Digital Transformation | 5 Step Practical Roadmap For Digital Transformation

Leading digital transformation and data science experts like Bill Schmarzo say that Digital Transformation should be EVERY organisations’ #1 strategic business initiative.

We have been working with client’s to digitise manual processes and automate tasks to unlock efficiencies and a to create a better customer experience. These are the early steps in starting digital transformation. Below is a practical guide on how you can implement digital transformation in your business. 5 things that will have a big impact and accelerate innovation.

Process automation and improving efficiencies are at the core of digital transformation. Organisations must be more vigilant than ever in remaining innovative and future-proofing their businesses. This is critical in remaining profitable and competitive.

On average, “digital masters” are 26% more profitable than their peers according to George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of Leading Digital: Turning Technology Into Business Transformation.

Like to speak to us about what we can do for your business? Reach us here.

Digital Transformation Defined

There are many definitions of digital transformation. Think of it as a shift in philosophy. Digital transformation will allow an organisation to quickly adapt to new changes and opportunities through making the most of technology.

It is the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes and culture to deliver a better customer experience.

Digital transformation marks a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people and processes to fundamentally change business performance. Digital masters do two things better than other companies: identifying digital ways to change their businesses, and building leadership capabilities to drive transformation, according to George Westerman.

As employees, our everyday work life is filled with digital technology and yet the reliance on manual, paper-based processes and systems is still huge. We know what we know, and sometimes miss the opportunities provided by today’s platforms to improve our business operations. Simple fixes that capture data electronically, autmoate processes and provide new insights. The real value is in acting on the data we collect.

5 Tangible Steps to Transform your Business.

Step 1. Centralised Document Management

Today I spent close to an hour looking for a document. I wanted to use a file i’d created which had a lot of historical data and a good process document for a project we completed around business intelligence. For some reason, I didn't save this document to our document repository (M-Files) and it's lost somewhere on 1 of the 6 devices I use regularly. In contrast, I was able to collaborate with our marketing manager on an event plan and save my changes to his document. All with version control and from my mobile phone because it was saved in the repository.

Centralised document management is powerful, and it can be simple and quick to deploy.

Enterprise Content Management enables:

• A central place for documents

• Powerful search

• Collaboration on documents, sharing and co-authoring

• Security - Only the right staff see particular documents and you have digital copies

• Eliminate duplicates

• Workflows to automate processes

• Version control and easy to restore documents without needing IT

Step 2. Digitise Paper Forms

Unlock efficiencies by digitising files. Reduce errors, lower risk and open the door for process automation and new insights.

Think of the new employee onboarding process for HR as an example. There are lots of forms, social media policies, privacy policies, payroll information and so on. All of this is repeatable when a new employee joins or leaves the organisation.

Instead of paper forms, you can easily create digital versions that work with mobile devices and enable your new staff hit the ground running, instead of getting up to speed for a week or more before they can contribute to your business. Apply digital forms to repetitive processes.

Did you know that even some of the largest vendors of software products still needed their employees to send in paper receipts for expense claims? Not all vendors embrace their own technology and someone has to physically validate the receipts and there was no way to efficiently pick up on duplicates or fraud. Smarter organisations like the Australian Tax Office now use predictive analytics tools to pick up on anomalies and provide new opportunities to detect fraud.

Did you know that you can quickly digitise paper forms using affordable platforms? Low-code, drag and drop platforms like Intrexx make it easy for virtually any employee to create e-forms which work on mobile devices and they can be plugged into a workflow to automate a manual process like an expense claim or a pricing request approval.

3. Automate Processes

You have the data, use it. Low-code platforms and ECM solutions can help here. As mentioned above, inputs from e-forms like an expense claim or a leave request can be connected to a workflow to automate the approval for such requests. Rules can be applied and a query against a database can automatically check if an employee has the leave entitlement they are requesting. If that leave is available, the system sends an approval that can be completed by a manager from their mobile device. This saves time and provides instant approvals with self-service applications.

