Each and everyday organizations produce, collect and exchange an astronomical amount of information in the form of documents. Locked in this unstructured format are all the insights needed to make better decisions, create better services, have better partnerships, and operate more efficiently. According to experts, poor data quality costs the economy $3.1 trillion a year—an eye-watering number and the need to use and manage unstructured data is the chief problem. There's a saying in computer services, "garbage in, garbage out," and it's true. I hypothesize that these organizations either don't use ECM or use it in a limited manner, such as a digital file cabinet.
An example of why data errors are so catastrophic is that these errors are usually found in transactions with clients or partners, which is dangerously close to an organization's bottom line. Take, for instance, the invoicing process. Work has been performed, and a client is supposed to receive an invoice, at which point they will pay the money owed.
However, what if the employee in finance forgets to invoice the client? Perhaps they are short-staffed or behind the eight ball because all their tasks involve paper and manual data entry. Or maybe they accidentally put in the wrong address. The mistake may not be discovered until the salesperson complains about not being paid. At this point, the error could contribute to a cash flow problem. And depending on the business, this problem will have a negative bottom-line impact.
This scenario is why ECM automation via Laserfiche is so valuable. Taking an error-ridden manual task like generating and sending an invoice and automating the process―allows the employee to focus on other duties as required.
Laserfiche Workflow takes a manual, repeatable process and ensures that the process runs and it is accurate and complete. Many organizations select processes related to finance and client management to automate before others because they are so crucial to the organization's success. Plus, automation enhanced with the correct security settings can foster WFH or work from wherever and whenever.
Many workplace errors occur because documents are stored in different places or versions, meaning that Josie may be working on making decisions from a separate file than Sam, who has the most recent version. With Laserfiche, all documents exist in one place — giving your employees a single point of access to information about customers and engagements in an organized, secure fashion. Plus, using the database lookup feature means information like the earlier address will be correct because it'll be auto-populated from the ERP system.
Of course, workplace errors aren't 100% avoidable — but the risk in this area can be mitigated with Laserfiche. Don't hesitate to contact us to learn more about the cost of workplace errors and how Laserfiche Workflow can help.
