Laserfiche Recognized at the 2024 WealthBriefing European Awards

WealthBriefing has experience reporting on the wealth management industry for nearly 20 years. It leverages this pedigree yearly, hosting awards programs across geographies, such as it has done with the 2024 WealthBriefing European Awards. This program, specific to the European region, evaluates individual experts, products and services on their capability to exhibit top class performance and innovation.

Laserfiche recently won an award as part of this program, for Change Management Process/Best Implementation of a Technology Solution. We had the pleasure of interviewing Russell Boland, Director of EMEA Sales at Laserfiche, to give his insights on what made Laserfiche a winning solution this year.

What was the winning formula for Laserfiche at the WealthBriefing European Awards this year?

Laserfiche listens carefully to customers and understands their specific needs, to see how we can deliver more tangible value. For example:
  • Accurate document and records management for client files, essential to supporting regulatory requirements
  • Robust tools for digitising business processes — which are often more complex and specialised in the wealth management industry — with compliance checks and reporting capabilities
  • Process digitalisation with integrations with many of the systems wealth managers require
  • A low-code platform that supports flexibility in designing processes with specific requirements

Laserfiche is adding to the value of wealth management customers through keeping client data in good order, raising staff productivity, accelerating client service and addressing ever-rising compliance requirements effectively and affordably.

What is Laserfiche doing to continue serving the needs of the wealth management industry?

Wealth management firms are reporting pressure from clients to reduce fees and deliver faster services. Meanwhile, it is more challenging than ever to attract and retain the specialist staff needed for this sophisticated and highly regulated industry. According to Laserfiche research, 70% of British Gen Z have left, or would consider leaving, their company due to outdated technology.

Laserfiche provides easy-to-use tools that empower organisations to modernise processes, and continues to innovate by incorporating technologies including artificial intelligence. This enables wealth managers to automate and optimise operations, aiding training, reducing key person risk and simplifying compliance. Digitalised processes boost productivity, raise staff satisfaction, and improve collaboration, in turn increasing revenue capacity, freeing up staff time to focus on client engagement.

What challenges are organizations in wealth management experiencing today, and how can they use Laserfiche to over come these challenges?

The volume of data firms create and manage continues to grow by around 20% per year. Additionally, regulators are imposing strict disciplinary sanctions for organisations that fail to follow regulations. More frequent and detailed audits add to rising compliance-related costs.

Laserfiche supports customers through these challenges by providing a single source of truth for data, and a process automation hub that integrates seamlessly with other core technology systems. Laserfiche provides a new level of visibility into operations, by tracking user actions on records with audit trails, and standardizing processes to optimise staff experience, address regulatory requirements, and strengthen information governance.

How do you see the wealth management industry and Laserfiche’s role in it evolving over the next five years?

Leading wealth managers are investing heavily in technology to enable them to grow revenues without requiring similar staff cost growth.

Growth often leads to more need for end-to-end automated processes while firms simultaneously navigate an increasingly complex compliance landscape. Today, it’s imperative for organisations to build strong technology infrastructures in partnership with trusted vendors such as Laserfiche and solution providers that specialise in wealth management, including MBS, the 2024 Laserfiche International Partner of the Year.

Additionally, the generative AI hype will continue. At Laserfiche, we believe AI will empower individuals to transform their work, take control of processes, and supercharge productivity. There is great promise for AI solutions in wealth management, in areas such as compliance, fraud prevention and client service.

But to achieve enterprise-wide transformation, organisations need to deploy AI at scale, which involves sophisticated data management frameworks and efficiently deploying AI across platforms. In the next five years, the focus will be on supporting customers in genuinely valuable AI deployments, utilising these technologies responsibly via risk-and-benefits frameworks.

Continue your journey  

To learn more about Laserfiche solutions for the wealth management industry, visit https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/financial-services/wealth-management/

An Introduction to Process Automation Features

An Introduction to Process Automation Features

Transforming business operations goes beyond digitizing content and managing documents. Important business processes need to be completed in a timely manner, and eliminating the manual processes that slow them down is critical to their success. That’s where process automation comes in. Process automation technology improves operational efficiency by streamlining any business process.