4. Connect to Business Systems

Data collected from e-forms will be more valuable if it is connected to a business system. For example, the accounts receivable process (AR) will work more efficiently if invoices are connected to an accounting or ERP system like Xero or SAP. Workflows will automate a process and make it more efficient. Invoices can be automatically scanned, routed to the next step of the approval process, fields can be prefilled and the invoice can be sent to the right person to sign-off and complete the transaction. Connecting business systems will enable a holistic view and opportunities for better reporting.

5. New Insights. Analyse and Act on New Opportunities.

Digital transformation creates new data and the value realised when you can analyse and action it.

Take advantage of opportunities created by new views and a fresh perspective.

Centralising documents increases efficiency and enables productivity. The opportunity for better collaboration and process automation through workflow is now possible.

Digital forms save time and let you capture, automate and analyse data trapped in paper documents. Risk and compliance is improved with access to digital documents and if someone leaves the organisation, you still have control over valuable intellectual property.

You can transform the way your business operates with what you have achieved through digitising your business and developing digital processes. Electronic document management platforms and electronic forms provide access to operational data you can report on.

Analyse the data and look at trends, issues or opportunities to increase revenue. The reporting functionality of platforms has come a long way and should provide with a good baseline view for analysis. You can connect the data into operation dashboards or automate reporting using any of the major business intelligence (BI) and visualisation tools which are very powerful and affordable.

Digital transformation reduces administrative tasks and that directly helps staff to focus on their core job and higher-value tasks.

Summary

Digital transformation is all about efficiencies. Capturing data in digital forms enables automated processes and workflow. This is a key output from digital transformation and will transform the way a business operates. Digital transformation will help make a business smarter through new insights, leaner with increased efficiencies and more secure through reduced risk and improved compliance.

True digital transformation is a new way of thinking and applies to the whole business. In practice, you can start small and get some wins with things like digitising paper forms or implementing a central document repository. A phased approach will help you demonstrate what is possible and show a tangible result that is truly transformative. A better way of doing things that not only improves efficiency but also improves employee's job satisfaction by reducing the low value, repetitive tasks.

Want to know more? Take a look at the videos below or speak to us about how other companies have transformed their business. One small process can make a huge impact. Reach us here. We have been working with clients to get the most out of their technology for over 20 years.

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Like to speak to us about what we can do for your business? Reach us here.

ECM | The 3 Reasons Why Clients Choose M-Files

Are you tired of traditional content management solutions slowing down your business?

Chances are you have finally decided there is a better way to manage your content or to pull the plug on your current content management system. You’ve lost time and possibly clients searching for documents you need in real time only to come up short.

So you start researching options only to grind to a halt when you realise how many options you have.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Choice Paralysis

Do you know what choice paralysis is?

It’s a cognitive hiccup that transforms easy choices into difficult ones. It works by adding lots of options that overwhelm the decision making part of your brain. Your mind perceives the mass of options and freezes up.
 

There are nearly forty different ECM options available, and after about five minutes of reading, your eyes glaze over.

We get it. Most ECM sites are unreadable. Here’s why.

Why ECM Can Be Confusing

The ECM companies you want to review have websites that are complex and confusing. They are filled with walls of text crammed edge to edge with technical industry jargon.

The reason vendors do this is they want to promote every speed and feed but this can lead to data overwhelm. The ECM journey does not have to be this complex. 

We want you to make decisions with the right information about ECM systems.

That is why, to help you decide on the best option for your company, we collected the three most commonly praised things from our M-Files clients.

This way you can decide if the solutions our clients enjoy fit your company’s needs.

3 Reasons M-Files Is Right For Your Company: Praise Direct From Users’ Mouth

Before we start, we should disclose that we sell and implement M-Files and we have been using it internally for nearly a decade. We are one of the early adopters in Australia and we had the same issues and frustrations as many companies face today.

These are some of the challenges we experienced

• Documents stored in many different places / silos

• Difficult and slow to find the document we needed

• Duplicated documents

• Difficult to recover documents without restoring from backups

• Manual processes

• No version control / Different versions of the same document

• Employees found it hard to collaborate on projects

There are a lot of ECM options available and we've used and implemented quite a few of them. Despite that, we only promote and help clients implement just one. Why?

