Insights on Business Process Management

and Workflow Automation

While Business Process Management (BPM) is a distinct subject, it is strongly related to document management and workflow. Documents are used in almost all business procedures. Decision-making is also a part of the business process. Identifying and electronically recording, or mapping, your business process and its rules are known as the workflow process, or at least automated rules-based workflow. This allows systems to make rules-based judgments, allowing your company to do business more quickly. Employees who perform various functions in various departments are now aware of your company's workflow.

Your procedures are a significant resource for your company. On the other hand, your employees take this information home every day. Who takes over their responsibilities when they call in sick, resign, or get promoted? Do their successors, most critically, know what to do? Even worse, are you paying your staff to perform routine tasks?

The value of an employee comes from their ability to make judgments that cannot be automated rather than from their ability to execute repetitive duties. Why do we pay employees to perform the same thing every day? Although not all jobs can be entirely automated, your employees will be considerably more productive if you have a well-defined document management procedure.

Processes in Business

What is the definition of BPM (Business Process Management) ?

It's spending the time to learn about your company procedures so you can figure out what the best ones are. Just because a company has been using the same approach for years does not indicate it is efficient. BPM begins by examining the present condition of business processes, or the as-is state.

The next stage is to figure out what the best methods are or what the to-be state is. You may then automate the workflow to eliminate previously needed employees' phases after discovering, mapping, and simplifying your processes. This is the power of business process management (BPM) and workflow process automation.

Automation of Workflows

If you use your Document Management System to automate workflow processes, you must first identify the documents and the procedures for each step. We may include procedures in our invoicing example where the department seeking the original purchase files a buy request. The system could go through the demand to see whether it's within budget or if it's from a trusted vendor.

The purchase request might be automatically authorized, and a purchase order created if everything meets the established requirements. If anything does not comply with the automatic approval standards, the purchase request may be forwarded to a higher-level individual for approval. After that individual approves or rejects the request, the procedure can proceed to the following automated phase.

The instance above may or may not be representative of your business policies. It makes no difference. BPM is the process of identifying your processes' rules to automate them. Furthermore, business process management (BPM) isn't simply for accounting. Business Process Management can review every business process in your company, from sales to human resources, from contract production to claims processing.

Let's fast forward to when the vendor sends the purchased items. An automatic message to the department to pick up or check their shipment might have been triggered by receiving paperwork being filled in at the loading dock. The load may subsequently be subject to department approval. Once the cargo has been approved, an accounting notification may be sent to settle the invoice and take advantage of the discount.

Every firm is unique and has its own set of requirements. What is constant is that most procedures can be automated to increase efficiency. Records management and compliance are the last pieces of the document management puzzle.

File management software systems, often known as file tracking software or file managers, are used to organize and maintain data files.

Its powers are restricted, despite the fact that it is intended for the management of individual or group files, such as office papers, records, and other information. It gives the user the capacity to work with several files at the same time, creating, entering, changing, querying, and producing reports.

It's simplest to conceive of file management software as a component of your broader information management strategy that serves as an organizational component.

Your operating system maintains a hierarchical file system (directories contain files that are subdirectories beneath them), but your file management system allows you to organize data based on how files and folders are named, how nested folders are organized, and how the files contained within those folders are handled by the user. This thus makes it easier to search for and find files in the future.

The advantages of utilizing a file management software solution

The majority of the advantages you'll reap from using a file management system or file tracking software are dependent on your ability to access and organize your files. They are as follows:

• Files should be organized so that they can be accessed quickly.
• Searching for files is simple.
• Storage and retrieval that is safer and more secure
• Improved file tracking for the purposes of archiving and deleting files
• The abolition of paper-based filing systems

What LogicalDOC can do to help you with your file management

LogicalDOC is a single business information platform that allows you to manage content, procedures, and cases all in one place. LogicalDOC changes companies across the world by enabling them to become more flexible, efficient, and successful. LogicalDOC provides enterprise document management (EDMS), case management, business process management (BPM), enterprise file sync and share, and capture all on a single platform.

It is common to discuss LogicalDOC's file tracking capabilities while discussing file management using the software package.

LogicalDOC allows you to save your electronic files on any network-discoverable file share – from Windows or Linux file servers to purpose-built storage devices – without having to install any additional software. Therefore, you won't have to invest in an expensive storage solution for your LogicalDOC system as a consequence of this feature.

For any file in your system, LogicalDOC allows you to keep an infinite number of live, online copies, which are accessible from anywhere. If you have any hardware or network issues that prevent access to your primary file servers from continuing, LogicalDOC will automatically fail over to secondary copies to guarantee that your business does not suffer any interruptions.

