As the world adopts a more digital approach to working, organisations have been looking at their processes – are they too manual, outdated, or simply failing to leverage as much of the modern technology stack as possible?
Your organisation doesn’t need to fall behind and, with ever-changing regulations, you need to be confident you have important documents safely stored and easy to access by authorised employees – whether they are based in the office, at home or in the field.
Let’s look at some of the statistics surrounding document management:
- According to McAfee, 80% of employees they surveyed said they want their companies to make documents accessible via cloud services.
- Statista found that in 2021, around 86 percent of Microsoft SharePoint users utilized cloud-based SharePoint servers rather than on-premises server.
- Our own research also showed that 70% of Microsoft applications are underutilised
- Proficient Market Insights predict a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.5% in document management systems between 2022 to 2027.
Adopting a Microsoft-first Approach
At TSG, we’ve seen first-hand the benefits for organisations when they adopt a Microsoft-first strategy for document management. Despite this, there’s a misconception that Microsoft 365 is incapable of providing a complete and comprehensive document management solution. This could not be further from the truth – in fact, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful document management tools on the market that can give you a significant return on your investment in your Microsoft platforms.
Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online include everything you need to set up a regulated and compliant enterprise level electronic document and records management solution (EDRM).
So, let’s break down EDRM and the solution we’ve built to support you organisation.
What is EDRM?
EDRM stands for electronic document and records management.
You can create, manage, use, store, and discard both paper and digital documents and records using an EDRM system. On top of that, it provides compliance features that make it easier for businesses to adhere to regulations like GDPR and others.
The Problem with the Traditional Document Management Process
What’s wrong with sticking with traditional document management processes? Well, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with it, but it leaves you open to a host of security vulnerabilities and manual processes that mean you have to work harder and longer to achieve whatever you need to do with the documents and data.
For example, employees may be trying to work on one document, but will be emailing several versions of the same documents to each other with their amendments and additions, to the point where no one is sure which version is the most up to date or where it’s located. This presents a significant issue with version control and security.
Let’s break down the issues with traditional document management:
- Pose greater security risks both internally and externally – more risks for GDPR, and remaining compliant is harder
- Offer no centralised location for all documents making documents easier to lose and harder to find
- Difficult to version control – collaboration becomes an issue when there are too many versions of the same document flying around
- Creates a constant headache making sure files are stored where the correct people can find them
- Difficult to maintain GDPR and other regulatory compliance – do you have the time to manually delete records past their retention date?
The Benefits of Moving to an EDRM System
An EDRM system can alleviate a lot of the above headaches for you through some of its core features, including:
- Built in compliance
- Easier collaboration between different teams, external organisations, and tenants (if required)
- Secure document locations
- Access controls so you can choose who can access which documents across your organisation and with external parties
TSG’s EDRM Solution
So, what do we offer as part of our EDRM solution?
Since Microsoft SharePoint and M365 offer so many advantages, we decided to base our EDRM solution on it.
TSG’s EDRM solution makes it simple to handle documents, promotes teamwork, facilitates integration with other systems, and incorporates security and regulatory requirements automatically.
The benefits you’ll experience as part of TSG’s EDRM solution include:
- M365’s Governance and Compliance Tools
- Increased efficiency thanks to better teamwork
- Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to improvement and enhancement of their already-excellent security tools
- Free of constraints imposed by mobility, device, or browser
- SaaS application that will never become obsolete
- Transition away from outdated technology
- Information architecture that may be configured and expanded
- System integration options
- TSG developed SharePoint web parts and Office Add Ins designed for ease of use and rapid user adoption.
