Last week, we discussed some crucial factors when choosing an ECM system. We addressed considering your organizational goals and the importance of UX. This week, we’ll cover compliance and security and future-proofing your system.
Understand your compliance and security requirements
Many organizations work with sensitive information that can result in steep fines if not properly handled. This information includes personal health, financial, and identifiable information. Penalties for violating HIPAA, for example, can be as high as 25,000 dollars, and even if the information your business handles isn’t protected by law, the promise of secure, careful handling of data builds trust and puts others at ease. This comfort-level security is crucial for keeping staff and client turnover low.
Access controls and permissions are essential security measures for enterprise content management. The option for each user to have a separate account with access to only the documents they need mitigates the risk of leaks. It ensures staff with access to sensitive information can be adequately trained to handle it.
Data encryption is another highly effective measure of maintaining security within an ECM solution. By encrypting data both in storage and transit, cloud-hosted solutions protect information from hackers by ensuring it’s only readable to those who would already have access.
Are you future-proofing?
ECM solutions are an investment, but the solution needs to last to reap a return on that investment. The solution’s scalability and a history of regular platform updates both ensure that your solution will continue to perform for years to come.
Organizations rarely stay the same size forever, so an ECM solution needs to scale to meet their growing needs. The option to dedicate more resources, such as storage and processing power, towards an increasing volume of documents can help. Cloud solutions simplify this process as allocating these resources only takes the flip of a switch.
But document volume isn’t the only thing that grows with your business. Frequently, the need for new efficiency-driving strategies grows as well. Because of this, having a modular solution that can house additional workflows, archives, forms, and other data capture add-ons ensures that your solution can adapt no matter what your business needs next.
As your business grows and evolves, so does the latest technology. ECM solutions have evolved considerably over the years from basic digital file cabinets to the feature-filled, efficiency drivers they are today, and their evolution isn’t slowing down. Researching solution providers, how in tune they are with the latest innovations, and how frequently they update their platforms can help you predict the likelihood that they will continue adding new and helpful features so you can maintain your competitive edge from your solution.