Because M-Files is the most business friendly option available. To help you understand this claim we have included the top 3-reasons that cause our clients to rave about the software.

Reason 1: M-Files Is Easy To Adopt Due To An Easy To Use And Familiar Interface

Most ECM’s have difficult to learn interfaces. M-Files doesn’t. Actually, M-Files has great user adoption rates because it looks like your current system. Users don't feel like they have to learn another new tool to use. Below is an example of an M-Files vault, it looks like a regular networked drive. 

Another benefit is M-Files enables finding, accessing and managing information residing virtually within any system, without disturbing existing processes and users. This means you don't have to rip and replace your existing systems. It integrates with popular software like Microsoft Office and Sharepoint. See just some of the integrations here.

This is important. Why?

Because when you introduce a new software, you experience resistance. People don’t like change. With M-Files they will. 

The interface is easy to use and intuitive. This means teams adopt it much faster and the benefits of being able to find the documents they need reinforces the positive user experience. 

Reason 2: M-Files Works Fast In Real Time

Imagine this.

Your team is out of the office and needs a document.

M-Files gives your employees instant access to everything they need from a mobile device or laptop. They can also make a document available offline if they don't have internet access.

This is powerful! Think about how much your clients will value seamless engagement in real time.

Reason 3: It Increases Efficiency 

You and your employees will no longer waste time looking for documents. This will save you time and improve efficiency. Read how a South Australian food manufacturer - Mitani improved efficiency, traceability and compliance.

One of the things that clients don’t expect but get excited about when they realise it’s included with M-Files is workflows. A common example is the Accounts Payable function. When an invoice is received by email it is automatically processed through M-Files, all of the invoice information such as customer and cost information is captured via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and the invoice is routed to the right person to approve. All of this is done automatically with transparency, an audit trail and notifications. Automating manual processes will make you more efficient and approvals can also be done on the go via mobile devices, so no more waiting.

The best part about M-Files is that these three reasons to use it only skim the surface of everything that sets it apart from the competition.

Recommended by Industry Analysts

Industry analysts have also recognised the M-Files approach to intelligent information management.

• “Visionary” in the Gartner 2017 Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms

• “Leader” in the Forrester Wave: Enterprise Content Services, Q2 2017

• “Leader” in the Nucleus Research ECM Technology Value Matrix 20

But don’t take our word for it. Schedule a call with one of our experts. They can answer your questions live and share real life examples of how M-Files has helped companies become more efficient.

Schedule My FREE Call Today - Click here

Do You Know Your Current Content Management System Is Losing You Money?

Worried that this is the case?

If you use a traditional content management system, then you are going to want to read the next article. It covers everything about how your current systems are losing you money.
 

What Is Enterprise Content Management?

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) can be defined as “a formalised means of organising and storing an organisation's documents, and other content, that relate to the organisation's processes…”

This definition does not do justice to what ECMs can really achieve!

What can a modern Enterprise Content Management system do?

In the 90s, ECM was largely around digitising documents and going ‘paperless’. ECM in 2018 now encompasses:

• The capture and storage of information in an electronic format. This can now include emails, PDF and a multitude of other filetypes, all possible with a simple drag and drop.
• The ability to be able to tag documents and files with metadata, or otherwise identify or group the document with a view for easy retrieval. Capabilities to search on those metadata tags or within the document itself, based on user’s specific criteria.
• The ability to manage each document in a variety of ways including editing that documents properties within the library, checking it in or checking it out for modification (along with the ability to roll-back to certain versions)
• Mobile access to documents, as well as the ability to keep them secure inside and outside of the organisation. For example, e-signing allows for documents to be signed and then stored immediately).
• Workflows for documents to pass through for approval or collaborative processes, as well as templates to help create a standard within your organisation.

ECM has come along in leaps and bounds to give an organisation what it needs – information at its fingertips, easily stored, easily found and easily managed. This gives employees in the digital age even more resources to perform their role effectively within the organisation.

The future of Enterprise Content management systems?

With increasing amounts of data entering an organisation, security and privacy is more important than ever.  This has seen a trend of movement to cloud computing as major ECM providers try to outperform each other to become the Microsoft or Apple of ECM.

