Efficient document workflow

Document management

More productivity in the company through sensible document management​

The handling of documents is often underestimated when optimizing work processes or revising a company’s IT infrastructure. Yet there is considerable potential to save both time and money.

How can a well-designed document lifecycle deliver concrete improvements?​

  • Quick document retrieval, with less risk of information being lost
  • Business processes and workflows are optimised
  • Work processes become automated and more efficient
  • Unproductive work steps (e.g. reformatting documents over and over again) can be eliminated
  • Collaboration between departments is simplified
  • Disaster recovery is significantly better

A document usually follows a specific lifecycle (DLM, Document Lifecycle Management). The lifecycle phases can roughly be divided into:

  • Origin, creation, or capture of the document: receipt from outside, creation within the company, or automated creation (e.g., invoices)

  • Processing of the document

  • Access to documents/files for search and research

  • Retention and archiving: legal deadlines must be observed

  • Deletion of documents (also important for storage space, performance, and clarity)

The lifecycle therefore includes creation, storage (including processing), archiving, and disposal. A clear recommendation is to standardize all documents into a format such as PDF, followed by long-term archiving in PDF/A.

Why should documents be standardised into one format?​

Chaos and confusion usually arise because company documents are not standardized and exist in many different formats. Automated conversion of all documents creates structure.

Regulation of the document cycle​

To keep pace with digital transformation, companies must be prepared to convert their work processes to digital. They benefit most if they also establish clear rules for all digital documents. Companies should actively manage document quality and related processes. This also includes defining how to handle incoming documents with different quality levels or formats.

It is important that all documents received by the company (and those leaving it) are checked for relevance and then stored. Defined rules should be followed. For the digital archive, applicable laws and regulations must be observed, along with company policies and binding contractual clauses.

To bring order and keep document workflows efficient, companies should reduce format diversity and define clear guidelines for sources, formats, and channels.

External documents must be integrated into the document lifecycle after receipt. In other words, all incoming documents should be checked and approved to ensure clean transfer into the process. It should be clearly defined how incoming documents are handled. After that, all documents should be searchable and retrievable. Fixed rules should therefore be established for document control, OCR, conversion, classification, and channeling.

For example, hand-signed contracts received by fax should remain easy to find later. They should therefore be converted into searchable form using OCR and stored properly for retrieval and further processing.

Workflow and automated processes​

There should be a continuous workflow for all documents so that responsibilities are clearly defined and security and data protection are consistently ensured. The focus should remain on robust automation. This enables highly efficient work.

Ideally, the company’s digital workflow should be designed so that, for example, an incoming invoice passes through verification and approval automatically, including digital assignment to the appropriate reviewers.

In any case, companies should implement and refine automated digital workflows to make formerly paper-based processes significantly more efficient.

In general, electronically and automatically managed documents lead to more streamlined and consistent processes.

A digital document management workflow helps staff avoid wasting time on sharing and tracking documents. Processes are centralized in one place, leaving more time for other tasks.

Improve workflows in the company​

All documents should be converted into one standardized file format. Many different formats within a company create disadvantages such as incompatibilities, constant version updates, and dependency on multiple applications. When documents and graphics are edited and shared in many formats, errors accumulate and cost time. A uniform data format also improves legally compliant long-term archiving.