Heavy documentation demands and inefficient workflows can impact business, from inconsistent and inaccurate reporting, a risk to compliance, to employee productivity and costs. Improve outcomes and replace manual and disconnected documentation processes with automated workflows.
What is a documentation workflow and why is it important? In simplistic terms, it’s the systems businesses use to create, track, edit and manage the paperwork they produce day to day, and any inefficiencies, inaccuracies or gaps in this process can have a negative impact.
The legacy to project management and modern-day workflows, as we know it today, actually dates back to the early 1900s and a mechanical engineer by the name of Henry Laurence Gantt. His development of the Gantt chart, which is still accepted as an important management tool, as well as his 1919 book “Organizing for Work,” which outlines principles that look at both the amount of time and activity required to complete tasks, remains relevant.
Today, solving for inefficient and inaccurate documentation is no easy task, yet for many organizations, the need to manage the flow of information within documentation, whether in paper or digital form, can go a long way in improving compliance, productivity, and efficiencies. And in the age of digital transformation, with new documentation workflow solutions at their disposal, it’s becoming easier for organizations to take complex processes and simplify them through automated systems.
Take an optimized documentation workflow in a law firm, as an example. A lawyer meets with a client at an off-site meeting. Using a tablet or smartphone, he or she records detailed notes from their discussion. Once done, they send those recordings instantly to support staff back at their office for transcription or follow-up. Within the workflow, a manager monitors the status of the entire job in real-time, and if necessary, identifies and fixes any bottlenecks in the system.
Without the ability to manage documentation from points A to B, and then all the way through to point C, everything from the integrity of the information moving across different platforms, to the time and costs associated with its creation, distribution, and management, can be impacted.
Gantt, like many pioneers, recognized early the importance of organizing tasks more efficiently, and when it comes to optimizing documentation workflows, this is exactly what’s required.