Develop | Document and Information Management in 2021

Times are tough for all businesses right now but hopefully we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. One of the many things that has become apparent to even the smallest companies, is that the way we access our information is changing. Remote working, shared resources, task tracking, online collaboration with colleagues and customers. These were eventually going to be the way the world worked, the pandemic has just accelerated that change. Most organisations have dipped their toe into cloud storage to allow staff to access files that would historically have been stored in the office and certainly Sharepoint can become the core of a very powerful document management system but not without considerable investment and development. Onedrive and Dropbox are more limited in their uses and are possibly more of a quick fix for the short term. The solution for a lot of companies moving forward is a dedicated online document management system which can handle security, retention controls, workflows, automated data extraction and document creation, all within an “off the shelf” product that can be scaled as you grow. Some of these systems can provide numerous integrations with other core systems including digital signature systems to allow for end to end automation of a documents lifespan. What’s more, for us the improvement in efficiency using this system has saved us recruiting two members of staff saving £40,000 annually in salaries. It’s an interesting world now, and although change is inevitable it needn’t be scary.