Overview

The paperless office – digitized processes

The paperless office – for some a matter of time. For others, the idea remains more of a utopia despite digitalization. A study commissioned by software provider Sage revealed the opposite: three quarters of the 400 office workers surveyed in Germany believe that the paperless office of the future makes sense. 70 percent believe it is feasible.

Contrary to these statements, the study also revealed that 56 percent of respondents sometimes and 21 percent almost always print out their emails – a digitized format per se. There are various reasons for this: The majority still print out documents in order to process them further (61 percent). More than half prefer to archive documents and important data in paper form (52 percent). And a significant proportion still use physical documents for internal circulation (32 percent) and for reading (30 percent).

Despite the widespread use of paper in companies, a decline can be observed – albeit only slowly. According to the Sage study, 54 percent of office workers are noticing a reduction in the use of paper in their company. 56 percent note that steps have already been taken to reduce paper. There is currently still a lack of willingness to change, particularly at management level (26%). And: the fear of data loss is dominant (62 percent).

Bureaucracy is no longer the (fun) brake

Another problem is the bureaucratic requirements for data protection and data security. According to the study, taking these into account is slowing down the transition to a paperless office. This is the opinion of 46 percent of respondents. However, this concern is unfounded:

The eIDAS (Electronic Identification and Signature) Regulation, which came into force in July 2016, promotes the legal validity of electronic documents throughout the EU and therefore also the paperless office. eIDAS regulates the signing and authentication of electronic documents, which can then be sent across national borders. This means that contracts can be processed electronically in a short space of time without the risk of losing important documents in the post. The only requirement is that the company must be certified as a trust service provider by the Federal Office for Security and Information Technology (BSI).

The principles for the proper keeping and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access (GoBD) are also important for Germany. These specify the requirements that the tax authorities place on IT-supported bookkeeping.

Cash gathering dust in filing cabinets

The advantages of a paperless office are best illustrated by a practical example: An everyday day in the office. It doesn’t matter whether the scenario takes place in purchasing or sales, HR or finance. Suppose the head of department needs a specific document – a delivery bill, a quotation, an application folder or the monthly report from the quarter before last. Experience shows that the probability of the employee finding the documents straight away is very low. Either the documents have not been filed properly or they have been filed according to the colleague’s individual system. Depending on how old the desired document is, it may even have to go to the archive.

With a well-functioning and IT-based document management system , the delivery bill, the quotation, the application folder or the monthly report could be called up in the system within seconds. The annoyed office worker could devote his time to far more important matters. The Research Institute for Rationalization at RWTH Aachen University writes in its ECM guide that manual document management takes up 40 to 60 percent of working time. This corresponds to 25 to 40 percent of salary costs and thus 12 to 15 percent of company turnover. It is estimated that the search for documents is unsuccessful in 30 percent of cases – the costs for incorrectly filed documents and their retrieval amount to around 100 euros per document. Half of all documents are copied so that they can be made available in different contexts. Double bookkeeping causes personnel and material costs as well as space requirements. In a nutshell: Cash is gathering dust in the archives.

But that’s not all: apart from the cost savings, IT-based document management enables more efficient business processes: These run end-to-end and are transparent at all times. Data can be viewed regardless of time and place. In addition, data integrated into the system can help to automate routine processes in the future. Companies that do not exploit the potential of digitalization and insist on familiar processes are simply missing out on a decisive competitive advantage.

DMS: From piles of paper to bits and bytes

With the increasing volume of information and the development of corresponding technologies, various concepts have evolved for managing electronic documents in everyday office life. It all started with document management systems (DMS). The idea was to store all company-relevant documents in a database structured by category. A kind of digital filing cabinet in which not only office documents but also e-mails, images, CAD drawings and various other data generated during business processes are sorted. Documents in paper form are first digitized and then stored with all other electronic documents in the digital filing cabinet, where they remain throughout their entire life cycle: There, the data is captured, stored, processed, forwarded, archived and deleted at the end of its life cycle. The electronic archive enables employees to save a lot of time and optimize their internal processes, for example by making files much quicker to find. In essence, it is about archiving documents electronically.

ECM: Documents and processes in flow

With the Internet, DMS also developed further in the 1990s – Enterprise Content Management (ECM) was born. DMS is integrated into this as an important sub-component. The capture, storage, processing, forwarding, archiving and deletion of all company data is therefore also an essential task here. With integrated workflow management systems, however, ECM goes one step further: document-based workflows are linked, meaningfully designed and controlled. The focus here is not only on digitized documents, but also on fully digitized and, in some cases, automated company processes. The central idea is to make all company data accessible across all departments. All employees involved can therefore monitor the processes in real time and take action at the right time. ECM also has a cultural impact on the company: The individual departments are moving closer together by increasingly acting together at the same level.

xRM: Now it’s getting personal – more focus on business relationships

In the latest evolutionary step to date, the focus on the relationships between the individual departments has even intensified. In 1998, Extended Relationship Management (XRM) appeared on the scene – a system that manages all possible types of relationships within a company. However, the concept received little attention for a long time. Customer orientation has been a priority in corporate strategy for many years, meaning that XRM was unable to assert itself against the already established concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – and was also unable to complement it.

In 2008, xRM – then spelled with a small “x” – celebrated a comeback as Anything Relationship Management. The idea behind it: To adopt the technology and logic of CRM in order to manage other business relationships. xRM equips the system with precisely tailored functions that are necessary for the specific requirements of a company’s various interest groups. This means that all relationship levels, from customers and suppliers to employees, can be integrated and coordinated. What’s more, tangible goods such as vehicle fleets and intangible goods such as contracts, offers and invoices can be integrated into the relationship structures and managed in the overall context of the company with the help of digitized processes – collaboration and future-proof cooperation thus become a reality. With the ECM anchored in the system, the document world is also brought into relation with the processes.