Document Management Systems in The Hybrid Workplace

Document Management Systems in The Hybrid Workplace

As we head into the post-COVID future, the status quo of traditional workplaces has shifted dramatically. The hard reset of 2020 has forced businesses and organizations to adapt to the reality of their workforces working remotely. Even as the world finds itself returning to “business-as-usual”, the traditional workplace has most likely changed irreversibly.

As empty office spaces slowly begin to fill in, organizations have come to realize some of the virtues of remote work. Not all employees need to be at the office at all times. In fact, while employees have arguably gained better work-life balance and greater freedom, employers too have realized greater productivity and cost savings with remote work. As a result, the workplace of the post-covid age will largely be a hybrid one.

WHAT IS A HYBRID WORKPLACE?

A hybrid workplace is one that allows employees to do productive work on-site, at home and anywhere in between and on-the-go. This includes offices where the staff work on-site for a few days every week and in rotation. It allows enterprises to operate out of smaller real-estates with lower overheads and infrastructure costs.

However, a hybrid workplace is one in a constant state of flux. Traditional workflows and processes that operated quite smoothly in a full-office environment have been disrupted by the demands of a distributed workforce. While dealing with this seismic shift, and dealing with the threats and challenges that emerge, entrepreneurs and management leaders have come to see the forced move towards digital transformation as a blessing in disguise. The adoption of automation with a document management system is practically inevitable.

WHAT IS A DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

A document management system is an essential business support solution that helps capture, process, manage, store and retrieve documents across all the functions of an organization. But that’s not all. Modern document management systems like Tessi Docubase® come with a whole host of features that amplify the benefits of organization-wide digitization. A few of the key features are listed below:

• Remote access
• Permissions control
• Secure file sharing
• Version History
• Workflow Automation
• Auto-Indexing and Searchability

HOW DOES DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND AUTOMATION SUPPORT THE HYBRID WORKPLACE?

Many of the challenges of managing  a hybrid workplace can be met with a feature rich document management system, and its automation capabilities. The improved organizational efficiency as a result draws from the benefits covered below.

Streamlined Workflows

In a hybrid setting you can’t walk over to your colleague to discuss and resolve issues like you used to. In a full-office setting, these interactions had become a natural and invisible part of daily workflows, keeping them running smoothly. In the absence of person to person interaction a hybrid workplace brings the criticality of such hidden processes to the fore.

A comprehensively structured automated workflow enabled by a document management system takes care of the challenge by enabling operations to move smoothly, where issues are raised, flagged and resolved across barriers of space and time. In fact, businesses already operating on document management systems report increased efficiency even in the in-office workflows

Maintaining Business Continuity

A hybrid workplace allows workers to work remotely and independently of each other. Although some claim improved personal productivity, collaboration within distributed teams becomes more challenging. This is just one of the business continuity threats that face a hybrid workforce.

It is also incumbent on the organization to deliver an adaptable workplace with secure connectivity, access to business resources, collaboration tools etc. to workers and partners as well as clients and customers. Multiple features of a document management system enable all the stakeholders to transact with ease. This includes remote access with permission controls, secure file sharing and integration with business tools like CRM and ERP.

Improved Organizational Agility

As an important byproduct, digital transformation allows organizations to rapidly adapt to change. A fully functional document management system with enhanced automation capabilities aids change management in critical ways. Especially for hybrid workplaces with teams working both in and out of the office, a quick reorganization of teams and reallocation of resources can be done at the digital layer with the workflows adapting automatically to the new processes. Breaking free of the confines of the cubicle.

Repeatable tasks, and even trivial business decisions can be processed automatically when modelled into the system. Thereby taking away the enormous burden of menial tasks, and leaving the management free to utilize its time for more critical, higher priority issues.

Better Network Resilience

When business processes leave the physical confines of the office, it becomes harder to monitor and control security issues. That aside, the business must cope with the uncertainties of the stability of distributed networks mostly working on public and unstable WiFi connections. To mitigate these challenges, a document management system deploys greater security for files within the business network.

Who gets to access which file? What level of permissions are to be shared? Where is the file hosted? Such decisions can be granularly implemented. Moreover, version history, indexing, searchability, secure offline access and other such features ensure that work is never lost.

GET READY FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

True, the pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench in the works. Even businesses moving steadily along the growth curve have likely hit a speedbump.

The resulting chaos has forced entire businesses to reconfigure their existing systems and adapt. The crumbling of a long-held assumption that an organization works better with all its employees in one place, means that a full-office workplace will soon become a relic of the past. As the new normal beckons, hybrid workplaces will become the dominant paradigm.

A Document management system with automation capabilities will bring to bear its vast capabilities to tame this chaos and set you up for success. Is your organization ready for the rapidly evolving future of work?