People who are worth their salt work hard to do things right the first time. Yet when it comes to electronic document management (EDM), trying to uncover best practices that will lead to success can be like chasing a moving target with your eyes shut. It’s challenging to find consensus, since customer needs and vendor solutions vary. Yet a measuring stick is vital if you want to ensure your vendor (and project) achieve expected outcomes.

This article gives an overview of best practices, including practical considerations for purchasing and implementing EDM. It outlines components to look for in an integrated suite, useful tips for determining which solution is right for you, and cites reliable sources for best practices information. The goal is to help project champions and managers evaluate EDM providers with open eyes and make informed decisions the first time so they can experience maximum payoff and satisfaction sooner rather than later.

The article includes:

• Defining EDM best practices
• EDM components and what to ask your vendor

• Capture
• Indexing
• Document Management and Security
• Business Process Management/Workflow
• Integration
• Records Management

Defining EDM best practices

If you want to ensure a ‘best practices’ implementation, the first course of action is to thoroughly understand your company’s vision and how technology is intended to help you achieve it. Your initial EDM deployment should address areas where deficiencies or opportunities are the greatest, yet even departmental EDM deployment demands a holistic, enterprise approach from the start. If you don’t consider how documents, information, and automation will (or ultimately could) affect other business units, you will waste time and resources and miss opportunities for efficiency gains as your projects expand across the enterprise. Creating cohesive indexing plans, search strategies, and records management plans now will save considerable time and frustration later.

Make sure you have a solid understanding of your organization’s corporate politics and who makes decisions. Many implementations fail (or fail to achieve their potential) because of problematic or unclear hierarchies and politics.

IT and executive management must understand and agree on their overall vision (and how technology fits within it) for one, two, and five years at a minimum, to ensure EDM project goals are logical, relevant, and properly scaled. Both sides must work together to establish and communicate a shared vision with achievable goals that bear realistic implementation timelines.

Best practices means choosing the best available technology to solve stated business challenges and implementing it in a way that will produce the strongest results. ‘Best’ doesn’t necessarily equate to the suite with the most bells and whistles. Rather, it means finding the best solution for your short- and longer-term business needs and deploying it logically according to a well-conceived and thorough plan.

EDM components and what to ask your vendor

The foundation of EDM is effective capture of all of your corporate information at its first touch point in your business, whether it’s in the mailroom, at a customer site, or a remote office. Information enters organizations in multiple ways, from paper documents to online forms, bar codes, copiers and MFPs with basic scanning capabilities, emails, faxes, electronic signatures, and more.

Capturing the important data stored within your documents and storing it in a central, searchable repository so it can be accessed and used wherever it is meaningful to the business, is vital to making informed and timely business decisions. Instant, yet appropriately secure access to quality images that bear accurate information also gives you an advantage over competitors when it comes to internal and external customer support and self-service.

Before you select a vendor, examine the documents that flow into your business. Know which information on your documents and images drives business decisions and moves processes forward. Make sure the technology you choose will accommodate all types of input and capture it quickly, consistently, and with clarity.

Things to ask your vendor:

• Can you capture the data we need from an image?
• Can you ensure our images are secure, so indexing can be done remotely or overseas while preserving image integrity?
• Can you capture all formats with high-quality definition and readability, including documents created in Microsoft Word, Corel Perfect Office, email, drawing packages, Web pages, and more?
• Do you have an off-site backup facility or alternative to ensure mission-critical data will be available in the event something unexpected occurs?

After information is captured, it should be thoroughly indexed and stored for easy and secure retrieval by the diverse parties that will need it. A company with multiple departments or types of users should develop a thorough and hierarchical taxonomy that indexes the diverse information various departments will need so multiple people can find it.

Learn how files are organized and how workers in different business areas search for them. Look at broader enterprise needs as well as your department’s requirements. Some of the information in Mr. John Doe’s personnel file may be pertinent to HR; some to the payroll department; and profile information may benefit marketing. Consider information that may need to be retrieved to demonstrate regulatory compliance, or for audits. The company needs to ensure that the right individuals are authorized to access what they need to complete job-related tasks…no less, and no more.

Things to ask your vendor:

• Does your EDM package allow us to index documents thoroughly?
• How is document security controlled? Is it 100% reliable?
• Can documents be secured by user group and individual users?
• Do you have a services team that can help us to conduct a thorough document inventory and assist with process analysis if we need help?

3. Document Management and Security

As data is entered into the system, rules governing privacy and sensitive information need to be followed. If you don’t already have one, develop a thorough information governance plan.

Conduct regular audits of your electronic files to make sure you can produce the details you need for compliance audits. Determine and be ready to communicate to your IT administrator details regarding who should be authorized to view which information, taking regulations, industry standards, and corporate policies into consideration.

Things to ask your vendor:

• Does your solution let us designate who can view which information, down to the individual user and at the page level?
• Does the software allow the client to set up user authentication?
• Can documents be made inalterable?
• Does the system provide a detailed and auditable record of file access and transactional activity?
• Does your company have a disaster recovery model to address unforeseen circumstances and assure business continuity at all times?

