All professional services need strong document management – here’s why
All organisations that deliver professional services have one thing in common – they work with large volumes of documents and information.
From accounting to shipping and everything in between, organisations delivering professional services have one thing in common – they work with large volumes of documents and information.
Whether you’re handling complex legal cases or managing a global supply chain network, proper systems and structure sit at the heart of what you do. If they don’t, efficiency and productivity will slow, and errors can start to creep in. The cost to your organisation is time, money, and sometimes reputation.
A centralised view of projects and cases
Many professional services are project-based. Tracking and monitoring those projects can quickly become challenging as the volume of documents increases, and the number of projects running at any given time expands.
Even when there are good intentions, even organisational essentials – such as standardised systems for folders and filing – present a risk due to the number of users, third-party access, and the potential for human error. Documents might even be stored in different systems. In this scenario, it’s common to lose control over versions, causing users to update or refer to the wrong document.
A lack of proper systems and structure for managing projects can lead to issues that quickly snowball, decreasing efficiency and productivity. Consider projects or cases with a large volume of content delivered by email, and no centralised solution for storing it. Details of changes are easy to miss if the people involved cannot access all the relevant information.
A strong document management solution gives you a continuous and clear overview of a project’s health and status. It also helps to ensure that everyone working on a project – or a case – stores documents in the right place, and has direct access to the most current versions, ensuring a single source of truth.
A secure and evergreen tech stack
In every professional service, data security is vital. With documents and data growing daily, it can be difficult to keep sensitive information safe.
This is a common issue for organisations where documents and data are siloed in various legacy systems, and data is pulled from one system into another. Think of a typical project that might include estimates, plans, schedules, reports, and deliverables.
Now imagine this information is held in different systems. Not only can this result in data loss – or a mismatch between systems – without consistent access controls, it’s possible that it can be seen by unauthorised users.
For case management in particular, it’s important that users – such as legal professionals – have access to all the relevant information they need, when it’s needed the most. Legacy systems and dispersed and siloed information inevitably slow down this process.
In professional services – especially those that charge by the hour – improved operational efficiencies around document and information management result in more effective deployment of human resources and, ultimately, improved productivity and financial gains.
Many organisations fall under the banner of professional services. Increasingly, these kinds of organisations are choosing to switch out legacy systems in favor of the cloud-powered productivity platform Microsoft 365. That’s where WorkPoint comes in.
Control and governance for Microsoft 365
WorkPoint inserts a layer of control and governance over the top of the Microsoft 365 environment, making it easier than ever to put everything you need in one place, and ensure that everyone working on a project or case has the latest version.
It’s also a no-code solution that’s easy to configure to your specific business needs – a standardised solution, built around you. And once you’ve got started, it’s simple to roll out WorkPoint across different functions within your organisation.
For professional services, these following standardised yet configurable WorkPoint solutions are particularly useful:
- Project Management: Transform paper based and manual processes into digital ones. Digitisation and automation help increase productivity by saving time and reducing errors.
- Case Management: Bring efficiency and structure to case management processes, ensuring that all information is readily available whenever it’s needed by those who need to see it.
- Contract Management: Eliminate the complexities of template authoring, contract creation and review, approval, and expiration by streamlining the process and making it intuitive for users.