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PAPER WARS
compliance, which is much easier to
achieve if processes are electronic.
“If the process flow says you need to
store a record of a form in the records
management system and the records
management system is a filing cabinet and
you rely on someone to take a photocopy
and pop it in the filing cabinet, nobody will
know if it didn’t happen. Whereas with
an electronic workflow, you can ensure it
happens and block the workflow or flag
up the workflow as non-compliant if it
doesn’t,” he said.
Self-interest
Nor, says Miles, should we ignore the basic
issue of self-preservation as a reason to
stick with the status quo.
“One of the benefits of digitisation is
the ability to change location or outsource
the process, as once it’s electronic it
doesn’t matter where in the world it
happens. That exposes a lot of local line
of business people to the fact that their
job could be resourced somewhere else,”
he said.
Partly for this reason, Miles says
that the best person to take ownership
of the change process is the chief
operating officer (COO). He or she will
be able to ensure that the interests of
the organisation are put before those of
its line of business managers and, just
as importantly, will provide a strategic
overview and thus avoid the duplication
that can occur if processes are digitised in
a piecemeal fashion.
“What often happens is that people
put in some scanners and electronic
workflow and get rid of the paper in one
process. Of course, the kit you put in for
that one process is perfectly capable, if
you choose wisely, of running multiple
processes. But instead people will buy
an invoice processing solution from their
finance solution provider and they'll go to
Concur for the expense claiming and buy
the kit over again or buy the service over
again. If it was done with a holistic view
to drive paper out of every process, then
you would dimension what you do. That
is where the digital mailroom comes in: it
moves things one stage closer to the door.
Scan the stuff as it comes in and send it on
for processing. Then everybody gains.”
The next stage, says Miles, is to get
customers themselves to do the scanning.
“We know we can pay in a cheque
by getting it scanned in a machine in
the bank. We can do that ourselves, and
extend it to mortgage loan applications
and things like that. Doing it at a self-
service booth in a bank has all sorts of
benefits: for example, it could immediately
identify if a utility bill is not valid because it
doesn’t have your full address or if you've
scanned the wrong page of your passport
– the sorts of things that take days to
correct if wrong from the start. The closer
you get the scan point to the start of the
process, the quicker you pick up errors.”
A word of warning, though,
implementing paper-less electronic
processes is not a panacea. “Even when
everything is electronic, some stuff will
have value and some stuff will have nil
value, and trying to separate the stuff
with nil value that we pay a lot of money
to keep is the next huge issue within
electronic record keeping and electronic
processing,” warned Miles.
Paper Wars 2014 – an update from the
battlefield
is free to download at http://
Paper-Wars-2014.
Samsung Ventures has invested in
DocuSign, the Global Standard for Digital
Transaction Management (DTM), as the first
step in a broader strategic relationship
to bring DocuSign closer to mobile users
so that on-the-go consumers and mobile
professionals can transact anything,
anytime, anywhere, on any device.
DocuSign helps consumers and businesses
complete transactions digitally by providing a
global network for sending, signing, tracking and
retaining documents in the cloud that eliminates
the inefficiency, cost and security risks associated
with printing, faxing, scanning and overnighting
hard copy documents.
The specialist recruitment division of REED
has removed paper from the administration of
95% of all new contracts after implementing
DocuSign’s eSignature solution to streamline its
document workflow.
The use of electronic rather than paper-based
processes has brought significant productivity
improvements to the employment agency.
Document preparation time has fallen by 90%,
from 30 minutes to just three; and supplier sign-
up is now completed in two days rather than two
weeks.
The time staff spend archiving the mailbox
has also fallen sharply, from three days to two
hours per week.
The signing of multi-million pound contracts
with businesses that require individuals who hold
an array of technical skills or have large projects
that they can’t fill themselves used to be a paper-
intensive task that involved sending multiple
contracts to a large supplier base, occasionally
linking with the company’s legal team in the case
of special conditions.
Strategic Supplier Relationship Manager
Debbie Legg said: “We send out contracts on
a daily basis to our suppliers. My team submits
requirements continually as we win new clients
and we need to have certain suppliers in place
before we go live.”
Large client implementations would habitually
require all of REED’s suppliers to sign and return
the contract within a four-week period.
Typically, REED would compile a document
pack consisting of a Framework Agreement and
Support Supply Agreement, which it would email
to the decision-makers of each company involved
to sign and return. Stakeholders would often be
abroad or out of the office and inevitably the
contract would stall until the decision-maker had
returned to the office to print, sign, scan and
email the contract back to REED.
“The process that we had in place before
DocuSign was antiquated,” Legg explained. “We
didn’t have any transparency into whether the
person had viewed the contract or whether they’d
redirected it, so the team would have to chase
the supplier manually.”
In 2013, REED introduced DocuSign, which
provides a complete audit trail of the workflow,
so that Legg can keep track of all outstanding
and completed contracts at the click of a mouse,
and automatic reminders that reduce the need to
chase decision-makers.
The use of DocuSign templates has cut
preparation time from 30 minutes to just three
and reduced supplier sign-up time from two
weeks to as little as two days.
“Having it all centralised, reducing the paper
burden and having the ability to automatically
route contracts to our director for signature are
extremely valuable to us,” said Legg.
Samsung Ventures to promote the benefits of digital signing
...continued
One of the
benefits of
digitisation
is the ability
to change
location or
outsource
the process,
as once it’s
electronic
it doesn’t
matter where
in the world
it happens.