Join us to learn how process automation, as part of an enterprise content management system (ECM), saves organizations time and money, enables staff to complete more strategic, valuable work, and improves the customer experience – no matter the business or industry.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss how ECM’s process automation features can help your organization:

  • Reduce manual work and process completion times with automated workflows
  • Speed up operations by capturing and routing information and tasks quickly, easily, and instantly with easy-to-use electronic forms  
  • Gain more visibility into operations and increase the efficiency of cross-functional processes with reporting and analytics
  • Facilitate compliance with automated records retention tools
  • Support collaboration and improve productivity with flexible integration tools
Please join us on demand
Duration: 1 hour

Coppell ISD Supports Student Success with District-Wide Records Management Transformation

SITUATION

• Needed a solution to automate student-centric processes
• Legacy processes required administrators to perform time-consuming manual document management tasks

RESULTS

• Reduced the student enrollment timeline from one week or longer to one day
• Laserfiche SIS integration enabled student records to be automatically created in approximately 5-10 seconds

Coppell Independent School District (ISD) is a public school system just outside the Dallas/Fort Worth area in northern Texas, with 1,600 staff members serving over 13,000 students across 18 schools. With a 99% high school graduation rate and 97% overall score in its 2022 State Academic Accountability Rating, Coppell ISD prides itself on supporting students through all avenues available, from the quality of teachers to innovative technology solutions that drive administrative innovation.

As part of its mission to serve students and administrators, Coppell ISD partnered with Laserfiche to transform key administrative processes and improve document management practices throughout the district.

Modernizing Coppell ISD’s Online Student Enrollment System

Coppell ISD consulted with a local Laserfiche solution provider and decided to bring on Laserfiche as an enterprise content management (ECM) technology solution, with the initial goal of modernizing and automating the district’s human resources department. All staff records had previously been stored in physical files and manual processes created a major risk of user error. District administrators chose Laserfiche as a solution because they knew once the HR automation project was complete, they could use the software for many additional projects across departments. “Once you understand the capabilities of Laserfiche, you can utilize it for much more than the original use case,” said Angela Goerner, director of enterprise content management for Coppell ISD.

Once the HR department automated crucial processes like annual contracts and handbook agreements, Goerner and Coordinator of Student Information Systems Carol Freese decided to automate another manual process that historically created an administrative bottleneck: the online student enrollment system.

Historically, the student enrollment process was a convoluted series of Google Forms, manual information verification and an enrollment software that required parents to keep track of a username and password — and resort to calling Coppell ISD administrators when they forgot that information. Administrators at different Coppell ISD campuses all had their own processes for gathering documentation, informing parents and supporting students. “Administrators were either on the phone or back-and-forth emailing, and they were required to create their own organization system. It slowed everything down, and opened the door for mistakes,” said Goerner.

Coppell ISD also had to rely on an external administrator to customize their previous digital enrollment system, and didn’t have the option to develop digital cumulative files for their students. Administrators were responsible for managing cumbersome manual processes, like hunting down proof of residency and manually transferring documents from the enrollment system to their student information system (SIS), eSchoolPlus.

To eliminate these pain points for parents and administrators, Goerner standardized and automated the student enrollment process in Laserfiche. The process was reduced to three main steps, with all the manual work either eliminated or reduced to quick approvals in the Laserfiche system. “We were able to customize exactly what we wanted to get from parents and make the application work for the parent as well as the administrators,” said Goerner.

Historically, the student enrollment process took a week or longer. Now, when Coppell ISD gets an enrollment request from a parent, they can usually get the student enrolled and in school the next day.

Supporting Student Success from Pre-K to Graduation with Digital Cumulative Folders and SIS Integrations

Transitioning the student enrollment process into Laserfiche had the ancillary benefit of kickstarting the development of digital cumulative folders for all of Coppell ISD’s more than 13,000 students.

Previously, Coppell ISD kept physical files for each student — ranging in size from about 40 pages on average up to 300 pages — which office administrators had to manually update. Administrators had to file every report card, every test score and every student-related incident report into these physical student files.

With Laserfiche, when a student is accepted to attend a Coppell ISD school, all the documents from their application are automatically added to a new digital cumulative file. Grades and test scores are automatically added to the cumulative files each semester. If a student needs to transfer between schools in the district, there’s no need to transport physical files, significantly reducing the likelihood that crucial documentation will be lost or left behind.

