How Connected Technology, Information and Workflows Create a Smarter Business
Adding more technology doesn’t automatically make a business smarter.
Most organizations already rely on a combination of computers, networks, cloud applications, business software, printers, scanners and digital documents every day. The bigger question is whether those systems actually work together.
When technology, information and workflows are disconnected, employees are often left filling the gaps moving information between systems, re-entering data, searching for documents or creating manual workarounds just to keep a process moving.
Connected business systems change that.
They bring technology, information and workflows together so the systems supporting your business work more like one environment instead of a collection of separate tools.
What Are Connected Business Systems?
Connected business systems bring the technology employees use, the information they need and the workflows that move work forward into a more coordinated environment.
Consider how a single document might move through your organization.
It arrives by email. Someone downloads it. Another employee saves it somewhere else. Information from the document is entered into another system. An approval is requested. Someone follows up. Eventually, the completed document is filed or archived.
Every tool involved in that process may work exactly as intended.
The problem may be what happens between those tools.
Those gaps are where duplicate work, unnecessary steps and lost time can begin to accumulate.
How Connected Technology Supports the Way Work Moves
Technology is often added one need at a time.
A business implements software to solve one problem, replaces equipment to address another and creates a new process when something else changes.
Over time, employees can find themselves working across systems that were never designed to work together.
Instead of asking only:
“What technology do we need?”
A smarter question is:
“How should our technology support the way information and work move through our business?”
That changes the conversation from individual products to the entire business environment.
Connecting IT Systems, Document Systems and Workflow Solutions
At Preferred, we look at Intelligent Systems through three connected areas:
IT Systems provide the secure, reliable technology foundation employees depend on to work.
Document Systems help organizations capture, print, scan, store and manage the information moving through the business.
Workflow Solutions help that information move through processes such as routing, approvals, notifications and automation.
Each can solve important business challenges independently.
But when they are considered together, organizations can begin building connected business systems around how work actually gets done.
That may mean a document can be captured digitally instead of printed. Information can be routed to the right person instead of manually emailed. An approval can trigger the next step instead of relying on someone to remember to follow up.
The objective isn’t simply to add more technology.
It’s to make the technology already supporting the business work better together.
What Does a Smarter Workflow Look Like?
Imagine a process that begins when a document enters your organization.
In a disconnected process, an employee might print the document, manually enter information into another system, email it to someone for approval, wait for a response and then save the final version in another location.
In a more connected environment, that same document could be captured digitally, routed to the appropriate person, approved and stored where authorized employees can access it later.
The people and necessary controls are still part of the process.
What changes are the unnecessary steps between them.
That can mean fewer handoffs, less duplicate work and better visibility into where information is within a process.
Start With the Process, Not the Product
One of the most important parts of digital transformation happens before choosing technology.
Start by looking at the process.
Where does the information begin?
Who needs it?
Where does it go next?
Where are employees waiting, searching, re-entering information or manually moving something from one system to another?
Those gaps can reveal opportunities to better connect the systems you already have.
Sometimes the answer may be new technology. Other times, it could mean using an existing system differently, improving a workflow or eliminating a step that no longer serves a purpose.
Building a Smarter Business One Connection at a Time
Building Intelligent Systems doesn’t mean replacing everything at once.
It means understanding how your technology, information and workflows interact, and finding opportunities to improve the connections between them.
For organizations across Arkansas and Oklahoma, that can begin by examining just one process that consistently creates frustration, delays or unnecessary work.
When technology supports the way information actually needs to move, employees can spend less time working around their systems and more time using them to move the business forward.
That’s when technology becomes more than a collection of tools.
It becomes an Intelligent System.
Book a Free Intelligent Systems Assessment
Where are disconnected systems or processes creating unnecessary work in your organization?
A Free Intelligent Systems Assessment can help identify opportunities to better connect your IT Systems, Document Systems and Workflow Solutions, and build a technology environment designed around how your business actually works.
Next Week in Intelligent Systems Insights
As businesses connect more technology, information and workflows, protecting the foundation those systems depend on becomes even more important.
Next week, we’ll look at why protecting your digital foundation is essential as your business transforms and how security needs to grow alongside the systems your organization depends on.
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