What Is Robotic Process Automation?

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

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

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

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

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

The basics of RPA

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

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

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

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

The benefits of RPA

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

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

What processes are suited for RPA?

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

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

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

A virtual business assistant

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

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

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

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

Bridging integration gaps with RPA

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

RPA and digital transformation

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

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

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

What Is Information Management?

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

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

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

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

Accessibility

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

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

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

Storage and Preservation

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

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

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

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

Governance

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

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

Information Management Solutions for the Real World

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is document management system?


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

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

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

What is a records management system?

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

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

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

What makes document and records management systems different?

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

1. Goal

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

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

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

2. Information

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

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

3. Methodology

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is a value-added reseller (VAR)?

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

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

What are managed service providers (MSPs)?

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

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

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

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

SaaS is changing the business

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

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

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

The future for VARs and MSPs

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

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

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

Introducing the Laserfiche API

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

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

What is the Laserfiche API?

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

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

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

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

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

What can you do with the Laserfiche API?

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

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

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

What are the use cases?

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

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

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

How do I get started with the Laserfiche API?

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

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.

Tags

Tags can be a quick way to classify and categorize documents. Informational tags provide additional notes on a document, while security tags can restrict access to only authorized users.

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.
Read more laserfiche reviews

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.
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.

Choose a recognized document management platform

In its recent report, the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management, analyst firm Gartner named Laserfiche a Leader in document management, evaluating vendors based on ability to execute and completeness of vision. Download the full report here.
What Is Document Management?

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

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Laserfiche Named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management

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GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Laserfiche. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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.