Coppell ISD was also able to directly integrate Laserfiche with its SIS system, PowerSchool eSchoolPlus. Prior to launching the Laserfiche enrollment process, Freese had to manually launch a transfer process between the enrollment system and eSchoolPlus, which opened up the door to errors.

“Errors would occur, and I would have to track down which files didn’t transfer properly and why they didn’t transfer. I would also have to go in and fix data. That was enormously frustrating,” said Freese.

Now, when an application receives final approval from an administrator, a Laserfiche workflow and integration with eSchoolPlus creates a new student record, accessible to administrators within about 20 seconds.

“Laserfiche has allowed us to automate our very complex enrollment process, saving time and ensuring all the appropriate people are notified automatically and all the appropriate documentation is collected,” said Freese.

Automation Serves Coppell ISD’s Mission To “Educate the Whole Child”

Coppell ISD’s mission is to “educate the whole child,” supporting their students not just academically but in terms of their emotional well-being and safety. With this mission in mind, Goerner’s next priority for digital transformation was a series of processes related to student threat assessments, bullying investigation and Title IX protocols.

“The threat assessment and bullying investigation process is vital for student, staff and district protection,” said Goerner. “Our students’ safety is always important, but the proper collection of documentation is just as important for other districts and state reporting purposes.”

Previously, Coppell ISD captured the threat assessment information in a Google Form, which did not allow for an accurate information flow throughout the whole process. Notifications to campus and district administrative staff were sent out manually, which would often slow down completion time or create gaps where crucial staff members were left out of notification process. In instances of bullying, the manual threat assessment form had to be completed, as well as a separate paper-based bullying investigation process.

Goerner developed a Laserfiche workflow that includes:
  • An up-front student threat assessment form, which helps administrators develop a student support plan
  • Automatic creation of the student support plan form in Laserfiche
  • Automatic assignment of the student support plan to a student counselor, who receives regular email notifications to report student progress on that form

Digitizing these processes has allowed Coppell ISD to combine the requirements of the threat assessment form within the bullying investigation form, simplifying the experience for staff members. Students who require interventions now automatically get a support plan put in place within the bullying investigation form, which reduces the amount of paperwork and process steps significantly.

 “Counselors and administrators are excited because it’s going to save so much time and eliminate so much manual tracking of support plans.” said Goerner.

Upon deploying the threat assessment process, turnaround time on completion of a safety and support plan for students has significantly dropped, from about a workweek to as short as one day. Campus staff that are required to provide interventions are notified immediately, and the digital process is a key accountability tool to ensure timeliness in implementing interventions for students. Taking advantage of Laserfiche’s wide array of tools, threat assessment/bullying intervention documentation is automatically added to students’ cumulative folders, easily redacted in the event of an open records request and automatically transferred to the correct office for students who change schools. Via the integration, the new threat assessment process writes directly to eSchoolPlus for data tracking and state reporting as students transfer between Texas school districts. 

With so many existing success stories with Laserfiche, the district already has its next project lined up: an overhaul of the Title IX investigation process. They are currently working with Cities Digital as their Laserfiche solution provider.

How Less Can Be More: Digitizing K-12 to Streamline Operations Management

How Less Can Be More: Digitizing K-12 to Streamline Operations Management

The seemingly endless amount of information that K12 organizations must manage is daunting and time consuming. It can take a long time to process applications or find data needed to make decisions. It can be tedious and error prone to input data from paper forms into student and staff information systems. It can be challenging to keep up with all the policies and regulations for documents, and then manage all the approval, requests, and forms for those documents. Leveraging technology can lessen the amount of time it takes to manage these processes so your organization can get more done!

In this session, we will share examples of how your peers are leveraging this technology by:

  • Simplifying data collection through digital forms
  • Automating how data is stored and accessed
  • Leveraging AI to extract data from handwritten documents, making it easier to access and understand

Join us to learn how digitizing your processes with an ECM can streamline how your organization receives, stores, and accesses information. Improve your processes and give your organization more time to focus on students and your community.

Please join us:
Date: April 18, 2024
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10:54 a.m. PT (America/Los Angeles)
Duration: 1 hour

What Is Human Resources (HR) Automation and What Are the Benefits?

Human resources departments rely heavily on document-driven processes to get work done. To streamline processes and free up time, many organizations choose to automate their HR processes with an enterprise content management (ECM) system.