4. Business Process Management/Workflow

The labyrinth of routine processes in a business can be complex, with multiple points where new information enters a process and decisions need to be made. Two of the most critical determining factors in developing thorough and appropriate processes are involving end users who carry out processing details on a daily basis and determining who will communicate the business rules to the vendor, IT staff, or systems integrator.

With BPM and workflow. it’s critical to agree on the business rules that govern the processes you intend to automate so you can ensure they are logical, efficient, and consistent. Which person at each site—or in each department—has the final say?

Things to ask your vendor:

• Does the software let us create a clear hierarchy for decision making, including departmental and individual authorizations?
• Does it allow us to designate how exceptions to standard processes should be handled?
• Are each of the transactions within processes that are “on the move” fully searchable and instantly auditable when immediate answers are required?

5. Systems Integration

Consider whether technologies that you already own might benefit other areas within and across your organization. Integrating business process management/workflow software with other key technologies will enable you to leverage your investment in existing technology enterprise wide. Take advantage of each opportunity for added efficiency. If you’re not ready to do so now, at least incorporate it into your vision and plans.

Things to ask your vendor:

• Will your software integrate with our legacy systems, line-of-business software, fax, email, telecommunications, and in-house developed software?
• Is the all of your product functionality underwritten in industry standard web services?
• If so, are web services calls unlimited, or will we be charged each time we make a call to push and pull information from other systems or execute commands based on those services?
• Are we required to use your product interface, or can we choose to add your functionality to the interface our workers currently use?
• Do you offer extensive integration services in the event assistance is needed, or will we need to hire an outside resource?

6. Records Management

A document becomes a record when its active lifecycle is complete, it is no longer regularly needed, and it’s ready for long-term storage. Considering the regulations and policies that govern document retention is vital to records management, but it’s not enough. Similar to creating an information taxonomy for document indexing during the active part of the lifecycle, a clear and consistent file plan for organizing records is essential so records can be quickly and consistently found when they are needed in the future.

Things to ask your vendor:

• Can documents automatically be converted to an unalterable format prior to migration?
• Can we create rules to govern the automatic purging of records from the document management system or their migration to long-term storage?
• Does the software let us request email notification or other alerts prior to purging?
• What options exist if we need alternative long-term record storage in addition to electronic document storage?
• Can your software export data effectively to our preferred alternative storage medium?
• If data ultimately needs to be destroyed, does your company guarantee proper disposal of information and hardware? If not, do you have a strong partner to recommend whose products integrate with yours?

General rules for successful technology deployment

Regardless of the type of deployment and technology selected, these practical strategies will put you on the path to success:

1. Choose a vendor whose software will integrate thoroughly with the applications you have now as well as software purchases you have planned for the future;
2. Make sure the contract clearly states the vendor’s deliverables so nothing is open to interpretation.
3. Require a complete list of hardware, software, and resources that you must have available for your vendor to proceed so you don’t have to face budget overages and project delays.
4. Schedule regular, two-way status updates with your vendor.
5. Create a list of project milestones with estimated dates for completion of each, and outline expectations for communication as each milestone is met.
6. Document the vendor’s suggestions and your plans for maintaining the EDM solution (upgrades, support, etc.) after the deployment is complete.

Practical tips for broadening project scope

Like a home renovation, a technology deployment can easily become endangered by the discovery of additional wishes and needs that exceed the scope of the initial plan. Project managers and vendors must be careful only to add whatever is crucial to reaching the project goals. Although it’s easy to insert additional dream lists after the plan is in place, costs can spiral out of control due to unanticipated hardware, software, upgrades, and staffing needs. Focus on the stated goals and only broaden the scope when additional requirements emerge that relate to those goals. Other items should be added later with their own clearly stated deliverables, requirements, timelines, and budgets.

Industry “best practices”

Until recently, “best practices for EDM” were primarily created by vendors. Recommendations were restricted to what each vendor anticipated being able to deliver rather than what was truly needed and expected. As a result, some companies look with suspicion at EDM vendors’ “best practices”. Too many vendors promised to provide solutions that would address commonly faced business challenges, and then failed to deliver.

Three areas where many vendors fell short were centralized information management; a global services repository; and intelligent process infrastructure. Companies made investments that ran into millions of dollars, yet the resulting solutions were often proprietary or had restrictions that inhibited the true global information and intelligence they were seeking. Many companies ended up with multiple isolated solutions that addressed departmental needs rather than a unified solution to managing all of their corporate information globally. “Buyers, beware” became an unspoken mantra.

In recent years, organizations such as AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management – www.aiim.org), NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), and ARMA (Association of Records) have created and published industry standards for document and records management. Numerous best practices articles, and links to valuable sources of information about document and records management are available on their websites. You can also find certification courses in document imaging, records management, and more.

Information from industry associations will help you to develop objective, clear, and realistic expectations for the technologies you choose. Understand the industry standards these organizations recommend, and evaluate whether they are relevant to your project. Add your vendor’s guidelines to your knowledge base. Evaluate how closely your chosen vendors’ products and guidelines meet industry standards. Choose wisely and plan carefully by evaluating EDM best practices before you get started with your planning. If you do so, you will have a much better chance of reaching your goals.

For more information or to schedule a demonstration, please Contact DocFinity now.