Since March 2020, the health crisis linked to Covid-19 has imposed remote working and pushed companies and organizations of all sizes to urgently rethink their organization, production and management. Faced with this unprecedented situation that is extending over time, the digitalization of processes and practices has become a necessity for all to ensure business continuity within companies and maintain an optimal level of development.
The health crisis generated several lockdown phases. Although they highlighted the delay of companies in terms of digitalization, dematerialization and digital transformation in the broad sense, they also demonstrated the benefits, particularly in the field of electronic document management (EDM). The rise of remote working has made evident the need for digitalization across all departments.
Previously, digitalization and dematerialization were often limited to organizational, financial or legal aspects. A cross-functional EDM must be connected to all of the company's systems and manage all of its documents and content to ensure accessibility during remote working periods. To do this, it is therefore a matter of dematerializing the company's entire documentary heritage so that it can be accessed in a common, intuitive and intelligent way, worked on remotely, modified if necessary, and ensure its circulation from any location.
FACILITATING REMOTE WORK DEPLOYMENT
New challenges and criteria have therefore emerged such as tool cross-functionality, their interoperability and the need for collaborative, high-performance, agile and more secure than ever solutions: capture and digitization, ECM/EDM, content centralization, process management, task automation, electronic signature, BPM, processing costs, RPA, electronic archiving, digital safe and AI… As an integrator of solutions proposed by software and business software aimed at addressing all dematerialization challenges and facilitating remote work deployment in companies, Océane Consulting Data Management bridges the gap between companies' functional issues and innovative technological tools developed by publishers such as Nuxeo, Bonitasoft, Abbyy, cecurity.com, Fast, Expert.ai, Kofax, oodrive, UiPath…
The era of remote working into which we are entering requires more than ever to create links and interactions between these solutions by developing connectors to enable them to communicate and facilitate information transfers between them. The result is a significant improvement in relationships between operational and administrative teams. In the same perspective, Low-code tools used make it possible to strengthen links and share a common vocabulary between Business and IT Departments. Indeed, with Low-code tools, Business Departments can express their needs much more easily and in detail, which allows IT Departments to be as close as possible to their expectations. The generalization of modeling tools based on standardized notations such as BPMN or OSSAD are proof of this.
A SOURCE OF SAVINGS AND EFFICIENCY
While dematerialization certainly presents organizational advantages aimed at responding to a health imperative and maintaining constant activity through remote working, it goes far beyond this as it proves to be economically profitable. By dematerializing offices and meeting rooms, by replacing paper with digital and using software and digital tools, companies and institutions reduce their costs and some of their consumption (premises and work spaces, consumables, energy, travel expenses…). Employee efficiency has also improved in most cases thanks to flexible schedules, better concentration, greater availability… Without dematerialization, these positive changes would not have materialized.
DEMATERIALIZATION IN LINE WITH LEGISLATION
In recent years, regulatory developments to be taken into account when undertaking a dematerialization project have emerged. It is therefore imperative and unavoidable to become familiar with existing legislation depending on the department and documents to be dematerialized. Indeed, rules differ between an HR, sales or accounting department. Article 56 of the Finance Act for 2020, for example, provides for a progressive obligation of electronic invoicing between 2023 and 2025.
In the public sector, the government launched a major administrative transformation program called Action Publique 2022. Its objective is to thoroughly examine the missions carried out by public services. This vast modernization project makes the digital transformation of administrations a priority, with the objective of dematerializing 100% of public services by 2022.
Dematerialization is therefore no longer an option. It is becoming a standard that affects all sectors of our economy and extends to all levels of our society. Dematerialization technology solutions are becoming more widespread and present undeniable practical, organizational, and economic advantages. They also have strong implications for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Far more than a response to an unprecedented health crisis situation, dematerialization has become an opportunity and a source of progress that is only just beginning.
Laurent Jacotey