What is HR automation?

Automation handles many administrative HR tasks that, though critical, slow down productivity when performed manually. Such tasks include:
  • Filing, organizing and retrieving content.
  • Routing information for review and approval between team members or departments.
  • Preparing and distributing HR onboarding documents.
  • Processing employment agreements and other employee contracts.
  • Processing employee payroll each pay period.
  • Maintaining employee records and information.
  • Providing employees with appropriate tax forms.

What are the benefits of HR automation?

Automation technology is multi-functional and can offer many different benefits. Some of these include:

Increased efficiency throughout your HR department: In order to be responsive and keep pace with the modern business climate, HR teams need to be as efficient with their resources as possible. Automation can address this challenge by providing HR staff with more efficient ways to operate, from enabling convenient and secure access to critical information to streamlining the onboarding process and associated paperwork.

Reduced risk of compliance violations and fines: Many industries and jurisdictions have compliance standards that organizations must follow, as either a best practice or as required by law. Automation can offer a robust set of tools to help employees monitor and manage records throughout their lifecycles, as they work to reach their organization’s compliance goals.

Improved effectiveness through innovative technologies: For an organization to stay competitive, its HR department should be leveraging the best tools that current technology allows. The right automation solution can enable HR departments to leverage AI to gather critical information from documents, integrate processes with core technologies (including ERP and HRIS systems), make more informed business decisions with analytics, and download templates and other solutions from vendor-hosted marketplaces.

Employee growth and development: Having the right people is crucial to the continued success of any organization. Automated processes can make an entire organization run in a more streamlined manner, increasing employee satisfaction and reduce the time new employees to need to acclimate to their roles.

Which HR tasks can be automated?

There are many processes that can be automated within an HR department. Below are some, but far from all, the processes that HR departments frequently automate:

Benefits enrollment

Track when employees become eligible for benefits enrollment.

Timesheet processing

Make receiving, approving and saving time sheets more efficient with digital workflows.

Vacation and travel requests

Quickly create digital workflows for vacation, travel and expense reimbursement requests with prebuilt process templates downloaded form an online marketplace for solutions.

Employee onboarding

Automatically route and file paperwork for newly onboarded employees.

Employee records management

Retain employee records in a secure repository according to compliance restrictions, and ensure the right staff have access to the right records according to their job responsibilities.

When’s the right time to automate HR processes?

Keeping up with the rapid pace of technological innovation can be a challenge for many organizations. In addition to weighting factors such as the predicted growth of the organization and the level of satisfaction with current workflows, it may be useful to look out for the following indicators of a need for HR automation:

1. Performance of core functions has become subpar

Identify the core functions of your HR department. Once those functions are identified, look for any signs of friction or inefficiency, such as delays in onboarding or payroll processes. By clearly defining core processes and potential issues within them, you can better understand where automation is needed.

2. Your organization is growing faster than its HR department

Periods of increased onboarding can overwork an HR department if it doesn’t have appropriate resources. Automating manual tasks can empower HR departments to spend more time on recruitment, training and employee retention initiatives.

3. Audits are at risk of resulting in fines or non-compliance

HR departments handle sensitive information every day, and they are responsible for maintaining compliance with industry- or government-defined recordkeeping practices. Some departments may receive regular audits conducted by an outside party that can disrupt business operations. If your organization is concerned about the potential consequences of prolonged or failed audits, it may be the right time to automate processes.

4. Reduced HR staffing levels and budgeting challenges

Even in a business climate where improving HR services and delivery are of upmost importance, it can be a challenge when budgets and staffing resources are strained. Leveraging an automation solution to reduce time spent on manual processes can be useful for any HR department, especially those looking to be effective while simultaneously operating with limited resources.

Customer Spotlight: Sky Telecommunications

Learn how the HR department at leading telecommunications company Sky was able to deliver more efficient services for its 25,000 employees by leveraging automation.

Continue your journey

Laserfiche has plenty of resources to help you find the right process automation platform and learn how to get the most out of the one you choose.

Watch our latest webinar for organizations looking to automate HR processes

Check out our webinar: HR Automation: Reclaim Your Time, Amplify Your Impact to learn how Laserfiche can automate and streamline document-driven processes for HR departments, allowing you to reclaim your time and focus on what truly matters – your people.

