Improving the Process

BM. Can you explain what this is and the benefits it can bring?

Organizations struggle with their document processes because they are often manual, paper-based environments and/or they have implemented point technologies that are either solely focused on managing documents or on the execution of a process. Document process management (also known as transactional content management, or TCM) unifies the elements of content, process and compliance. Here, the focus is on effectively capturing, managing, storing and retrieving of documents together with managing the design, execution and on-going optimization of business processes. Also, this approach focuses on effectively managing corporate and government compliance requirements by being able to prove how and why decisions were made and putting the corresponding document assets under full retention management and archive control. Organizations that have adopted this approach have experienced tremendous gains in productivity, increased responsiveness to customers, and improved operational visibility and performance – while substantially reducing operating costs, process cycle times and the overall cost per transaction.

BM. How important is it that organizations frequently conduct assessments to analyze and monitor their document processes? How should a company go about doing this effectively?

If the desire is to truly maximize business performance, continuous monitoring is a necessity. The old adage ‘you can’t fix what you can’t see’ certainly applies and we’ve all learned from the business re-engineering days that you can’t simply improve the process once and walk away.

You should first start with the current strategic and/or operational goals and then establish the associated key performance indicators (KPIs) that directly relate to these objectives. Next you need to leverage a business process analysis (BPA) tool that is fully integrated with the document process management system and can provide the ability to discover and analyze current processes, the means to model and simulate process improvements, and the ability to continuously monitor the status of process KPIs. In addition, you should be able to receive real-time process performance information through alerts, operational dashboards, and reports, both for individual process instances and at the overall business performance level.

BM. What advice would you give to companies to ensure they choose the most suitable provider and deploy a well-executed system?

Choose a vendor that combines best-in-class information capture, document management, business process management and compliance capabilities into a single integrated platform based on a single unified repository. The vendor should allow you to easily leverage existing IT investments by easily integrating with existing business applications, information databases and office productivity tools of choice. In addition, the vendor should be providing a platform that is based on a SOA that allows your organization and/or solution partners to easily develop and deploy a variety of document and transactional process applications across the organization – ensuring a faster time to value and increased business performance. Lastly, choose a vendor that has a rich partner ecosystem in addition to in-house capabilities, so that you can leverage industry best practices, proven methodologies and application solution expertise to ensure the success of your current and future implementations – and build knowledge and skills in-house.

BM. As the need to store, revise, access and retrieve documents continues to grow, how do you think document management systems will evolve in the future?

Document management systems will evolve in direct response to increased market understanding and desire for more comprehensive solutions that achieve a faster time to value, while reducing technical and operational complexity. Point solutions will give way to requirements for a comprehensive reference platform that combines content, process, and compliance, which can be easily leveraged to deliver new solutions across the organization. The full set of platform features and capabilities will be expressed as sets of ‘services’, which can be easily combined to deliver complete solutions, such as accounts payable, new account enrollment, lending, claims management, and case management. These services will also be easily leveraged to support “event-based” interactions with business applications and information repositories that exist both within and outside the organization to form more agile business processes. This will lead to a rise in enterprise implementations of transactional document applications that operate on a global scale and directly integrate a given company’s network of business partners, agents and suppliers.

Key components for document management

1. A thorough understanding and agreement on strategic and operational goals
2. A comprehensive transactional content management (SOA-enabled) platform that combines content, process and compliance
3. Integration with existing business applications, information repositories and office productivity tools
4. A strong internal staff or partner to bring best-practice implementation methodologies and domain industry expertise
5. Combined project team that includes both line of business and IT personnel
6. Established records governance policies and procedures
7. Progressively build a library of re-usable assets and knowledge to accelerate deployment of new applications
8. A plan to address change management issues
9. Full executive sponsorship and commitment to support the initiative
10. A center of excellence within the organization as additional applications are rolled out across the enterprise