Read on to find out more about LogicalDOC's file storage and archiving solutions.

A paperless office has few paper-based procedures but mainly relies on electronic records. Some firms use the phrase "paper light" because many offices and departments cannot eliminate paper files due to procedure or compliance requirements. Paper light aids in the digital transition of a company. This usually includes switching to an electronic document management system that digitizes documents and keeps them central.

According to proponents, a paperless workplace helps improve an office's productivity and efficiency, saves money and makes work procedures more accessible and convenient as digital documents can be transferred between personnel.

5 Steps To A Paperless Office

You can make your office paperless just in following five steps.

1. Discussing the Procedure

Gathering all stakeholders to talk about the process is the first stage. Next, it's important to discuss how things are done with C-level executives, management, and other staff members. C-level executives frequently assume that a business is managed in a certain way, only to discover, midway through a digital transformation, that their employees have been quietly doing something entirely different for years. To ensure the project's success, everyone involved must have a say in what's going on, mapping out exactly how the organization operates (rather than how the board believes it works) so that those procedures can be accurately and successfully digitized.

2. Slow Changes

Attempt to avoid reinventing the wheel. When implementing new technology, the temptation will be to completely overhaul your procedures, changing everything for the sake of efficiency. However, you run the danger of leaving your employees — the people who will be using the new method daily — behind. It's much easier to plan out your existing paper-based procedures and convert them to digital workflows to ensure success. After everyone has become used to the new method of working, tweaks and improvements can be made, but the goal should be a continual improvement: modest changes over time rather than significant changes all at once.

3. Collecting All Data

Following that, you must map out exactly where all of your data is now stored. Is everything in one location? Is it dispersed over several offices? Have some people already begun to go electronic, storing critical data locally on their work computers? All of that information needs to be mapped out to establish a complete plan for migrating it into a system that everyone can use and edit (based on their access levels).

4. Digitalization

All of the files are being digitized. Usually, there are two options. All digitalization can be done in-house, with employees scanning all papers, or it can be outsourced to a third-party firm. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Going the internal approach may save money, but it might cause a lot of disruption because workers will be taken away from their usual jobs for several weeks. Outsourcing will generally cause minor inconvenience, but it will be more expensive upfront ahead of time. Each office must decide which solution is best for them.

5. Data Access

Decide who has access to what data and where they can get it. Once the digitization process is mapped and underway, individual users may be given a login based on their security credentials that will take them to a personalized dashboard with access to all of the workflows they require.

Advantages of Having a Paperless Office

According to The Paperless Project, corporations in the United States expend more than $120 billion per year on printed forms alone, the vast majority of which become obsolete in three months and are discarded. Furthermore, office workers spend 30-40% of their time searching existing file cabinets for paperwork. In these types of circumstances, it's better to go paperless. To understand more about a paperless environment, keep reading!

1. Convenient working

The advantages of a paperless office include the simplicity with which documents can be accessed and retrieved. It can benefit you to save a lot of time during the workday.

2. Constant access to data

When you digitize your paper-based operations, your entire team has constant access to the information they need. A file left on someone's desk, a stray note with crucial details, a filing system that only one person understands, which can be a disaster for your company. By becoming paperless, you can avoid a breakdown in vital information sharing. Rather than becoming lost, files may now be accessed from anywhere at any time, giving your employees more accessible access to the information they require.

3. Efficient Work

Any successful firm relies heavily on efficiency. When you reduce the time spent on busy work, your team can devote that time to more important, valuable tasks. Going paperless implies spending less time on clerical tasks and more time on critical duties. Finishing, filing, organizing, and keeping track of paperwork can take up plenty of time; going paperless allows you to expend less time on paperwork.

4. Technological Advancement

Filling out paperwork has also become more accessible because of technological advancements; digitally acquired data can be used to construct rules that generate applications automatically. Validation methods decrease errors and assure complete data in automated systems, allowing you to fill out information not only fast but also reliably. At the same time, the same document can be reproduced, faxed, altered, or mixed.

5. Less Expensive

Your organization will save money on more than just paper when it switches to a paperless office model of operation. Your printer maintenance, ink, toner, shipping, and physical storage costs will reduce as your paper use falls. This is why switching to a paperless system saves businesses an average of $80 per employee. More than only printing and paper expenditures will be kept for your firm. Offices that are becoming more efficient will repurpose your money as well. For example, you pay for your employees' time; the more time they spend performing value-added work rather than manual paperwork, the higher the return on your investment will be.