Get additional insights with our ultimate HR automation guide

Read our Ultimate Guide to HR Automation for additional insights on where best to deploy automation solutions, as well as information on the latest technologies available for organizations looking to make their HR department more efficient.
The Ultimate Guide to HR Automation by Laserfiche

Watch our explainer video outlining benefits and use cases for process automation

Watch the below video to learn how business process automation can help your organization make processes more cost-efficient, streamlined, error-proof and transparent.

Compare digital process automation vendors with G2

You can also check out the G2 Grid® for Digital Process Automation (DPA) to compare top vendors on the market. G2 is a website that collects and offers millions of business software reviews.
G2 Grid® for Digital Process Automation (DPA) Software

Cost-Efficiency, ML and Interoperability — Laserfiche Predictions for Manufacturing and Healthcare in 2024

At Laserfiche we’re always looking forward. We also know that industries like manufacturing and healthcare are continuously searching for new ways to address their industry’s unique challenges.

That’s why in the new year, we asked one of our resident industry experts — Grace Nam, Strategic Solutions Manager: Manufacturing and Healthcare — to make predictions about what innovations and ideas healthcare organizations and manufacturing firms are going to prioritize in 2024.

Healthcare organizations will leverage new technologies to innovate and reduce costs:
  • Trends in healthcare technology in 2024 will heavily focus on cost-effective solutions, specifically in Finance/RCM areas, to drive operational efficiency and increase workforce satisfaction.  AI-enhanced workflow tools will be used to enhance existing processes and better leverage data to become more efficient and solve legacy industry challenges such as staffing burnout and the lack of harmonization for healthcare operations.

  • Interoperability and artificial intelligence will play a large role in the innovation of healthcare technology in 2024 and will be necessary to control the rising needs in healthcare data management and analytics, specially in the clinical field. By allowing AI-enhanced workflow, organizations can implement better data exchange between processes and immediately deliver results in cost and time savings, while significantly improving staff and patient satisfaction.
     
  • AI tools will be utilized to enhance current healthcare technologies, further expand the capabilities of automation and streamline day-to-day operations. As personal value-based care will continue to grow in 2024 and it will be critical for healthcare providers to create digital access to support in-person and telehealth visits in order to maximize outcomes for both healthcare organizations and patients while driving consistent operational efficiency. 

Manufacturing will utilize AI and other technologies to achieve improved interoperability:
  • In 2024, more manufacturing companies will integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning to address high-cost functionalities with compliance documentation and interoperability issues between software and technologies. By utilizing process automation and enhancing data processing speed, manufacturers can increase operational efficiency and reduce costs with improved systems while achieving business agility and scalability. 

  • We can expect greater adoption of digitization and process integration by manufacturers in 2024. These solutions will allow manufacturers to make critical decisions in a timely manner, prioritize high-cost challenges, and control compliance. Additionally, more manufacturers will make significant investments in AI, ML and integrations in order to address delays in production, document and data control, inventory management, inspection and shipping. 
  • Manufacturing enterprises are often vast and complex, and in 2024, data exchange and management will be crucial in achieving interoperability. By efficiently using and processing data through the power of automation, manufacturers will be able to create a work environment that not only encourages employee productivity but attracts younger generations of talent. Using digital tools to move data more seamlessly throughout manufacturing systems will be key to boosting ROI in 2024.

Start your digital transformation journey

Want to make an innovative start to 2024? Check out the following resources to learn how ECM can be your organization’s key to newfound efficiencies this year.

Schedule a personalized Laserfiche demo

A complete ECM solution like Laserfiche can help organizations across industries dramatically improve the efficiency of its business processes. See first hand how Laserfiche can be your solution and schedule a demo.

Discover powerful solutions on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace

Some of the more robust ECM systems, including Laserfiche, offer marketplaces for process templates that organizations in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and healthcare, can use to jumpstart digital transformation initiatives. To learn more about the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, watch the video below:

 

Gain new insights with our latest industry white papers

Check out this healthcare industry whitepaper to learn more about the role intelligent automation is playing in the industry.

In addition, our manufacturing whitepaper can be a useful resource for firms looking to further protect their production pipelines from disruptions.

Check out the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Comparing ECM systems? Compare the top vendors in the space with the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM):
G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Systems

Hyperautomation, Integrations and AI — Laserfiche Predictions for Financial Services in 2024

At Laserfiche we’re always looking forward. We know that financial services firms are no different.

