Ok, so– let's say you work for a medium-sized organization and you have a specific problem that you think would be solved by using Laserfiche ECM. It often takes a good deal of convincing at different organizational levels for a company to be ready to purchase this type of tool. If you have been tasked with such a project here are some tips to help.
Laserfiche is often deployed within organizations that deal with massive amounts of information and paper, and who work within a highly regulated environment. Laserfiche can be implemented in one department or agency and then expanded to other areas over time; it also can also be implemented at the enterprise level. If you’re pitching Laserfiche to your upper management, it’s important to understand its value to properly communicate that. Simply put, Laserfiche users gain the most value from the efficiencies gleaned from automation. Most tedious, soul-sucking processes can be automated, giving your staff time to work on strategic projects. Many companies use Laserfiche to ensure compliance using a combination of workflows and auditing. There’s definitely more that you can do with Laserfiche than I can fit in this paragraph. It’s crucial to understand that while filing and filing documents is important there is an entire universe beyond the digital file cabinet. Also, when you land on the right Laserfiche partner, they should be able to help you develop best practices for your new tool and an overall strategy.
Organizations have lots of risks and business loss-related reasons why they adopt an ECM such as lawsuits, failed audits, problems with compliance, poor customer service, low employee productivity, and more. In the ECM world, we refer to these problems as the “potential cost of non-compliance.” In particular, management tends to back software purchases for a few specific reasons: increasing efficiency and profitability, mitigating risk, and ensuring security and compliance. The Venn diagram of these reasons may overlap a bit but it’s a useful enough list. If you can relate the purchase of Laserfiche back to one of those business reasons you’ll increase the likelihood of approval.
Of course, another key factor to consider is funding. Before pitching your Laserfiche project to the upper management within your business, make sure you can afford it. You’ll also want to see if there is money in your budget for continued funding for the solution to pay for support and maintenance if necessary. On the bright side–however, the ROI on ECM products is typically high, which is a tick in the plus column. Here’s a good example and here’s a great piece on creating a cost-benefit analysis.
The best part about an ECM solution is that the Return on Investment is very high and is usually apparent quite quickly. Most companies realize their investment within the first 12 months of implementing their solution. So, also. keep this in mind when you are putting together the Laserfiche budget for your management team.
If you can present this analysis clearly, it should prove to your management that an ECM solution will streamline business processes, boost productivity and provide a quick ROI if the solution is deployed properly. While we know purchase justifications can be intimidating, we also know that the benefits of the Laserfiche solution are significant and can drastically improve the efficiency, profitability, compliance, customer service, and security of the organization’s information assets.
