Key Elements of Paperless Office Software

Utilizing Third-party Software Integrations

Although it is also a key step in the paperless office software selection process, many third-party software integrations across the vendor pool go underutilized by their users.

Selecting and using software with third-party integration relevant to the organization’s industry is imperative.

For instance, accounting firms should seek solutions with ample Salesforce integration. However, a solution’s integration with more deeply embedded software like Microsoft Office is essential regardless of the industry.

Redefining Organizational Workflow

In order to get the most out of a paperless office software’s workflow feature, testing various workflows that either build upon or challenge the workflow utilized prior to the purchasing of the solution is important in using the collaborative features of the tool.

If emulating a preexisting workflow that does not use the scope of the solution’s workflow in its entirety, it is worth creating a new workflow that does.

Erasing Organizational Knowledge Silos through the Solution

When used as the vendor specifies, an organization’s content will eliminate knowledge silos in both behavioral and technological form.

Behaviorally, many workers in paper-and shared drive-dependent organizations usually spend anywhere from 10% to 20% of their time searching for inaccessibly stored information, whether through filing cabinets or shared drives.

This presents enormous costs to output, even without accounting for the fact that many workers spend time remaking or re-creating documents that are already stored somewhere, but cannot be found. This is why Zonal OCR technology in paperless office software provides an immense benefit to knowledge workers struggling to keep their information retrievable.

Extracting Data Driven Insight through Paperless Office Software

Given the present rate of data and information accumulation in organizations, gaining insight about this data and information becomes nearly impossible without technological intervention, and paperless office software is one of the few enterprise technologies that can structure content in a way that imparts, not prevents, insight regarding valuable information.

This provides strategic advantages in relation to competitors, marketing, information governance efficiency, and external auditing.

Relevant Certifications for Paperless Office Software Usage

A Note on Certifications

Although many content management and information governance authorities issue general certifications, product diversification, including the industry-specific specialization of these vendors, will create a paradigm shift among certifications—with vendors themselves developing certifications specific to their solutions. Until then, the following certifications may give credibility to professionals’ information management skillset across a variety of different paperless office software solutions.

ECM Practitioner, Specialist, and Master Certifications

These certifications, as issued by AIIM, can be divided into two camps: sales-based certifications and technology-based certifications, with the latter being most beneficial for ECM users and users of similar technologies.

However, both kinds of certifications overlap in developing content needs assessment skills for organizations, and the level of mastery over ECM is indicated by the three certification tiers: ECM Practitioner, ECM Specialist, and ECM Master Course completion.

COMPTIA Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA)

The CompTIA Certified Document Imaging Architect certification provides IT personnel with the means to fully implement paperless office software into preexisting IT structures, including the knowledge to ensure full utilization of the system’s features.

This certification provides insight and training on the more complex facets of electronic information management, such as workflow and workflow assessment.

ARMA Information Governance Professional (IGP)

ARMA, as an information governance entity, offers an excellent, general ECM certification that ensures those certified under this specification understand information governance at the intersection of business auditing, information privacy, information technology, records management, and compliance.