That’s why in the new year, we asked our resident financial services expert — Joman Kwong, Strategic Solutions Manager: Financial Services — to make predictions about what innovations and ideas finance firms are going to prioritize in 2024.

Hyperautomation will become a powerful tool for businesses: In 2024, hyperautomation will represent a key shift in technology investments among financial services institutions to drive operational excellence and improve total experience (TX). While many organizations may have invested in automation, it’s primarily been in single-point solutions, and a more forward-thinking approach will be key to achieving greater efficiencies. This will be done by transforming and integrating processes into end-to-end solutions and leveraging the power of multiple tools, such as AI-driven intelligent data capture, API integration, RPA, and workflows. Assigning technology to handle tasks allows employees to focus on other priorities that require human intervention and empowers them to develop additional skill sets that can contribute to business growth. Additionally, this will enhance the customer experience by expanding digital and automation capabilities to meet heightened expectations.

Business will increasingly rely on API integrations to meet their needs: During the pandemic, financial institutions adopted various technologies, but they often only served certain purposes, making them less compatible with other tools. In 2024, to maximize investments, businesses will leverage API integration to enhance business intelligence, foster innovation, eliminate information silos, and reduce the burden on IT teams. For example, banking institutions may integrate their core banking platforms with content services platforms to enhance their document processing and records management capabilities. Additionally, they may integrate DMS with CRMs and custodians to establish an end-to-end solution such as new client onboarding process or set up automatic data transfer and information sync up between applications.

AI will become a more integral part of the business landscape: Financial institutions will continue to adopt AI to help streamline operations, reduce human error, save time, lower operational costs, and address industry regulations. They will also leverage AI to provide more personalized recommendations and predictive insights based on a particular customer’s financial background and past activities, strengthening overall customer service. Additional uses will include populating automatic forms, optimizing chatbots, flagging deviations, and sending signals to employees for immediate action. The rise of AI-driven solutions will also bring a heightened focus on security in 2024. Financial institutions must be cognizant of sensitive customer and employee information and establish an AI governance committee and usage policies.

Cloud adoption will increase among organizations: In 2024, the use of cloud-based technology will rapidly accelerate as more firms seek modern solutions to doing business. This marks a significant transition in the industry as financial institutions have historically resisted moving sensitive data to the cloud. Creating a digital ecosystem with cloud adoption will support new product development and innovation, boost resiliency and business continuity, and optimize overall cost-effectiveness.

Start your digital transformation journey

Want to make an innovative start to 2024? Check out the following resources to learn how ECM can be your organization’s key to newfound efficiencies this year.

Schedule a personalized Laserfiche demo

A complete ECM solution like Laserfiche can help financial services organizations dramatically improve the efficiency of business processes and drive business growth. See first hand how Laserfiche can be your solution and schedule a demo.

Discover powerful solutions on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace

Some of the more robust ECM systems, including Laserfiche, offer marketplaces for process templates that financial services firms can use to jumpstart digital transformation initiatives. To learn more about the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, watch the video below:

 

Gain new insights with our latest industry white paper for wealth management firms

Learn how AI is shaping up to be a powerful too in the digital transformation toolkit for financial services firms with the industry whitepaper: What ChatGPT Means for Wealth Management.

Check out the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Comparing ECM systems? Compare the top vendors in the space with the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM):
G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Systems

Getting Started with Laserfiche Workflow Designer in Cloud

Manufacturers Challenged with Manual Operations and Work Delays, According to SME and Laserfiche Study

Increasing overall process effectiveness and enabling data-driven decisions are top priorities for organizations’ digitization journeys.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, Dec. 12, 2023 — New research by SME and Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management and business process automation — finds that the manufacturing industry continues to rely heavily on manual processes while experiencing work delays in a number of key areas.

The study surveyed over 300 manufacturing professionals employed with organizations with 101 or more employees. Only a third of respondents reported that their facilities had completely automated operations related to equipment capacity utilization (30%), sales sheets/documents (27%), quality management (24%), and inspection sheets (24%). Meanwhile, the majority of respondents experience work delays related to inventory data (62%), manufacturing throughput times (62%), equipment effectiveness (62%), and equipment capacity utilization (60%).

