaving the humans to deal with the more complex cases, while analytics makes it easier for the company to see how changes improve a process and where the bottlenecks are, he adds.

Think that BPM benefits only big companies? Think again. TEC also surveyed 250 users of BPM software and found that well over a third of them worked for companies with fewer than 50 employees and earned annual revenues of less than $10 million.

The biggest barriers to improving BPM efforts? Not surprisingly, they’re the standard ones: Money, time, and resources, McCafferty writes.

Getting prepared for BPM

If you’re not already using BPM, what should you do? García offers four suggestions:

Have a clear business case, including the cost of the inefficiencies your company’s business processes already have, and a proposal for changing and improving them
Get buy-in from senior executives, including from outside IT and perhaps even outside the company
Realize that to work effectively, BPM is a continuous process, not a time-limited project
Develop a roadmap for the various steps of the initiative, including making sure participants can respond quickly

It takes work and commitment to realize BPM benefits, writes Alyssa Huntley in FierceCIO. “Having a BPM plan is more than just deciding to have one,” she warns. “It takes a good deal of initial preparation and monitoring down the road.”

The Beginner’s Guide to Document Management Software

Why Should My Organization Care about Document Management Software?

Streamlining business processes and increasing efficiency are fundamental concerns for any organization, regardless of its size or industry. By implementing document management software, business leaders can improve organizational efficiency.

Document management software transforms the management of business-sensitive information, making it possible to:

Manage the storage, search, and retrieval of millions of documents, allowing users to access files in seconds.
Share documents with colleagues while protecting confidential information.
Automate time-consuming manual processes like filling in metadata and document naming.
Access documents on your smartphone or tablet.
Back up files and records as a part of your organization’s business continuity plan.

What Does the Best Document Management Software Do?

Document management systems capture paper documents and a variety of electronic files while managing the storage, retrieval, security and archiving of these documents.

The document management process begins with the conversion of paper documents, forms and records to electronic files. This is considered Phase 1 of the Digital Transformation journey.

Conversion eliminates many of the obstacles created by paper: labor-intensive duplication procedures, slow distribution, misplaced originals and the inconvenience of retrieving files from off-site storage.

Document management systems have five basic components:

Capture tools to bring information into the system.
Desktop, web and mobile apps that make documents easy to locate and edit.
Folder structures to organize, store and archive documents.
Workflow functionality that automates tedious manual processes like filing and approval.
Security functionality to protect documents from unauthorized access or modification.

Learn more about the basics of document management here.

How Can Enterprise Document Management Software Save Time?

A recent PwC study reports that the average worker spends 40% of their time managing non-essential documents. In addition, IDC estimates that employees spend 20% of their day looking for information in hardcopy documents and that, 50% of the time, they can’t find what they need.

The best document management software can help you save time by:

Answering information requests from clients, citizens and auditors immediately.
Cutting time spent copying and distributing documents to staff, branch offices and outside contacts by digitizing file sharing.
Eliminating lost documents that must be recreated and refiled — and spending less time filing them once they’re found.
Establishing a secure, customizable digital repository for business-critical information, making it simple to search and modify files.

By implementing a document management solution, employees can stop spending time handling paper to start spending more time doing the work that matters: serving clients, citizens and students at maximum efficiency.

How Can Document Management Software Help Improve Efficiency?

Every organization relies on repetitive tasks to accomplish business goals. When it comes to standard, document-based processes like hiring and invoice processing, there are many ways a document management system can help your organization work faster and more effectively.

Enterprise document management software can help your organization increase efficiency with business process automation tools that:

Eliminate manual data entry, document naming and document filing.
Provide staff with information they need to quickly make decisions.
Alerts managers about employee action and inaction.
Make unstructured data (e.g. documents, emails, photographs, etc.) accessible, searchable, available and relevant.
Enable employees to share documents quickly and securely with clients.

Get more information about how document management software can help your organization optimize business processes and increase efficiency here.

What is the Biggest ROI in Enterprise Document Management Software?

Your organization generates large amounts of paper and electronic documents. Traditional methods of storing paper and electronic records require a great deal of effort to manage, distribute and find those documents. As your business grows, so do files, and so does the time and effort required to manage them.

Document management software simplifies business processes by allowing instant access to information, greater collaboration within and among departments and offices and enhanced security for files and records.

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

Learn how document management software can help your organization recapture lost hours, reduce overhead expenses and increase profitability—download The Document Management Buyer’s Guide today!

5 Ways Document Management Systems Can Improve the Bottom Line

How much will a document management system actually benefit my organization’s bottom line?

That’s a common, reasonable question every organization should ask before investing in new technology. But like any other tool, the impact of a document management system (DMS) on the bottom line rests entirely on how you use it.

While ROI isn’t necessarily a hard, universal number, here are some ways other organizations have improved their bottom line with document management systems.

Reduce Mailing Costs

This is likely the most immediate impact on your bottom line. Before using a document management system, you will have mailing costs. After implementation, you will have none, or very few. This is exactly what happened to the Canadian Seed Growers Association (CSGA).

CSGA previously had to mail paper forms to seed inspectors across Canada, racking up hefty postage bills. Using electronic forms to streamline these back-and-forth exchanges, CSGA significantly decreased postage costs.

In fact, CSGA completely eliminated the need to mail anything—and the three weeks’ worth of transit and processing time per application—saving approximately $10,000 in postage, not to mention 300 man hours in labor.

Canadian Seed Growers Association shows off physical ROI of a paperless office. — Doug Miller, CSGA Operations Manager, showing the 56,000 staples representing the employee effort required to process applications before Laserfiche.

