AN EXPERT VIEW
Content digitization:
a lot to gain
In a highly competitive market, digitization is mandatory to stay competitive and boost efficiency and productivity. Digitization has taken the business world by storm thanks to its ability to transform how businesses and organizations work. As a first step to initiating your digitization journey think about the digitization of content and related processes. Let's dive into the details of digitization, including what it is and why your company or business will benefit from it. We have also included a series of questions to help you determine whether your business requires content digitization.
ADOPT, IMPROVE, WIN
Digitization of content refers to doing away with old business models and adopting new technologies to create, collect, classify, manage and store documents and contained data. Digitization improves and transforms business operations, therefore improving revenue, eliminating unnecessary costs, and promoting value-added prospects.
If you run a business that mainly uses paper to store information, you must have thought of going digital as opposed to maintaining the physical records. However, most information is already digital in this age, so you only need better systems to manage the information in a professional manner.
LET’S HAVE A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems have been used by businesses to keep track of day-to-day business activities. While the benefits have been numerous in the past, outdated or not properly configured ECM systems can prove less effective for your business. Some of the limitations associated with a lack or outdated ECM systems include:
COMMON PROBLEMS
01. TIME CONSUMING
Operative processes are not yet fully automated, meaning unnecessary resources and time is still spent on admin tasks such as invoicing and reorders;
02. UNCONTROLLED INFORMATION
Sharing information with external and even internal partners is still done via email, which is not 100% secure. It also leads to the creation of copies of documents with no proper control over them;
03. CONTENT SILOS
Information access within the ECM system is limited to single departments, creating content silos and thus, restricting other departments from accessing the data, which leads to an exchange of documents via email;
04. LONG RESPONSE TIME
The response time for client inquiries is extended, leading to a loss of revenue and lower profitability levels;
05. TIME-WASTING PROCESSES
The processes are inefficient; for instance, the time taken to handle paper processes such as scanning, printing, copying, storing, and signatures leads to a lot of time wasted;
06. DEMOTIVATED EMPLOYEES
Employees are easily demotivated or frustrated by handling time-consuming tasks of little value instead of working on valuable tasks that result in measurable value to the business;
07. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS
Long-term protection or archive is yet to be created, putting the business information at the risk of tampering and access by unauthorized parties.
Enterprise content digitization:
your full potential
STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Digitization of content refers to doing away with old business models and adopting new technologies to create, collect, classify, manage and store documents and contained data. Digitization improves and transforms business operations, therefore improving revenue, eliminating unnecessary costs, and promoting value-added prospects.
If you run a business that mainly uses paper to store information, you must have thought of going digital as opposed to maintaining the physical records. However, most information is already digital in this age, so you only need better systems to manage the information in a professional manner.
Modern, properly configured to fit the purpose, and optimized ECM systems speed up the process of digitization of content management processes leading to a variety of benefits.
Enables effortless access and sharing of the company's information within the company, external partners, and work from home staff. This will not only save time but also fosters a sense of collaboration among different stakeholders.
Digitization eliminates content silos and paper archives, saving physical space. In the long run, it can save your company money spending on extended cloud or physical storage spaces.
Stay competitive and informed while saving time and money and improving customer satisfaction through faster response times and optimized service. Dealing with lost or misplaced data can also demotivate both employees and clients, whereas outdated or not fitting to purpose systems can cause a sentiment decrease inside and outside the organization. Digitization enables a company to meet compliance and regulation aspects of the business, which could otherwise cost not only money but also create reputation damage. And last but not least: going paperless is also good for the environment as it reduces the company’s impact on natural resource consumption.
LET 25 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE LEAD THE WAY
“First things first, analyse the as-is current situation of your business. What is your IT strategy? How does the business “document management" look like today? Carry out an internal analysis with all stakeholders to determine your requirements and general needs.
Identify the biggest pain points in your business and business processes. It can be loss of information, long processing time or slow operational processes, handling and exchange of confidential information with external partners, loss of discounts, or even compliance-related penalties.
Set up the goals for your business-related content management and identify what you require to meet them. For instance, create an estimate of what the lack of digitization costs your business per month or year. Identify the potential benefits of digitization, such as cost savings, better customer support, and increased efficiency. This will help you identify the steps required to get to your goal.”
— Joachim Freitag, Partner IseoLabs
HOW TO START?
For many of you, the digitization process seems not to be a walk in the park, because first budgets must be allocated and internal resources for transformation projects must be blocked and aligned. Starting with ECM will become a real accelerator for your company's digitization and transformation strategy.
Reducing or eliminating annoying time consuming, paper-based processes, using intelligent attribute extraction tools to provide a 360-degree view of all your business documents and related processes – that is what everyone can imagine and get an instant benefit.
Let us help you
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Analyses & Solution Design
We support you in the requirement analysis and the solution design matching your IT strategy and strategic IT partners;
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Advisory
We provide "market advisory" for vendors' pre-selection and best practices recommendations;
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Guidance to digitization
We guide you in executing the required steps to digitization to address the shortcomings of an existing ECM system or to set up a new one;
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Support & Migration
We support you within your process redesign and implementation of fit-to-purpose ECM systems; We help you migrate existing content into your new or redesigned ECM system.
ABOUT THE EXPERT
Joachim Freitag, Partner IseoLabs
From working at the famous IXOS since 1998 and after the merger with OpenText 2003 to co-founding his own German consulting firm in 2008, Achim has supported clients large and small now for nearly 20 years. His move to Switzerland in 2012 lead to founding company IseoLabs AG. He continues to provide the same dedication to all his clients. Practicing since the first internet boom, Achim has hands-on experience with various DMS/ECM/EIM solutions especially in the SAP domain. He knows how digital transformation affects business processes from a variety of projects. Staying independent of the technology’s frequent changes while focusing on his clients business requirements is Achim’s sixth sense.
AN EXPERT VIEW