Samsonite Asia

Like many other companies, the pandemic accelerated our digital transformation journey, especially around how we work. With most of the employees working remotely, we needed to have efficient solutions for digital signature, approval workflow, team/project collaboration, document sharing and automation. There are three pillars in our digital transformation strategy. They are transforming how we engage customers, how we work and how we make decisions. Document management strategy is one of the most crucial strategies in transforming how we work.

I’d like to share with you some of the thinking and considerations in formulating and implementing our Document Management Strategy. Why Document Management?

Every IT project should start with the question ‘Why’. There are many reasons why document management systems (DMS) are important. They are a secure way of storing documents. They make tracking and finding information much easier. They enable people to work and collaborate from anywhere. They are a prerequisite for any further automation. Which One?

“Document management strategy is one of the most crucial strategies in transforming how we work”

So DMS is important, but which one should I choose. I often hear arguments about choosing one DMS from another and having one centralized document repository. On one hand, I agree that we should avoid creating silos, but on the other hand, some DMS are better than others in certain use case. For example, for invoice processing, you need a DMS with a defined approval workflow for internal users, while for retail rental contracts, you need a DMS with the flexibility of obtaining signature from internal and external parties. And to manage IT projects, your focus would be on ease of collaboration, sharing documents, planning, and scheduling. Looking at all the DMS in the market, I think it is unrealistic to expect one could fit all your requirements. We solved this problem by using RPA/automation tools to link different systems, including DMS.

What are the Considerations?

• What is the user case? As previously mentioned, different DMS have a different edge nowadays.

• Can you access the DMS from anywhere on any device?

• How sensitive is your data determines the level of security required

• Ability to connect to other applications, how easy is it to connect with automation tools, e.g., RPA, PowerAutomate and Teams. Do they have APIs and existing connectors? Example, you might need to connect OCR with AI engine to process and store invoices in a DMS, use APIs to retrieve the relevant goods receipts in SAP and then use RPA to post the invoice in SAP.

• How easy is it to use the tool? User experience is very important if you want to have good adoption. Is it easy to generate reports or feed data to reporting tools? Change Management I believe for any IT project to succeed, only less than 20 percent depends on the tool/ technology, more than 80 percent depends on people and processes. To be more specific, it depends on the people who implement it and people who use it. Implementing DMS systems has no exception. I normally follow the simple steps to manage change:

• Understand the WHYs from the user’s perspective. Communicate clearly and consistently.

• Remove barriers as much as possible. For example, training, improve on user experience, reducing possible of error by internal validation or use drop down.

• Let the adventurous people try it first. Help them to be successful. Then they would be the champion for the change.

• Do forget go-live is not the end goal, it’s important to continuously improve.