6. Easy To Manage

Customers also value personalization. Lead generation, up-sell, and retention will be much more effective with a customized campaign that uses relevant KPIs and is tailored to their needs. Compared to sending out broad promos, a tailored email campaign will be easier to manage, evaluate, and optimize.

Challenges Of Digitalization

• You may face some challenges at the beginning of a paperless office, including the difficulty of reading a long document on a computer screen. A long record is simpler to read on paper, and many people prefer reading on writing in general.
• In a paperless office, security measures must be reinforced. So, it's also necessary to keep track of who has access to what information. There can be legal ramifications to computerized work processing.
• Existing documents must be converted to digital format, which takes time and sometimes costs a lot of money. Hardware and software upgrades should be done regularly.
• If a corporation relies primarily on digital data, computer viruses, power outages, network malfunctions, and other events can essentially shut it down.

The Bottom Line

As reported in the 2018 State of the Global Paper Industry report, the world's paper consumption has beyond levels that are sustainable. In order to reduce their ecological footprint, cut costs and improve productivity, companies need to keep up with paperless initiatives. This way, they can get better ROIs through scalable and agile solutions. The digitization of data and the transition to a paperless environment are not simple tasks. It takes a lot of effort and time, but the results are well worth it after the job is completed. Companies may instantly reap the benefits of a paperless workplace by implementing proven cloud-based technology, such as workflow automation systems.

Try the Software Book a DEMO Request a Quote

As technology and medical practices advance through the years, it’s natural for the healthcare sector to also adapt its patient management systems accordingly. More than 85% of physicians today use electronic health records (EHR) systems, and the cloud computing market size for healthcare has been estimated to be worth $24.44 billion in 2028. Because of modern technological advances, there’s more patient information than ever, and a greater need for a safe space to store this data in. To help your organization take proactive steps to facilitate this, here are five tips that can help you with patient record management.

Migrate Files to a Secure Digital Database

With the influx of patient data in both paper and digital forms, losing access to any would prove to be disastrous, especially for keeping up with treatments. This is also something the COVID-19 pandemic has taught plenty of organizations, and not just the healthcare industry. It’s advantageous to start migrating files into a central computerized system that’s automated and easily accessed remotely, such as cloud storage. Prioritize backups to ensure all important information is salvageable in case of mishaps. And plan the process carefully for digitizing things such as paperwork and other tangible assets. Seek the help of information technology professionals for a smooth transition.

Leverage Automation to Expedite Processes

Depending on the history and maturity of your healthcare organization, not all documents should be considered records. For instance, rough drafts, duplicates, and incorrect information do not require the same level of management. It would be a waste of time and energy to sift through every document to get the gist of it, so be sure to leverage automation technologies to make the process easier. Some examples of these are keyword scanners or auto-detection that can pinpoint critical information within documents.

Hire Relevant IT Professionals

To ensure that your medical staff and internal IT team won’t have too much of a hard time managing records, you should consider hiring a professional with a background in management information systems for additional support. Individuals like these have practical experience in programming, problem-solving, project management, analytics, and network security that can guide your organization throughout the whole process. You could also find professionals skilled at healthcare data analysis as they’re able to boost the efficiency of healthcare operations by interpreting data from cost reports and health records, among others.

Don't Neglect Data Protection Measures

Surveys have revealed that two-thirds of clients paid attention to the privacy of their personal records, and only about 39% of respondents felt that their data was safe and secure. Medical professionals have a legal and ethical obligation to safeguard patient information and prevent medical errors and data breaches. That said, digitized files tend to be safer as only authorized individuals have access to them. To protect the information stored in the EHR, a triad of security features are often installed, namely administrative safeguards, physical safeguards, and technical safeguards. It is recommended that encryption schemes be implemented on all your latest EHRs.

Train Your Workforce

Finally, develop effective employee training to keep them up-to-date with the latest system changes. It was found that some breaches are actually the result of untrained employees mismanaging sensitive information. Thus, health institutions must train all employees who interact with the EHR during any stage of the data lifecycle. Furthermore, encourage efficient workflow through platforms that foster collaboration within the organization. Tools that are cloud-based like Google Workspace and Drive can centralize document handling and keep everything in one place and everyone on the same page.

Overall, better patient record management calls for technological innovation and sufficient training for all the employees working in the healthcare organization. Remember to rely on reputable software providers and relevant professionals to ensure a seamless transition. Find more information about document control systems here.

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Penned by Elyse Finlee