Efficiency is the byword of every successful business. You need to make sure that you do everything in your power not only to streamline aspects of your business such as data sharing but to increase the degree that employees engage at every point in the decision-making process. Old-fashioned solutions such as a dependence on paper and traditional means of storing and disseminating content is simply not enough anymore. That’s why you’ll want to explore enterprise content management solutions in order to improve your company’s efficiency and performance.
- What Is ECM?
For those not in the know, ECM is the process by which companies embrace different data storage and dissemination approaches. As stated above, this is undertaken in large part to make sure that employees throughout a given company have access to the documents they need when they need them. This is accomplished by digitizing files and making them available as PDFs.
What’s more, there is evidence to suggest that ECM is on the rise with the market share set to grow from $24 billion in 2015 to as much as $59 billion by 2020.
- Digitizing Your Files
As stated, the cornerstone of ECM is digitizing your files and making them available in formats that are easier to access in a computer and online-centric corporate world.
Having your files available only in paper form can be a huge drag on your company’s speed and efficiency. Of course, paper files aren’t completely vanishing any time soon; it’s always a good idea to have a hard-copy backup of any essential information. That said, it takes considerably more time to disseminate paper files and you only have a set number of copies available at any given time.
By contrast, when you have digitized files, employees can access them much more quickly and they’ll be able to do so anywhere, any time once you upload them to a company cloud.
At the same time, however, anyone who has dealt with blurry or otherwise bad PDF versions of paper files know how frustrating it can be to have to struggle with something so utterly illegible. That’s why the best experts in ECM take care to take high-quality pictures of your paper files and upload them with perfect crispness and clarity. In addition, they can take content that is already digitized, such as Microsoft Word files, and put them through the same process so as to keep all your files in one place and at the same level of quality.
- Most Important Files
Among the most important files that you’ll want to look into having digitized and uploaded are:
- Invoices
- Resumes
- Contracts
- Letters, emails, and other forms of correspondence
- Reports
- Automating the Process
When it comes to increasing efficiency and cutting down on time and resources spent, one of the most important tools at your disposal is automation. While you never want to remove the human element completely, automation can help cut down on errors while simultaneously freeing your employees from having to tackle more mundane tasks, thus allowing them to focus on more complex fare.
ECM fits right in with that. There are several ways that it can help with the automation process.
For example, once you have uploaded your digitized files, you can automate the process by which certain files are sent to the appropriate personnel. In addition, you can set up alarms that can notify staff when files have been uploaded that require their attention. You can even set up means by which errors in files can be recognized and addressed.
- Reducing Risk to Your Company
Last but not least, it’s worth noting how the principles of enterprise content management can help reduce the overall risk to your company. Among the security upgrades that can be married to effective ECM include:
- Restrictions on which personnel can access files at any given time
- Restricting files so only employees have access to them
- Monitoring log-ins and password changes on the system
- Adding protection to certain files by placing them in folders with extra security
The business world is going digital and it’s time that your business followed suit.
Improve the ease with which you can access, secure, and disseminate files and upgrade your company’s efficiency on the whole with effective ECM.
