ECM Process Optimization. Small Change - Big Benefit

What is ECM?

ECM (Enterprise Content Management) systems, i.e., information resource management systems, are becoming increasingly common in enterprises, and their users are increasing in proportion to the growing volume of content that enterprises handle. The mass digitization of documents, has not only made it possible to speed up hitherto analog processes, but has provided completely new possibilities for shaping them, which has significantly affected the efficiency of their processing. 

Process Improvements and Optimization

Streamlining and optimizing processes is an integral part of any enterprise. Based on the increasing awareness and growing needs in this area, their robotization and automation have recently become more and more popular. However, is this the only way? Perhaps it is worth starting somewhere else? As RPA (Robotic Process Automation) analyst., and a long-time ECM consultant, I would like to share experiences and stories from the last few years of my work, where not automation, but better use of ECM programming has given real benefits to the company.  

One of the biggest, and very much unacknowledged, problems is the inadequate knowledge of the software used by its users and even by those implementing it. 

Example 1 - Scanning and sending invoices

As an example, here is a process encountered at one company for scanning invoices and sending them to workflow in SAP.

The process was simple:
1. scan
2. complete the standard data
3. send to the system.

And so for each document. The company had a separate workstation for the person doing the scanning. What was the surprise when it turned out that the same program can scan all the documents at once and automatically separate them. Not only that, but all the documents could also be sent to the system at once. The process had been operating in the company in the same way for several years, with several people employed to do it. After the change the time required to perform an activity has been reduced by a minimum of 80%, which resulted in very real savings for the company, in addition, without committing any additional resources. 

However, changes are not always so obvious and visible. Often, it is only new software versions that open up new opportunities for process optimization - but this knowledge is not always available to end users. Therefore, it is important that those responsible not for the process, but for maintaining the software, have sufficiently up-to-date knowledge. I will use another example of archiving here, in which PDF files had to be archived to TIFF format, also in SAP. 

The above example takes advantage of the fact that the scanning software has gained the ability to convert files from PDF to TIFF on its own, which was not possible in earlier versions of the software. This made it possible to completely skip one step in the process, which in addition took the most time. This change was not only a convenience for those handling the process, but on the scale of the many thousands of documents that appear in the company every day, it was a significant improvement in handling efficiency. 

We can conclude that a good time to look a little more than usual at processes and related software functions is when they are updated in the company. That's when it's a good idea to look at the documentation, talk to users, as well as technical support people, and find out how the solutions are realistically used today and subject them to, if only a simplified analysis in the context of the available functions in the software. Such small changes in parameters or small additional functionalities make it possible to achieve not inconsiderable optimization effects and obtain real financial benefits, without having to reach for external automation tools. 

Example 2 - Checking the quality of conversion

Let's reach for more examples. While working with one customer, I noticed that he had a brilliantly optimized archiving process by extending the functionality of one of the external archiving products, using a special report in SAP. However, the process had a small drawback - during the mass archiving, with each document, the quality of the document conversion had to be confirmed in a pop-up window, leaving the user unable to do anything at the time other than click confirm. Although the process was already faster than standard anyway, it was worth looking into what was happening. We agreed with the client that in fact the quality of the conversion was not being checked, as it had not yet happened to be incorrect. With the help of changing only two parameters in the software, the prompts were turned off, and in addition we also introduced a setting to keep the archiving program logged into SAP throughout the day. This gave a benefit of 3-15 minutes per day per person, which, with a team of 60 people, was already significant.  

How to Get Better Results in ECM Process Optimization

Through the stories cited, I would like to point out that there is not always a need to use RPA's fancy tools to get bar

he results of ECM process optimization are very good. Many times, and especially in the case of processes that have been in place in the organization for many years, it is a much better idea to revise the processes in terms of the functions that the already implemented software has. This is much more optimal in terms of cost as well as time to implement the changes, as in most cases it does not cause difficult implementation situations.  

Great in this aspect are the following. OpenText's products, whose configurability significantly exceeds the competition, plus these products are constantly being heavily developed with new functionalities. As a result, with each new version of the software we are very often able to improve another element of the ECM process.  

Let's Collaborate

If the topic of process optimization has caught your interest, feel free to reach out. Our team of experienced experts can support you not only with implementations but also in maintaining and optimizing existing systems. Our consultants will help you make the most of your software capabilities to optimize your business operations as effectively as possible.