Finally, and this is already happening, providers will need to look at more than just the storage of this information. Areas like obsolescence of data and optimisation will start to come to the fore as the sheer magnitude of the data stored continues to grow.  

The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), an international community that provides education, research and best practices on information management, are coining the next evolution as ‘Intelligent Information Management’, as ECMs move outside the transaction and records management circles. Artificial intelligence and analytics are on the roadmap and we will see the ability to ‘Create, Capture, Automate, Deliver, Secure and Analyse’ typify the Intelligent Information Management experience.

ECM Providers will tailor their systems to integrate and centralise not only access to the wide variety of data silos in organisations, but will provide a layer of intelligence that will enrich the user experience relevant content through a single system on any platform.

M-Files refers to their 2018 release as evolving from ECM to ‘Enterprise Information Management’ or EIM that includes an ‘Intelligent Metadata Layer’ to provide not only integration to organisations data silos but artificial intelligence that leverages access to the data to simplify the end user experience.

 To learn more about ECM get in touch with one of our highly trained team members today!

Consolidate Your Data and Make It Easier To Access

As organisations grow over the years, so does the assortment of tools that are employed for various projects and departments. This often causes a headache for employees and business owners while information can become scattered amongst several disparate systems and locations.

Generally there are different products on different platforms with different security and data requirements. Together they assist a user do their job, but they are on different servers and possibly even different locations with different access and user rights.

This is a problem that affects many organisations today, and the problem will only get worse as more data is made available to employees.

By using an Enterprise Portal organisations can optimise their information management and empower their staff with personalised information in one place, sometimes with just one click.

An Enterprise Portal can be designed to merge this disparate information into one place, ready for the user to click on a button to access as well as interact with the program. An example might be where information is gathered from the:

• ERP system

• Production planning and control system

• Employee timekeeping system

• Inventory management

to be made available to the user with a simple mouse click. An extra benefit here is that users don’t need to log into each individual system separately which saves time.

The security level is placed on the user’s login to the Enterprise Portal as to how much they see and what rights they then have within each produce. Effectively you now have one secure system that accesses all of the information relevant to that particular employee’s function.

Further, if an employee enters the number of a certain product component, all information on this component is displayed immediately on the portal page, including:

• How this product is selling

• What revenue the company achieves with this component

• Whether there have been any complaints

• An image of the component

• How much time has been estimated for producing this product

• How much time is actually needed to manufacture this product

The data for this comprehensive information page is compiled from different systems, and provides the validated employee with the right information just when and where they need it.

It’s a holistic view which allows employees to serve their customers and managers quickly with relevant information. When a customer calls to enquire about an orders ETA, customer service staff can access relevant information, quickly and with accuracy as it is linked to inventory and manufacturing systems.

Contact us to learn more about how the Advance team can assist with your technology needs.

5 Things to Consider When Preparing for a Repository Neutral ECM

1. Business Requirements

Establish the business requirements as a clear goal for your project and speak to all the departments across all locations and facilities in the organisation to get an indication on how many employees need access. One of my early projects during business requirements discovery the number of employees needing access increased to 115 from an initial 15 and fortunately the architecture scaled easily for the multi-site distribution of employees.

Be very clear about what you are trying to solve with each requirement and ensure that each stakeholder has had a chance to provide their list of requirements. At a recent project, it became apparent one of the biggest issues a majority of employees were having was needing information locked in a system they had no access to. This led to either using inaccurate or out of date information, or using inefficient methods to access the information through someone with a license. Management hadn’t provided access because the licenses were considered expensive and weren’t aware of the impact the work around methods were having on the organisation.

Prioritise the requirements with your project team and base the order on importance, technical complexity, risk and cost to implement. At a project where we were asked to provide a solution to standardise the handling of proprietary formulas within an organisation, several steps leading up to the conception of these formulas needed to be in place prior to work starting on the actual formulas themselves.
 

2. Current Information Locations

Identify all existing locations where information is stored including documents in file shares and file syncing services like Dropbox and OneDrive, databases including financial, service & CRM information and portals. A quick way to get a concise list is to ask finance for details on the software subscriptions and maintenance they pay or have paid in the past.

