An alumnus of IIM-Kozhikode, Srini is a result-driven seasoned professional with more than two decades of experience in Business Development, Key Account Management, Client Retention, and Relationship Management. A certified Six Sigma Black & Green Belt, he has over the years earned the reputation of being creative, innovative, and easily approachable.
Organisations today are increasingly implementing digital transformation of their businesses. The business benefits of these change are well documented and accepted. However, despite spending a large amount of money and time in their effort a crucial aspect with significant upside to revenues and profitability is often missed out. This being the digital transformation of their physical documents which are crucial for regulatory, contractual, taxation, and legal compliances.
The traditional print-sign-scan-email/courier routine for countless documents that are part of the organisational process in sales, HR, vendor management, supply chain management, infrastructure management, channels management, etc. create delays and complexities that have been hampering organisational effectiveness. The pandemic was a huge test for smart document management solutions which the world managed to pass with flying colours. Yet, these were mostly quick interventions that may have compromised the essential documentation protocols critical for long term compliance and document security.
It is now time that an enterprise grade smart document strategy is adopted that seamlessly integrates with the larger digital transformation underway. It is also important that the smart document solutions do not just create a like for like duplication of the traditional physical paper process. We will, in that case, be doing gross injustice to the real return on investment and productivity boost that a full-service enterprise grade smart document solution can provide in terms of revenue and profitability boost.
Pharma companies have, not surprisingly, taken a lead in adoption of smart document solutions. Eight out of the ten premier pharma organisations today use smart document solutions. The impact of the transformation has not just been observed on their own performance but by the world at large. One of the contributing factors in the super quick development and emergency use approval of the COVID vaccine was the time and cost savings in the entire clinical trial and regulatory paperwork compliance process.
Entertainment sector too is actively looking at smart document and eSignature solution for their artist management process. These agreements tend to be highly customised, large value, and time sensitive. Quick, transparent and error free turnaround of the contractual process creates huge savings in production timelines and related costs in the entertainment industry.
Geographically spread large talent base is another area where organisations have reaped benefits of smoother process. Not only is the documentation process cumbersome in the recruitment stage but also needs to be managed for annual appraisals and locational transfers. Making the whole process smooth and efficient creates a general sense of wellbeing and affinity towards the organisation. It also saves a huge amount of precious senior management time that can be better utilised for business growth and revenue impact.
In the case of a Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, they use Smart Document Solutions to optimize the entire document process – from preparing the discharge summary to signing, enacting, and managing them and highlighting the critical differences for better decision making. With this implementation, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals successfully converted its time-consuming
paper-based process into an efficient, streamlined electronic signing process which not only resulted in significant savings but also enabled transcriptionists to improve their productivity and compliance. Upon the patient’s discharge, the transcriptionist now uploads the completed discharge summary from EMR to MSB and assigns it to the attending doctor. MSB then automatically sends a signature request email & a push notification to the attending doctor on web and mobile, respectively who then may immediately review the completed discharge summary and sign it at a click of a button or reject it suggesting for further modifications. Once the attending doctor is done applying their signatures, MSB sends the fully executed documents to the transcriptionist and records management for further processing.
In the case of an automobile company their decision to transform the way they sign dealership contracts led to satisfied customers, lower costs, and higher growth. Their smart document solution allowed the dealers to generate invoices against the free service coupons (FSC) and warranty cards digitally. In addition, all contracts between organization and dealers are now being prepared, signed, and sent via smart document solutions. Workflow and document templates help the dealers while raising invoices digitally and getting approvals at multiple levels. The effort resulted in 80% saving in customer’s time to collect & sign documents, 75% productivity and efficiency improvements and 60% saving in print, scan, and storage costs.
In addition to the time critical benefits offered by Smart Document Solutions and eSignatures there are some specific business benefits that enterprise workflow integration is helping organisations in their Smart Document Solution adoption. These include acceleration of internal processes by 90%, reduction in signed & completed document turnaround time by up to 90%, saving money through process efficiency & cost reductions, helping grow businesses by offering convenient and enhanced end customer experience, reduction in agreement errors from an average of 25% to just 2.5% and data encryption for privacy and security of business-critical documents.
It is time that in this digital age we adopt the smart technological solution to the physical documents. Significantly electronically / digitally signed documents are permissible in the court of law as per IT act of 2000. In addition to the demonstrated impact on revenues and profitability, the environmental sustainability impact, and the savings in real estate costs for storing documents make the entire process even more rewarding.