Cost-effective information and business processes
Today there are probably hardly any medium-sized or major companies that are not confronted with the question of whether to introduce an iECM solution or not. In view of the increasing pressure on costs and the growing demand for efficient access to information and documents and for their use and handling within business processes, companies need to make a meaningful decision for the future which, at the end of the day, is backed up by cost-effectiveness considerations.
On what criteria should this decision be based? iECM offers many technical, organisational and economic benefits. At the end of the day, cases need to be considered individually to see what benefits can be achieved based on the tasks in question (business case) and how cost-effective these would be.
Direct, efficient access to information
Thirty per cent of working time is spent searching for information. Conventional ways of providing and searching for information result in a considerable loss of productivity and efficiency, which is harmful to competitiveness. To increase productivity, it is important to have the correct information available at the right time in the right context and at the right cost, and to be able to integrate it into business processes in line with requirements. Integration of the various different sources of information plays an important role here, ensuring that inconsistencies in the stored data are avoided and that the information is available across all systems.
Retaining and backing up data, information and documents
Whereas in the past ECM was used to back up information and to manage it and make it available more quickly, now there are additional important reasons for using ECM: regulations on data access and the auditability of digital documents (GDPdU), principles of orderly electronic bookkeeping systems (GoBs), Basel II, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and digital signatures. The business requirement has now been followed by a legal requirement. The costs of retaining documents in line with this legislation can be reduced significantly by digitisation (switching from paper to electronic archiving), standardised data storage units (repositories) and value-based storage of information within the information lifecycle.
Savings through process optimisation and automation
Strategic arguments in favour of workflow management and business process management (BPM) are shorter processing and response times and an increase in the organisation’s flexibility, all of which help achieve a faster time to market. From an economic point of view, the arguments in favour of BPM are increased efficiency and profitability, support for growth and better utilisation of resources.
Business process conformity and continuity
There are still considerable gaps in business processes. Information is not available at the points in the processes where it is needed. There is also a lack of continuity in electronic business processes. Inbound documents are one of the most obvious examples of this. Where documents enter an organisation by post, fax, email etc. a lack of automated electronic processes causes long processing, response and lead times. Closing the gaps and automating the organisational interfaces between process steps and departments involved in the workflow organisation leads to considerable cost savings and productivity increases.
Savings through the removal of interfaces that require time-consuming programming
The DOXiS iECM Suite has connectors that ensure optimum functional, organisational and commercial collaboration between individual components within the suite. This should be offset against the costs and integration efforts required to implement, manage and maintain technical interfaces and applications from different vendors.
Reduced operating costs through consolidation
Consolidation of information management is a central task of Enterprise Content Management. The aim is to streamline infrastructure to a core that is optimised in terms of resources and costs. This avoids excess capacity and reduces management and process costs.
Data management consolidation
Consolidation of data into standardised formats and repositories is another type of consolidation that can reduce costs, ensure data consistency and optimise availability within business processes. This type of consolidation has an impact not only on applications, but also on costs for server and storage resources.
Consolidation of business applications
Consolidating applications reduces administrative costs, increases staff productivity and lowers process costs for the organisation. The continuity of components in the DOXiS iECM Suite in particular, and the possibility of integrating their functions in existing production systems, such as ERP, CRM etc., increase staff efficiency by reducing complexity at user level, and minimise the cost of training users in the use of new functions.