Establish the current and annual volume increase as well as types of information stored e.g Proposals, Invoices, Drawings, Customer Service Tickets etc… Modern ECMs like M-Files utilise compression and binary delta algorithms to efficiently store versions of documents, so your annual volume increase for migrated repositories will be considerably less. The site admin at one of my projects stated that after moving to M-Files where the chance of duplication and multiple versions of files was essentially wiped out, they went from network share storage increasing by 1TB per year to the M-Files vault only increasing by 50GB per year.

Determine which of these repositories need to remain in operation and which could be migrated into your ECM and be retired. We usually migrate things like legacy access databases that perform simple tasks like providing unique identifiers (e.g. batch numbers) to the ECM so it then provides the batch number as part of a workflow. You may have situations where it’s critical to preserve a legacy repository like a customer portal that allows service tickets to be raised. Its content can still be made available in the ECM for search capabilities and other purposes while its original functionality is preserved.
 

3. Security Requirements

Review the current levels of security within each repository that that will be accessed via the ECM and map them to one of the scenarios in the table below. The credentials used to access the external repository will be determined by the type of access specified for the connection. As an example, providing public access to Supplier and Customer lists may be necessary for all users in the ECM as this information is useful as metadata for other objects, whereas you may want to limit access to project related data to only the people in the project team. We often provide ‘metadata-driven’ permissions on project based data by including ‘project team’ metadata with the project so security access can be easily managed by the client.

The scenarios to consider when providing access to a repository via an ECM can be split into several categories:

Public

A common authentication is used to connect to the external repository, the ECM then controls access to the content via its internal security e.g Public Network Share

Public with Varying Permissions

Users and groups in the ECM are mapped to users and groups in the external repository to control access to specific content e.g Network Share with ACL restrictions to certain groups

User-Specific

The external repository dictates access rights requiring the ECM users to log into the repository with their own credentials e.g. SharePoint
 

4. Hosting Requirements

Determine if the system will be hosted on-premise, in the cloud or a hybrid to enable planning for hardware, review of service agreements with cloud providers or both. We’ve found to avoid delay in starting projects, development can be done on cloud servers during the process of hardware procurement and deployment, and then transferred once the on-premise environment is ready. It’s also quick and very easy to change cloud server specs to increase performance if needed.

Use the current volume plus expected annual volume increase values (from step 2) to determine what sort of backend the ECM requires as well as to establish storage and backup requirements. M-Files recommend using the embedded database option (Firebird) up to 50,000 objects and Microsoft SQL Server once that has been exceeded. If using Microsoft SQL Server, you also have the option of storing the file data within the database or as separate files. There are pros and cons that I’ll go through in another blog.

Size the hardware based on the number of employees and volume of data to be stored (from step 2), use the business requirements (from step 1) to help. Identify how connection will be made to each external repository (local or cloud) so connectivity can be determined either directly or whether a VPN is required. Where connectivity is difficult, it may be feasible to maintain a local copy that’s refreshed periodically or use technology that provides these capabilities.

5. Access Requirements

Establish the landscape for how employees will access the ECM keeping in mind it will become the central point to reference the connected external repositories. Most ECMs support access through Windows Desktop clients, Web Access and Mobile clients. If the ECM will be available externally, securing access via SSL or VPN is critical. On most of our M-Files deployments, our clients not only want access to M-Files via their mobile phone, but also on their laptops from anywhere! We use their SSL certificate (required for mobile access) and setup what’s called ‘HTTP over RPC’ so their M-Files Desktop Client connects securely whenever an internet connection is present. If you want to know more about setting up HTTP over RPC for M-Files, contact us.

Some ECMs support replication strategies where servers can be hosted in multiple locations and cache or replicate from a central location to provide efficient access to information. We’ve delivered successful projects where M-Files outperformed SharePoint when deployed to a customer’s remote locations as ‘cache’ servers that connect back to the main M-Files server via hardware based VPNs over 3G links. Consideration needs to be given to the technologies available to help meet access requirements.

For more information on M-Files contact us

Digital Transformation in a B2B Example

Click the link below to find out how this business implemented a successful Digital Transformation.