Enable Staff to Work More Efficiently

Can you measure efficiency in dollars? Steinhafels’ HR department thinks so.

The department was on the verge of hiring more departmental staff to manage the company’s increasing employee count. However, using a DMS, Steinhafels’ HR department was able to automate tasks like posting jobs on third-party career sites, data entry and filing. By automating these manual tasks, Steinhafels’ HR department was able to hold off on hiring new team members.

“To continue to generate paper and analyze the data on the paper, I would have had to increase my staff,” says Lynda Malmberg, Senior HR Manager. “Ultimately, the decision was driven by economics and the need to be more efficient.” The decision saved Steinhafels an annual savings of at least $80,000 per year in salary and benefits.

Reclaim Misspent Time

Time is money, and a high-value DMS system can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete repeatable tasks.

For years, the College of the Desert struggled to provide information and timely service to its on-campus and online students—with some documents taking up to eight weeks to process.

Some departments, such as Admissions and Records, scanned and stored documents in an electronic repository that lacked search and indexing capabilities. This meant that staff members had to search multiple locations to find a student file.

The college replaced its legacy electronic repository with a more robust and powerful DMS that enabled online form submissions, automated information processing and allowed for comprehensive search and retrieval of archived information. The end result was a 40% reduction in the amount of time it took to process applications.

“We decreased the amount of manual work involved with document processing by 90%,” says Annebelle Nery, Executive Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Educational Services & Planning.

Minimize the Risk of Recordkeeping Fines

A quality DMS does more than just help you go paperless. Beyond eliminating the need for employees to take time manually filing records, it can also help you comply with recordkeeping requirements.

Financial firms like Hanson McClain need to be vigilant about following recordkeeping rules. “The SEC and FINRA require that firms use a certain type of document management technology, such as unalterable database software,” says Barry Chapman, Hanson McClain’s Director of IT.

Improve Customer Service

CIRCOR Pibiviesse is a parts manufacturer that builds custom valves for the energy, aerospace and defense industries. Each valve that is delivered also needs an accompanying databook, which contains hundreds of pages of materials certifications, product drawings, internal procedures and more. Without a completed databook, Pibiviesse’s valves cannot pass industry inspections and be activated at a plant.

“We used to have documentation on-time delivery rates in the range of 30-40%,” says Ivan Fantin, Continuous Improvement Manager at CIRCOR Pibiviesse. Since implementing document management software, Pibiviesse was able to greatly improve its on-time delivery of databooks. “We are proud to say that we now have reached a 100% on-time delivery rate,” says Fantin.

This improved process actually allowed Pibiviesse to deliver databooks to its customers even before the arrival of the valves, which has dramatically improved customer satisfaction.

To better understand how a document management system can benefit your bottom line, create a cost-benefit analysis with this easy guide.

How Laserfiche ECM Helps Financial Advisors Compete with Robo-Advisors

Today, financial advisors operate in a far more competitive landscape than in years past. Robo-advisors and other technology-driven changes are impacting the traditional practices of advisors, creating urgency to adopt the latest industry innovations.

Here are three factors that are contributing to the industry’s shifting landscape and how enterprise content management (ECM) systems helps financial advisors adapt to them.

Robo-advisors

The term, “robo-advisor” refers to algorithmic technology that is helping investors—particularly beginning investors with smaller portfolios—cost-effectively make more informed financial decisions.

One of the ways traditional advisors can compete with robo-advisors is through software integration. When they integrate primary applications like a customer relationship management (CRM) and ECM system, advisors can quickly collect business-critical data and gain insight into their organization’s processes. In fact, a previous InvestmentNews study found that firms with integrated primary applications had higher revenues, profits and assets under management than those with limited technology investments.

As robo-advisors enter the wealth management space, advisors must re-think their approach to technology in order to increase productivity and remain competitive.

RIA Growth Curve

The number of registered investment advisors (RIAs) has grown steadily in recent years and is expected to reach 28% of market share by 2018. This figure has grown from just 11.9% in 2013. In fact, research group Cerulli Associates recently identified RIAs as the fastest growing segment of the financial advisor market.

With many new practices entering the industry, it is crucial for advisors to focus on establishing competitive differentiators. ECM systems gives advisors a comparative advantage by streamlining business processes that can take their competitors longer to complete. For example, some ECM systems can:

Auto-populate electronic forms, reducing the processing time and errors of manual data entry
Automate compliance review and approval processes, allowing advisors to quickly book new trades
Email electronic forms to account holders for e-signatures, saving significant document turnaround time

Compliance

With a renewed focus on compliance from regulators, advisors can expect more frequent and in-depth audits than ever before. Top advisors are using ECM systems to prepare their firms for strict compliance regulations.

When advisors automate business processes like new account opening, blotter submissions and trade approvals, some ECM systems record an audit history of every action that takes place. This allows RIAs to easily discover documents requested during an audit.

Advisors can also use ECM systems to manage client records by automatically assigning retention and destruction dates based on their records management requirements. Girard Securities—a San Diego-based RIA—uses Laserfiche ECM to improve productivity and compliance around its blotter process:

http://laserfiche1.wistia.com/medias/xe2l9pv7sr?embedType=api&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=600

The combination of robo-advisors, new competitors and stricter compliance makes for a tipping point in the wealth management industry. The advisors that come out on top will be defined by how they streamline their operations with technology.

For more information on how to provide quick, efficient investment services using an ECM system, watch this recorded webinar Automation: The Final Frontier for Broker-Dealers.

Learn more about how you can optimize your workflows for the new world of work with our industry brief: Accelerating Digital Transformation: How to Realize Digital Innovation Fast in a Post-Pandemic World.

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