Going Beyond Simple Document Management

Document management and information governance have never been more important than they are today, as data-driven organizations tend to be the most successful, profitable, sustainable and successful in their respective industries and marketplaces. On the other hand, those that struggle to get document management right will face inherent, severe risks not only from a competitive standpoint, but also one rooted in continuity and security.

The world is moving quickly today, with businesses in every region and sector working to embrace digital transformation. Workflow and document management, business process strategies, transactions and every other component of operations are being dramatically impacted by the technologies hitting the marketplace today, and firms will only be able to capitalize – and avoid setbacks – when they are prepared to face the future.

Document management is at the center of all this, as the most popular and powerful technologies are almost entirely focused on collaboration, communication and intelligence. Organizations must go beyond simple document management to be impactful in their respective industries, and can do so by focusing on the key areas of operations being impacted.

Let’s begin with mobility.

Mobility in document management

Smartphones, tablets, portable computers and now wearables are transforming how organizations operate, employees perform and consumers choose their product and service providers. Document management must be prepared for the challenges of mobility with respect to access, security and user experiences for information governance strategies to function properly in the modern era. Mobile device management is at the center of this discussion.

IDC recently released a report on the mobile device, security and application arenas, affirming that relevant software is burgeoning with respect to adoption and investment around the globe. According to the analysts, protection has been the biggest concern, with the mobile security and vulnerability management segment enjoying the most rapid rise in revenues at a forecast compound annual growth rate of 13.6 between this year and 2020.

“Mobility and BYOD, in particular, are core initiatives for enterprises moving to the 3rd Platform,” IDC Enterprise Mobility Program Director Phil Hochmuth explained. “However, enterprise mobility technology deployed without security will do more harm than good regarding an organization’s 3rd Platform aspirations. To that end, any enterprise mobility initiative must start with a mobile security technology plan.”

These provisions and investments must be included in a modern document management strategy.

Gaining intelligence

Business intelligence, big data and analytics solutions are likewise booming across industries and regions. Thanks to the massive innovations taking place in several categories of IT, including automation, document management, data storage and more, virtually all organizations are capable of getting a strong analytics strategy into place today.

Gartner forecast the global analytics market to reach $16.9 billion this year, attributing the 5.2 percent increase in spending compared to 2015 to the “democratization” of the technology.

“The shift to the modern BI and analytics platform has now reached a tipping point,” Gartner Managing Vice President Ian Bertram asserted. “Organizations must transition to easy-to-use, fast and agile modern BI platforms to create business value from deeper insights into diverse data sources.”

Interestingly, the analyst pointed out that the marketing department might be the biggest point of focus among organizations embracing analytics today.

“It is no longer possible for chief marketing officers to be experts only in branding and ad placement,” Bertram added. “They must also be customer analytics experts. The same is true for the chief HR, supply chain and financial roles in most industries.”

Again, companies will simply not be able to get the most out of advantageous trends including analytics and mobility without strong, optimized document management and workflow strategies.