“Overall equipment effectiveness and throughput determine a manufacturing facility’s ability to compete in today’s market,” said Grace Nam, strategic solutions manager, manufacturing, at Laserfiche. “As the report shows, manual processes and unstandardized external and internal communication methods that require various documents and records are still driving most manufacturing operations. This approach can have a negative impact on equipment availability and performance, as well as lead time to customer.”

Results also revealed that increasing overall process effectiveness and enabling data-driven decision making are top priorities for organizations as they consider the next steps in their digitization journeys. In many respondents’ technology plans were AI (56%), cloud computing (52%), and document and records management (47%) initiatives.

“There is incredible opportunity for manufacturers who focus on digitizing paperwork and automating operations,” Nam added. “By embracing digital compliance document and records management, developing a standardized system to improve processing time, and fostering interoperability with metadata management, companies can unlock new efficiencies, reduce costs, and get ahead of the competition. Additionally, advancements in AI and cloud computing will accelerate digital transformation in the industry, meaning investments in digitization and automation are more important than ever before.”  

Additional findings in the report include:
  • High cost of compliance — Over 40% of respondents indicated that the top challenge for their organization is the high costs associated with compliance documentation. With new requirements being introduced constantly, industry-specific requirements to manage, plus various regulation changes based on region and country, those costs are likely to grow unless organizations implement solutions to automate and streamline compliance processes.
  • The enterprise content management (ECM) advantage — Among current users of ECM systems, almost all respondents (96%) indicated that they are somewhat to very satisfied with the return on investment their system provides. The result reveals the highest level of satisfaction with ROI across systems used in manufacturing — however, only 15% of respondents report using ECM, suggesting significant opportunity for organizations that adopt ECM and its benefits.

“It’s clear from these results that there is significant room for the industry to increase their competitiveness and efficiency by modernizing their processes and transitioning to smart manufacturing technologies,” said Dave O’Neil, vice president, media, at SME. “By sharing these results, SME can continue to help support companies through this transition to ensure a robust future for North American manufacturing.”

To download a copy of the Laserfiche and SME research report, click here.

To learn more about Laserfiche solutions for the manufacturing industry, visit https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/manufacturing/.  

About Laserfiche

Laserfiche is the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management and business process automation. Through workflows, e-forms, document management and analytics, the Laserfiche® platform centralizes data and many types of documents from across the organization and streamlines critical business processes that impact organizational growth and productivity in core functions such as sales, engineering, operations, accounting and more.

For over 30 years, Laserfiche has served organizations in highly-regulated manufacturing industries — including aerospace and defense, gas and oil, industrial, food and beverage and more — to simplify data- and content-driven business processes, supporting quality management and document control, compliance, organization-wide information governance and digital resilience. Today, Laserfiche’s cloud-first approach incorporates machine learning and AI innovations, and supports integrations with technologies like enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and more to drive enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Learn more at https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/manufacturing/

About SME

Established in 1932 as a nonprofit organization, SME represents the entire North American manufacturing industry, including manufacturers, academia, professionals, students, and the communities in which they operate. Together we share one common belief: Manufacturing holds the key to economic growth and prosperity. SME accelerates new technology adoption and inspires and builds North America’s talent and capabilities in order to advance manufacturing as a diverse, thriving and valued ecosystem that drives competitiveness, resiliency and national security. We believe in technology’s power and humanity’s innovation to advance our society and meet many national challenges. We design new ways to understand and solve problems, and our solutions advance the next wave of innovation and growth. Learn more at SME.org, or follow SME on X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

ETC Scales Automation to Support Australia’s Workforce

SITUATION

• Compliance with regulatory requirements was driven by manual tasks and loads of paper
• An increase in caseload uncovered a greater need for digital transformation of the customer onboarding process

RESULTS

• ETC managed a 100% increase in caseload without hiring additional staff
• Gained the ability to place job seekers 50% faster than competitors

When the Enterprise & Training Company (ETC) team began a digital transformation initiative in 2019, the goal was to improve compliance. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the organization’s plans. As a not-for-profit specializing in employment and training services delivered on behalf of Australian and state governments, ETC found itself on the front lines of a global crisis. People were losing their jobs and ETC’s caseload doubled from 7,000 to 14,000 in a short period of time.

