12. July 2022
Cloud DMS for more efficiency in the office
Many companies used to dream of digitising their processes – until Corona came along. Since the outbreak of the pandemic and working in the home office, more and more companies are deciding to put aside their haptic mail baskets and file folders in order to be able to work digitally from anywhere and at any time. Another advantage: employees and companies no longer waste so much time and money on inefficient work. So, no way that the introduction of a DMS is associated with high costs and is only used as an electronic archive. Because cloud-based document management has what it takes to thoroughly clear up these misconceptions and significantly increase the value added from data and documents in the company.
Ready for use from any place and at any time
The most important advantage of a DMS is that it manages documents centrally and at the same time makes them available decentrally. This is the basis for digital business processes in which documents are permanently visible and available to all participants.
In the case of electronic incoming invoice processing, for example, it looks like this: Every invoice received by mail lands directly in the invoice folder of the DMS thanks to the interface to the mail account. In the case of postal delivery, the invoice is imported by scan. Fully automatically and independent of the incoming channel, the system assigns the document to a specific process and individual persons. The criteria used for this, such as sender name, order number or invoice amount, are usually freely definable. Additional documents, such as delivery notes or discount lists, can be called up from the payment request at the touch of a button. When a work step is completed, the role-based workflow immediately notifies the next person or persons involved. The release itself: just one mouse click. The invoice is then sent to the payment office as well as to the digital archive, where it is stored in an audit-proof manner and remains available to all authorised persons.
Compliance under control thanks to role-based access regulations
Keeping documents safe and protecting them from unauthorised access is in the interest of every company. After all, they contain valuable information. In addition, legal regulations govern how business data must be stored. These include, above all, the Principles for the Proper Keeping and Retention of Books, Records and Documents in Electronic Form and for Data Access (GoBD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO). Companies must be able to prove at any time that and how they comply with these and other regulations. Valuable support is provided by a cloud-based digital document management system. This is because all of the company’s digital documents are reliably stored in one place. Who is allowed to do what with a document can be controlled in a very targeted way with an individual assignment of rights. Access and changes can be tracked at any time and thanks to version management, users are always shown the current version of the document.
Simple implementation
Another advantage of cloud-based DMS: the provider is responsible for provision and operation. The IT department can leave these tasks to highly specialised experts and take care of the core processes of its own company. This reduces the cost of recruiting and retaining IT experts. In addition, cloud solutions are usually ready for use more quickly because there is no need to procure and configure hardware. This in turn is the prerequisite for rapid scalability of the solution.
And what about security?
One myth that also needs to be dispelled is that important documents are safest when stored on paper in the company’s own archives. Many decision-makers overlook the fact that cloud data centres that meet the information security requirements of ISO 27001 offer a level of security and availability that most user companies cannot even begin to match.
This is confirmed, among other things, by the Cloud Monitor 2022 by Bitkom Research and KPMG. 84 percent of the companies surveyed stated that they rely on device-independent and internet-based software. Almost 40 percent reported that they had experienced security incidents due to ransomware in the past twelve months. At the same time, however, they also report that 72 percent of the respondents were able to fend off the attacks with cloud security measures.
Choose cloud solutions wisely
The high effort that cloud providers have to make to comply with legal framework conditions according to DSGVO, GoBD, ISO, QM, FDA or DoD is therefore having a positive effect on the market. Nevertheless, decision-makers should remain vigilant when selecting their cloud DMS solution and operating it. In concrete terms, this means checking the provider’s security certificates and proofs and constantly adapting access authorisations to the actual requirements. After all, security is a permanent process that encompasses the entire life cycle of all documents.
Jana Treptow 
