Electronic Records Management is an important initiative undertaken by any organization and has been a priority for both public and private sector organizations for a long time. But, despite well established operating procedures and several options available in the market, organizations are still struggling to outline an effective electronic records management strategy that can sustain for at least a decade and ensure successful implementation of an Electronic Records Management system (EDRMS).
Well, there is no easy answer to this problem. However, if one understands business needs and creates a records management strategy taking future requirements into consideration, it can lead to a successful record management initiative that would serve an organization for a longer period of time.
So with my experience of implementing and overseeing large and complex records management implementations, here are some insights and key suggestions that can help you overcome major roadblocks.
See the Bigger Picture
Record Management Systems, sometimes, are implemented as an initiative of a local team trying to solve their departmental problems. In such cases, organizations misses an opportunity to lay a strong foundation for an organization-wide record management implementation and limits itself merely to a local system which does not suffice in the long run. Such system soon becomes inadequate and obsolete. So, don’t let too much focus on your current pain areas result in an inadequate blueprint. The bigger picture blueprint should include:
Centralized Records management policies -This is the heart of a robust RMS and system should offer support for- defining taxonomies, record numbering schemes, retention & disposition policies, off-lining policies, data transfer schemes to National Archive etc.
End-to-end content management – The focus of your strategy should be on managing complete lifecycle from capture, processing to archival of all content types such as – paper records, emails, scanned copies, social media content etc.
Integration with other enterprise & workgroup systems (especially email)
To ensure that you are on the right track, you can use certain certification guidelines such as DOD 5015.2, VERS and MOREQ. Out of these, DOD 5015.2 is the most comprehensive and dependable. Also, certified RMS software products available in market, greatly de-risks your implementation by providing comprehensive and compliant features.
What to opt for – bespoke or force-fit system?
As a part of your implementation strategy, going for detailed customization is not an option. There is no point, indulging in some complex software development when good options are readily available for use. The question is how to implement a good product effectively. Depending on varying business needs, specific customizations may be required in the system. So while implementing, one should look out for:
Storage Management – A good RMS product should offer a customizable framework and options for physical record management as per organization warehouse layout (if physical records are managed in-house).
Scalability – system should be scalable to any other unique process in the organization
Bar-Code/RFID integration
The key point here is that your RMS strategy should be a good blend of – a robust product with customizable framework, so that it’s a perfect fit for your business needs.
Managing complexity v/s ease-of-use tradeoff
With all due-diligence and consideration of the above points, it may still lead to low adoption as solution is expected to be a complex one. An easy-to-use records management system and comprehensive records management system are considered as two separate ends of a spectrum, as regulatory compliances demand a lot of sophisticated and complex rules/options to be setup. Most of the organizations take it as a training and hand-holding issue and believe that over a period of time users will get used to working on a complex screen. Well, this is a lethal mistake to make instead managing this trade-off should be part of your strategy
Some suggestions to make a comprehensive and easy-to-use records management system a success:
Have a separate desktop for day-to-day operations & policy/record administration – Setting up policies and administering them needs complex and detailed features such as – configuring taxonomy, retention rules, managing disposition etc. But these activities are periodic in nature and end users may not even need to access such complex functionality. What an end user requires is a desktop with common functionalities like searching a record, digitally using it, requesting hard copy etc. Even Record Managers, can perform operations like filing, managing request and notifications on much simpler interface. With a separate system, you also ensure more security as full policy desktop would be owned by Record Administrator only.
Use case based mobile app – Mobility is set to disrupt some traditional ways of record management. Record capture and quick filing through mobile, quick access and action on a request and stock tracking though mobile using barcodes are some examples that will set the pace for implementation and offer convenience to users.
Intelligent filing suggestions – Auto-suggestions based on context information available within a document would simplify record filing.
Planning for more use cases Look for more such options in your use case.
Strategize for riding technology led changes
We have witnessed the email era; when email took over business communications and it demanded our record systems to change. Record management systems struggled to adapt and manage the new and different kind of content format with attachment, body, index and threaded communication. It took a long time for vendors to cope with this new advent and many locally developed system could not match the speed, hence, vanished.
Today, Social Media content poses the same threat. It is again a different format type that government organizations need to track and record in their Record Management System. This new content type has emerged as both an opportunity and threat to record management and should be a key parameter to be considered for your RMS strategy. So, while choosing your preferred vendor, add this parameter to your checklist.
Concluding
With this quick guide, we aim to help you create a fool-proof records management strategy and adopt the right system addressing your business needs. We have tried to highlight and address some important issues, if these handled well, it can really make a big difference in creating a long lasting and efficient records management strategy. As efficient records management system will serve as the basis for effective service delivery and public accountability.
Customers Globally Achieved Cost Savings and Business Benefits, Finds an Independent Research
According to Deloitte, “While 85% of CEOs accelerated digital initiatives during the pandemic, most can’t articulate their overall strategy and progress beyond that they made a tech investment.” Realizing the emerging needs and goals of organizations, Newgen provides and continuously upgrades its low code and cloud-based digital transformation platform, NewgenONE, to help organizations across industries accelerate their digital transformation journeys.
