It’s not about the physical files – it’s about the data. When your business shifts to using electronic forms exclusively, there’s no limit to how much your workflow can improve. First, you will save so much time. Think about all the time your employees spend printing forms, distributing them, collecting them, and then filing them away. With electronic forms, document processing is all done digitally with just a few clicks! Second, you will save a lot of space. Many offices are filled with file cabinets containing old paperwork and documents. By going digital, you will be able to get rid of the filing cabinets and open up more space in the office. Here are some ways that electronic forms will revolutionize how your company does things.
Find Your Files…Immediately
One way that electronic forms will change your business is by changing how your information is stored. Online forms allow your company to receive information instantaneously and to store it in one place. No more delays in getting what you need because it’s waiting to be written up. Different people can be granted access to the necessary files. That way, they can access them right away from their desk instead of having to track down their boss or someone from HR. This is especially convenient for employees who work from home.
Electronically Enter Data
Similarly, the data already exists. As soon as the client fills out the online form, you have it. You won’t have to pay an employee to read and enter information from a paper form. When the data is already where you want it to be, your employees can focus on what the data means. For example, think about new hire paperwork: the cumbersome process every new employee must deal with when they start a new job. Often, HR prints or emails these forms to the employees. The employee then fills them out and delivers them back to HR. The forms are either stored away in a file cabinet or uploaded from an email. Either way, this takes time! The easiest way is to have e-forms routed to the employee, routed back to HR, and then immediately stored in the system for future reference.
Assess and Apply What You Know Quickly With Electronic Forms
Since the information is already in the system, employees can focus on using what they’ve learned to improve processes and make change happen. With data in one consistent format, it is also possible to observe how things have changed and how to use the data to plan for future projects. Adding new e-forms or adding to existing forms is easy to do! No computer coding knowledge is necessary. Simply use the drag and drop feature to add elements to the form. The process is easy and helps keep forms up-to-date and ready to access when needed.
Electronic Forms Aimed at Customer Needs
Electronic forms not only help employees, but they also help customers as well. Another idea to consider when moving to electronic forms is that changes to processes can happen much faster. As customers use forms to communicate with the company, something great should happen: you should learn something. If you’re using paper forms, it is nearly impossible to remove all the old forms from use. Now, updates can remove the old versions so that all information is current. This makes record-keeping processes much more accurate and less outdated. It also will make customer records more secure. This is especially critical if you store confidential information, like medical or banking records.
Electronic Workflows
Internal e-forms can be routed and rerouted through the electronic workflow. Forms can be assigned to certain people or departments. Companies can rank the forms at various priority levels so that employees know how to manage their time. An electronic workflow also allows various employees to track the process as it moves from team to team. This keeps everyone organized. It is much easier to see status updates when everything is electronic.
Integration Across Systems
Finally, using a variety of electronic forms allows information to be available anywhere in your network. When all parts of the systems work well together, productivity is another added benefit that pays off. More time used doing the actual work is less time wasted planning to work. Cloud storage systems, like Google Drive and OneDrive, can be easily integrated into your electronic document processing platform. Work is so much easier when everything is in one spot.
Document Processing of Old Paper Forms
Making the switch to digital forms is a decision that will further improve business productivity. You might be wondering, what will happen to your old paper forms? It’s inconvenient to have some electronic forms and some stored away as paper documents in file cabinets. Once you decide to go digital, commit to digitizing your old files and documents. Scan them in, and the system’s AI will be able to pick out the data and information on the forms and turn them digital. Once everything is all electronic, your business will feel so much more organized and be able to process documents more efficiently.
Ready to Switch?
In the past, document processing was a hefty task for businesses. Between printing forms, distributing forms, and finding places to file them, businesses wasted a lot of time and energy processing forms and documents. Fortunately, digital document processing is here. When you’re ready to use electronic forms to improve how your company does business, contact Vasion today. When you partner with us, you get 24-7 support as you begin the process of automating