The Transformation of ECM Solutions in the Digital Workplace

Gone are the days when ECM solutions lived on companies’ in-house servers and could only be accessed securely from the office. A cloud-based ECM fosters collaboration and productivity without sacrificing security. Global teams can access documents from anywhere at any time. Cloud ECM solutions provide considerable benefits for any organization.

The days of paper documents and filing cabinets are over. Businesses have moved online and embrace the digital work environment today. With this change, Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions are evolving to increase efficiency and improve collaboration within a centralized environment that securely manages documents.

Gone are the days when ECM solutions lived on companies’ in-house servers and could only be accessed securely from the office. Today, employees can get the documents that they need at the moment they need them. A remote worker could be on a business trip on the other side of the world and still have access to project updates on their smartphone.

ECM solutions improve security and compliance. Not only do they limit user access, ensure that employees are working on the right version of a document, provide logs that give visibility into how various documents are shared, but they also bridge the gap between the needs of employees and regulatory obligations of organizations.

How is all of this possible? Through the cloud. A cloud-based ECM fosters collaboration and productivity without sacrificing security. Global teams can access documents from anywhere at any time. Cloud ECM solutions provide considerable benefits for any organization.

1. Maximizing Efficiency

Clutter can quickly consume a workspace. The documents, policies, and folders stack up, making it difficult to find the information you need. ECM platforms establish an organized space to manage documents and bring order to the chaos.

To start with, ECM solutions provide customizable user permissions, so employees only have access to the documents they need. Many of these solutions also offer document workflows that send push notifications to everyone on the team.

For example, an ECM alerts certain employees to complete a task in a document then, after they’re done, automatically notifies the next person in the process. This allows employees to focus on pertinent or time-sensitive information and not become overwhelmed with irrelevant documents.

These features also allow for transparency. Organizations can efficiently track how documents are being worked on and shared. During a compliance audit, this information is very crucial. In the end, these solutions benefit everyone. Organizations ensure compliance while also helping their employees be more productive.

2. Providing Security

At first glance, you might assume moving document storage to the cloud would put information at more of a risk, but it’s actually just the opposite. ECM solutions, specifically the ones in cloud, provide many security benefits.

First, when sharing content with teams, ECM systems establish that the right people have access to the right documents. The company has control over who can view certain documents and can ensure that employees aren’t sharing them with unapproved third-parties.

Advanced permissions, available in certain ECMs, can be set so leaders in the organization can take ownership of a document as soon as it’s uploaded to the cloud. In summation, the organization is always in control of how a document is being used.

Proper file management also provides regulatory paper trials. For example, a medical company can quickly produce the proper documents in the event of an FDA audit. Non-compliance can be a costly mistake, but ECM solutions provide the tools to mitigate this risk.

Additionally, the files remain in the cloud even if something happens to a device. This provides assurance in the face of natural disasters, theft, or damage.

3. Overcoming Distance

The definition of an office has changed drastically. Remote employees and third-party contractors could be working from anywhere today, and the number of telecommuters continues to grow.

A 2017 study found that the number of people telecommuting has increased by 115 percent Opens a new window in the last decade. The modern workplace must consider how to securely distribute internal documents and collaborate with co-workers around the globe.

In 2018, employees expect the tools that they use at work to be as intuitive as the ones that they use at home. Traditional ECM systems have struggled to address this. They often lack the flexibility to allow secure remote access without significant support from the company’s IT team. Furthermore, the user experience (UX) of some of these systems is infamously bad.

Cloud ECM systems, on the other hand, provide a user-friendly solution that connects employees regardless of their location. Unlike traditional systems, cloud-based ECM solutions can securely distribute and share information without an IT-intensive VPN. These systems work similarly to the tools employees use in their own lives. A better ECM user experienceOpens a new window comes with benefits like improved adoption and increased staff retention rates.

These cloud-based solutions allow teams to collaborate on documents together in real-time, thereby reducing the effects of distance further. Users no longer have to worry about which version of the document is correct. With an easy-to-find log of the latest changes and interactive comments, they can be assured that the document they see on their computer is indeed the most recent version.

4. Working On-the-go

Along with remote workers, the number of employees working on their phones has dramatically increased. In 2016, it was found that 60 percentOpens a new window of employees use smartphone apps for work-related activities. This number will only continue to climb.

Smartphones allow employees to work additional hours outside of the regular work-day, but this comes with an additional security risk. So, how can companies benefit from mobile work while employees use unprotected devices? The best solution is to implement an ECM system that allows company data to be securely retrieved from any device.

By providing users with secure access to the enterprise’s content on their mobile devices, companies give employees the ability to quickly respond to external and internal requests, find important documents on the go, and be more productive away from the office.

With the rise of technology, business has begun to move faster than ever. Cloud-based ECM systems provide a modern solution that moves at the same pace. These platforms easily collect and organize all the documents in an organization.

This allows for greater collaboration while increasing productivity. It also ensures compliance with industry regulations and keeps documents secure. Companies can rest assured knowing that their confidential information is in the right hands.

As the digital workforce grows beyond the traditional office, ECM solutions grow too. The latest user-friendly interface lets employees access information from any device and provides updates in real-time. Cloud-based ECM solutions allow organizations to meet today’s demands while gaining an edge for the future.