The Total Economic Impact™ of Newgen Software, a Forrester Consulting Study Recently, Newgen commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying its solutions in digital transformation. The study provides readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Newgen on their organizations. Forrester interviewed three decision-makers with experience using Newgen Software to better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with the investment.
The study found that Newgen provided a 371% ROI and a $29M NPV for a composite organization over three years with a payback period of less than six months. The study further described how a composite organization experienced improvements in areas like employee productivity, workflow efficiency, customer experience, and regulatory compliance, leading to significant cost savings and business benefits after deploying Newgen’s solutions for digital transformation.
Key Benefits Unlocked with Newgen
Here are some of the key benefits that the composite organization experienced after investing in Newgen’s solutions:
Improved Productivity with Automated Enrolment and Data Entry
The interviewed organizations were able to eliminate mundane, manual data entry processes using Newgen solution features such as auto-extraction, auto-validation, and single-screen data entry. This helped organizations reduce errors and accelerate the enrolment process. Digitizing manual data entry allowed interviewed organizations to reskill between 8% and 20% of FTEs per year and enabled 50% in time savings.
Accelerated Delivery with Workflows Digitization in the Call Center
Investing in Newgen’s solutions helped enhance the agent’s visibility on key processes through Newgen’s unified dashboard. The dashboard offers capabilities to centralize repository for archiving all contract documents, streamline the approval and review process, and leverage intelligent automation and AI capabilities to better inform the agent’s decision-making. Furthermore, agents were able to reduce the average time spent on handling customer queries like appeals and grievances by 75% after streamlining and automating various processes.
Operational Cost Savings from Decommissioned IT Systems
Newgen’s solutions allowed interviewed organizations to simplify their complex business needs and workflows supporting them. The organizations were able to leverage a singular cloud-based platform that integrated multiple processes and disparate IT systems. This helped organizations to decommission legacy IT systems and bridge information silos, unlock simpler processes, and improve productivity. Repurposing the resources dedicated to maintenance, patching, and IT support per decommissioned system helped cut operational costs.
Faster Invoice Processing
Invoices processing can be complex, as one of the interviewed organizations reported several challenges in processing invoices efficiently, which resulted in a lack of visibility into cash flow. The organization found a solution in Newgen’s cloud-based digital transformation platform to tackle the issues like dependency on multiple systems, delayed payments, and lost invoices. After investing in Newgen’s solutions, the organization was able to handle invoice processing from initiation to archival. Standardizing and automating invoice processing helped the organization accelerate the process by 60%– from an average of 5 to 2 days.
Enhanced Customer and Employee Experience
After deploying Newgen’s solutions for digital transformation, the composite organization saw an improvement in its customer and employee experience. The organization could enhance its customer experience by leveraging an integrated customer portal for accessing communication materials and self-service tools in a timely manner. Furthermore, Newgen’s intelligent automation capabilities reduced the volume of manual paperwork, freeing up the organization’s capacity to upskill and fulfill greater responsibilities, enhancing the employee experience and satisfaction.
Better Adherence to Regulatory Compliance
With Newgen’s solutions, the composite organization could comply more fastidiously by virtue of its capacity to prioritize transactions relative to the financial and regulatory risks they pose. Thus, enabling the organization to address those risks in advance and avoid any regulatory fines on account of delayed processing.
Quicker Provider Onboarding and Contracting
By deploying Newgen’s solutions, interviewed organizations were able to accelerate their provider onboarding and contracting processes. The organizations could tap on intelligent features such as the auto-generation of letters which enabled them to accelerate turnaround time to onboard providers from weeks to days, elevating the overall experience and level of provider satisfaction.
Apart from these quantified and unquantified benefits, the study also highlights the analysis of each benefit, cost analysis, and financial summary of the entire study based on the composite organization.
Digital transformation has undoubtedly become a critical part of the boardroom agenda for organizations of all sizes and scales. Gartner states that organizations accelerate digital transformation processes for long-term growth and profitability. Yet: “53% of the organizations surveyed remain untested in the face of digital challenge and their digital transformation readiness therefore uncertain.”
But you can be ready to face the digital challenges by utilizing hyper-automation tools. The range of tools includes automation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), optical character recognition (OCR), process discovery, and others. A digital transformation platform helps business leaders like you build a connected enterprise. These automation solutions will help by engaging employees, customers, and third-party across regions, functions, and departments through their preferred location, time, and channel. It helps fulfill your initiatives and bring together people, processes, and systems seamlessly in real-time. Furthermore, by leveraging an automation platform, you can transform your complex business processes, spanning across multiple siloed departments, dozens of disparate databases, and millions of files into unified and streamlined business applications.
