Carried out only two years ago, The State of Intelligent Information Management report paints a troublesome picture in the worlds of financial service provision and insurance.
The report suggests that 91 percent of industry representatives believe their information and data management strategy is in need of modernization. In addition, 93 percent of the respondents claimed that digitization issues created some of the biggest operational bottlenecks within the organization.
These statistics demonstrate the importance of effective digital document management in the field of finance.
When carried out strategically and in a personalized way, such a transformation doesn’t have to be complex or cumbersome. A couple of important considerations can ensure a smooth transition that increases effective data management and reduces the risk of errors.
The Benefits of Digital Document Management in Finance
Every single industry can benefit from digital document management but it can be especially important in the field of finance.
Financial companies often deal with sensitive and personal data. Handling such documentation in an offline format creates challenges as far as security and compliance are concerned. Digitization simplifies the introduction of better and stronger safeguards.
Through digital document management, finance companies can encrypt, ensure better access control and optimize disaster recovery. All of these features contribute to higher levels of safety and more effective management of sensitive information.
In addition, these businesses offer have to process complex spreadsheets, lots of numbers and bulk data entry. Many of these processes can be automated after a company moves to a contemporary, cloud-based document management system.
Innovative document management streamlines processes, boosts productivity, reduces security risks and helps finance companies modernize their operations. All of these processes will benefit clients, which can in turn help the business acquire a much better reputation.
Document Management Process to Digitize
In order to carry out a digitization strategy, it’s important to do a preliminary assessment first. One of the essentials you’ll have to handle before moving forward is deciding which types of documents can be digitized.
The world of finance offers ample modernization opportunities as far as document management is concerned.
Bank account management, invoicing, financial planning documentation, account maintenance, employee-facing processes and many types of client interactions can be digitized effortlessly.
Think of the way you handle everyday work processes right now. Do you believe that the current method of getting a job done is outdated? Is it slowing employees down? If the answers to both of these questions are positive, chances are that you can introduce some form of digital document management in the respective realm.
A Few Additional Digitization Steps for the Field of Finance
There are many technologies you can employ to carry out an effective document management digital transformation. Consider each one to determine its suitability for the modernization of processes within your organization.
Cloud-based technologies rank among the digital document management staples. In fact, cloud-based document management has become imperative in a world of Covid-19 and lockdowns.
Introducing cloud-based document management and service provision gives you the freedom to work from any location. Such flexibility has become essential rather than a good perk your employees are going to enjoy.
Some other technologies of particular importance for the digitization of the finance sector include artificial intelligence (can be highly beneficial for data processing and automatic workflow creation), big data management, advanced analytics (another powerful tool for the automation of many processes in the field of finance), digital architecture and even robotics.
While some of these technologies may still seem like science fiction, they’ve become quite easily accessible over the past few years. What matters the most is choosing the solutions that will be easy to integrate into existing processes and that will come with a fairly user-friendly learning curve.
Once You Have the Foundations in Place, Go for an Extensive Transformation
Digital document management is only the first step towards much more extensive digitization in the field of finance.
Finance and insurance companies rank among those that can embrace almost complete digitization. Most of these companies offer services rather than tangible products. As a result, centralizing all aspects of work doesn’t really make sense in the realm.
From marketing to customer onboarding, service provision, handling claims to processing analytical data, you can embrace digital tools and platforms. Chances are that you’ve carried out some digitization in a few of those fields already. What matters is providing opportunities for ongoing business evolution. If you’re committed to embracing a fully digital experience for your employees and your clients, you’ll soon discover a vast world of new opportunities.
Digital document management gives your modernization efforts the backbone that they need. After all, document processing is intrinsic in just about every process. Once you manage to go (almost entirely) paperless, you’ll also get to enjoy better and easier chances to move many other processes in the digital realm, as well.