Workflow and Office Automation can be Exciting... We promise.
Workflow, or office automation, is one of the most exciting and useful features available with document management software. I realize using the word “exciting” with the phrase “document management software” has probably got a few of you laughing, but hear us out.
We’ve all heard the standard industry statistics that indicate up to 75% of our time is spent looking for information we need to do our job and 90% of office tasks still involve paper documents. They’ve been drilled into our brain for so long that we’ve become desensitised to what they actually mean. So let’s look it another way.
Your employees are the happiest and the most productive when they are actually doing the work they were brought on to do. We know it’s tough finding the right people, so why chase them away with inefficiencies?
This is where document management software combined with workflow automation gets exciting; at least for that little über geek in all of us:
Evenly Distribute Tasks amongst your Team:
Workflow and office automation has the ability to evenly allocate tasks across teams. By monitoring each individual’s workflow queue the document management system can assign new actionable items to whoever’s plate is empty, or at least “less full”. This helps ensure and even dispersal of work and prevents “cherry-picking” of easier tasks.
Avoid Staff Doing Things “Their Own Way”:
Obviously we want to encourage creativity and empower employees to do the best job possible. But when it comes to processing documents, (invoices, vacation request forms, expense reports, etc.) they need to flow smoothly to ensure people get paid and staff get their well-deserved time off. Document workflow automates your daily office processes to ensure all files are processed in a uniform fashion.
Stop Worrying About Where Something Is:
So you’ve submitted a vacation request form to your manager. Two weeks relaxing on a beach with a cold drink, what could be better? But a month after leaving the paper form on your manager’s desk, you still haven’t heard if you’ve been approved or not. You bought the tickets on sale, you can’t get a refund, and your friends are counting on you being there. Your heart starts to race and your palms begin to sweat; what if you can’t make the trip? You call HR and they have no record of your vacation request. You call your manager and she swears she signed it and submitted it to HR three weeks ago. It’s lost and the sunny beach is slipping further and further out of grasp.
But then you wake up. You take a deep breath and remember your office uses a document workflow to route vacation requests. You receive email alerts when your vacation request is approved, denied, or when it’s timed out and you need to give your manager a friendly reminder. Document management software gives you complete visibility into any document within a given process: no stress, no searching for documents, and no worries.