Digital Transformation in B2B Example

For more information on Digital Transformation, get in touch with one of our experienced team members today.

Mobile Device Management

What is it?

Mobile device management (MDM) software allows IT staff to manage, secure and monitor mobile phones provided to employees. MDM software can be implemented and used to manage devices across multiple different Service Providers and all major phone operating systems.

Why is MDM important?

MDM allows IT staff to have a centralised management portal covering all the devices provisioned with the MDM software. This allows IT to have quick access to device data and statistics, apply security profiles and give mobile device support.

The security profiles can be used to implement secure emailing, secure web browsing and the lock down of the app catalogue, ensuring only certain whitelisted apps are available.

An MDM platform can be utilised to setup and configure a VPN for use by those mobiles which have the VPN policy applied, allowing for centralised management for any updates needed.

MDMs can perform remote locking and remote wiping of data in an event where this could be necessary, if the device is lost or stolen and contains sensitive information.

For organisations using a corporate network, implementing an MDM profile on a mobile device can ensure that whenever that device is in range of a pre-defined WiFi network that it is granted access.

Other Benefits?

A major benefit of implementing an MDM is that it gives IT the ability to let staff utilise their already existing mobile devices for the work place and permit connectivity to the corporate environment. Due to the sheer number of people who have personal computing devices (smart phones, tablets, laptops), this gives a major advantage and saves costs for those organisations who do allow BYOD (bring your own device) with their MDM platform.

Advance and MDM

Advance work with the AirWatch platform, which is VMware’s MDM solution. Offering compatibility with Android, Chrome OS, iOS, macOS, Windows 10 and more, AirWatch is a leader in the MDM space.

If you are interested in more information, or wish to try out AirWatch contact Advance Business Consulting below.

Trash or Treasure With Network Shares

In my youth, it was always exciting to visit the trash and treasure markets at local drive-in theatres on a weekend. Endless hours spent wandering through the hundreds of car boots, make-shift stalls and pop-up stands whilst we scrutinised boxes and fold-out tables covered with people’s unwanted items, occasionally discovering something of value. It was a lot of work to sift through the trash to find my treasure.

These days my kids use their phones to pinpoint almost anything they desire and within minutes they negotiate, order, pay and arrange delivery… all while relaxing on the couch during a Netflix binging session.

Their generation have significantly improved the efficiency of finding treasure amongst the trash, through use of well-designed technology.

It’s alarming how many organisations still mirror my childhood experience at the trash and treasure market when attempting to locate valuable information on their network shares.  Sadly, there’s a similarity between the boxes of junk at the trash and treasure market and the muddled and disordered state most network shares end up in, even with people’s best intentions to ‘sort them out’ by adding their own ideas of sub-folder structures.

Fortunately, the way out of this mess no longer involves a steep investment of sifting through your network shares and ‘re-organising’ them into new folder structures or importing and classifying into an ECM. Instead, implementation is fast and simple, and access is more in-line with how we can pin-point information though the power of indexed searches.

Using the M-Files External Connectors to connect to external repositories like network folders, the information can be indexed and accessed through your platform of choice. The files remain on the network share and can continue to be accessed that way using your legacy systems.

Everyone else can use the beautifully designed modern interfaces of the M-Files clients available for Windows desktops, web browsers, and mobile phones. Yes, that’s right, you can lounge on the couch with your kids and use your phone to find whatever you’re after on your network share using the gorgeous M-Files App – search for files, check them out, make edits, add metadata and check them back in.

Adding metadata to these files enriches them as version history is maintained and the metadata makes them show up in metadata based searches and any common views you may have. Changes made to the files on the external system are synchronised with the M-Files system.

With the technology available in the M-Files External Connectors there’s no reason to be a dinosaur stuck at your desktop, plodding aimlessly through the mess that your network shares have deteriorated into. Instead you can get instant access to the treasure you need from all your technology devices whenever you desire.

M-Files have External Connectors planned for SharePoint Online, Exchange, OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box just to name a few. Powerful instant searches across everything in your organisation is within reach using M-Files External Connectors.

If you want to know more about M-Files and the External Connectors please contact us.