Over the past 30-plus years, ETC has helped over 95,000 people find jobs and trained over 46,000 people, but this was a completely novel challenge.

“We had to pivot to find a digital solution that would replace our face-to-face model and continue to provide a service for our current customers,” said Tim Welsh, manager of Innovation at ETC. “Our 18-month automation plan was brought forward, and we used Laserfiche to completely digitize 40 forms and associated workflows and release them into production within two months. This was a real game changer for our organization because it enabled us to get on the front foot and proactively service our customers.”

50% faster job placement compared to competitorsUltimately, the team’s efforts allowed ETC to accelerate processes and place job seekers 50% quicker than ETC’s competitors — while still supporting compliance practices as originally intended.

“The impact of our Laserfiche initiatives meant we were able to support some of society’s most vulnerable people on their journey to finding work a lot quicker than what was occurring nationally, and what we would have normally been able to achieve,” Welsh added.

Building Digital Resilience to Support Australia’s Workforce

As stay-at-home mandates began to roll out across Australia, ETC braced for impact. Accustomed to supporting young people, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, long-term unemployed, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people as well as the broader community, the ETC team knew that the pandemic would have widespread impact.

“Uncertainty around a worldwide pandemic was a stressful time for everyone, but even more so for many of our customers who had recently been made unemployed, some for the first time in their lives,” Welsh said.

The team accelerated its digital transformation plans, streamlining the customer onboarding process using Laserfiche Forms and workflow.

In the legacy customer onboarding process, customers complete documents required for compliance, including privacy consent and permission to contact their employer forms. Additionally, they complete a skill and ability to work assessment. Prior to the Laserfiche solution, ETC teams were required to:
  • Print all the forms for the customer to fill out
  • Manually scan and send them to the customer’s email
  • Create and rename a new customer folder on the server
  • Download the document from the email
  • Rename and save to the correct folder

All aspects of this process are now automated with Laserfiche, saving between 10-15 minutes per customer. Welsh added that it was a significant enhancement to the employee experience as well, as team members spend less time on manual tasks and more time helping customers get training and placed into jobs.

Streamlining the process further, ETC uses Laserfiche Connector and a custom API to query the organization’s CRM, which provides up-to-date customer information. “This ensures that the data we require, such as email addresses, are up to date when sending, receiving, and filing content and are not subject to user error,” Welsh said. “It also ensures that customer documents are saved in the correct location each time, which not only makes it easier for our staff in accessing information but is also essential during audits of our government contracts.”

Supporting Scale with Automation

100% increase in caseload without hiring additional staffBefore Laserfiche, if ETC saw a sudden spike in caseload, the organization would hire more staff to handle it. “In this case, we would have had to employ an additional 36 staff,” Welsh said. “Instead, thanks to Laserfiche, we brought forward our digitization and automation plans for onboarding customers. Rather than hire new staff, we created a centralized digital servicing team consisting of 13 people, saving us about $1.6 million in salary and on costs.”

This approach also saved ETC from having to source new premises to accommodate staff. Most importantly, however, the new digital servicing team enabled ETC to place people into jobs, on average, 50% quicker than competitors. At the same time, ETC is able to provide new opportunities for its staff to upskill and grow professionally.

“The low-code framework that Laserfiche provides means I can scale up people who actually understand the business,” Welsh explained. “Now we talk about them as citizen developers. … I can actually bring them in and teach them how to do more of that in-depth Laserfiche workflow.”

Compliance practices, too, have been simplified across the organization. “Employees love it,” Welsh said. “We’re a very, very heavy admin organization and there is a lot of compliance for our government contracts. And prior to Laserfiche, that was all done by hand.”

Today, ETC continues to grow and leverage digitization and automation to scale. In July of 2022, ETC was awarded government contracts that required an additional 258 staff to be trained to understand the delivery of service via Laserfiche for a customer base of over 10,000.

Future plans include more integrations that will help to create a holistic view of customer journeys and needs. The company is currently working to incorporate Laserfiche in an accounts payable solution that will integrate with ETC’s business intelligence and finance reporting systems.

“Laserfiche has revolutionized ETC’s ability to service the customer both internally and externally where and when they need it,” Welsh said. “Streamlining and digitizing our workflows has significantly reduced our administration overhead, allowing our teams to spend valuable time assisting their customers.”