How digital transformation platform helps business:
Optimize and Automate Business Processes
AI-driven digital transformation platform automates and streamlines end-to-end business processes, including content, processes, and communication. This hyper-automation technology allows you to do away with repetitive tasks and manual tasks and enable the business user to function at an increased level of efficiency and decision making. Using adaptive algorithms and advanced analytics, It can respond quickly to organizational demands, reduces business risks, and takes preventive actions based on AI predictive analysis. Furthermore, it helps improve service level agreements, enhance operational efficiency, and optimize operational costs by a significant margin.
Accessing Contextual Information
Organizations generate a high volume of content, making it exceedingly challenging to store, classify, mine, or draw insights from this information. Here’s where a digital transformation platform comes into the picture. The platform enables your users to access search content from federated repositories, maintain data confidentiality, leverage content-centric workflows to drive productivity, mine data and employ content analytics, and apply appropriate retention and compliance policies
Leveraging an ideal digital transformation platform, you can keep your customers engaged through their preferred channels, including mobile, web, chatbots, social media, etc. Furthermore, you can provide consistent interactions and customer experiences even if the customer switches the channel in-between
Developing Applications Faster
A robust digital transformation platform reduces time-to-market with drag-and-drop and point-and-click configurability to build and deploy applications faster. Low-code/No-code features empower you to expand your application portfolio by rapidly developing critical business applications and facilitating enhanced collaboration between business and IT teams
Key Takeaways
In a nutshell, an ideal digital transformation platform helps streamline content, automates business processes, accelerates digitization, and enables you to deliver a superior experience to customers and partners. It also empowers employees to focus on customer-centric activities while boosting their day-to-day productivity.
Newgen has conducted a poll on LinkedIn, asking our followers, “What does ‘Transforming Experiences’ mean to you?”
The results were that 45% of respondents said they interpreted “transforming experiences” as enabling anytime, anywhere operations, and 28% responded with end-to-endcustomer journey enablement. It’s no surprise, especially during a disruptive global pandemic, that most organizations are focused on improving customer experience, uninterrupted business operations, and secure remote accessibility.
But the question is how can enterprises, like yours, transform the end-to-end experience for your internal and external users?
Let’s see if the answer lies in digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation Anyway?
In a separate poll, we asked our LinkedIn network what “Digital transformation should mean.” 38% of people responded with simplified work, while the rest of the respondents were split evenly between paperless operations (24%), new innovations (22%), and happy customers (16%).
All of them are right! Based on our experience over the past nearly three decades, we believe that effective digital transformation should involve:
Enhancing your customer experience through omnichannel interactions and prompt communications
Empowering your employees with tools to rapidly develop and update business applications
Providing visibility, connectivity, and accessibility to your employees, across your end-to-end operations
Implementing an agile IT infrastructure, with new-age technologies, that can grow with your company
Transforming Experiences through Digital Transformation
As “transformed experiences” is becoming a competitive differentiation, enterprises must accelerate their digital initiatives. In fact, analysts at Forrester said, “In 2021, we predict that companies will accelerate digital transformation with a focus on customers and the products, practices, platforms, partners, and places to sell to and serve them.”
To us, “transforming experiences” means enabling anytime-anywhere operations, seamless customer journeys, omnichannel engagement, modernization of your existing IT systems, smooth collaboration, and more.
Remember the time when we could touch any document and meet our colleagues freely?
With COVID-19, things have changed drastically. We have become physically distant and wary of handling documents. This has affected our decision-making, customer service, and overall organizational efficiency.
“Fully or partially manual processes only function when workers and physical files are located in the same place. That’s why millions of people working from home have resulted in complete breakdowns of key operations for enterprises that depend on manual processes.”Source: Forrester*
You need to start by formulating a comprehensive digital document processing strategy that ensures secure, remote access and compliance with regulatory requirements.
For this, you need software that:
Imports, digitizes, processes, and archives physical and electronic documents
To locate information easily, you must index documents by associating metadata with the respective documents and folders
Document Processing
For seamless processing, you must define the role of maker and checkers so that documents are auto-routed
Repository Structure
Organizing the repository based on your enterprise’s departmental structure is key. All departmental documents must be stored under the respective entities and business documents should be organized based on the lines of business
Search Operation at Document and Folder Level
Easy access to information is one of the main value-adds of a document processing system. When you are selecting a system, ensure that it supports advanced and intuitive search operations at multiple levels
Permission Access and Administration
It is critical that you secure your information using the restricted access permission capability so that only the intended users can view, add, or modify documents. You can grant access permissions at the user group level, rather than to specific users. Also, setting access permissions at the folder level will simplify the management and maintenance of your documents
A digital document processing software is key to thriving in a remote working environment, especially as employees and documents continue to be physically separated for the foreseeable future.
Introducing Newgen OmniDocs ActiveScript
Automating your industry-specific, document-centric processes is now easy with a wide range of 100+ ready-to-use templates. By deploying Newgen OmniDocs ActiveScript on cloud, you can create a digital workplace, access documents anytime, anywhere, and ensure compliance with document management and storage regulations.
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