Enterprise Content Management: The Logical First Step for Digital Transformation Journeys?

Digital transformation is a concept that strikes both excitement and fear into companies around the world. Excitement at the possibilities it could offer in driving new revenues and redefining business models. Fear at the sheer scale and complexity of the task at hand. That excitement and fear can be compounded by the knowledge that “businesses that are slow to digitize struggle to remain competitive”.

Yet with such a potential large undertaking, the first challenge isn’t how to complete a successful digital transformation. It is a more practical concern: simply, where to start the digital transformation.

Thankfully, there is a proven ‘where’ to start. By implementing an enterprise content management (ECM) solution, firms can put in the foundations for their digital future. Unstructured content that holds critical information can be removed from storage silos and made accessible to employees across the whole enterprise, instantly transforming the ability to collaborate effectively and efficiently.

In fact, many observers already believe that it is “impossible to realize the full benefit of digital transformation initiatives without a strategy for unstructured content”.

A surface-level analysis can quickly highlight digital transformation opportunities available, with business processes able to be transformed with ECM solutions such as automated invoice processing. According to research produced by the Association for Image and Information Management, the average cost of processing an invoice stands at $12.90. Manual processes and errors, combined with a heightened risk of fraud for paper-based invoicing, all add to the costs. Companies have achieved significant per invoice processing cost reductions with digitally transforming the operations of capturing, matching, and approving invoices.

Using an ECM solution that brings order and process automation to unstructured content such as invoices, enterprises can enjoy streamlined processing times, stronger compliance, significant cost reductions and improved cash flow.

TerraLink has found that the most profound transformations – and with them the greatest ROI – occur when companies leverage the power of their ECM system to drive and automate their workflows. Automating workflows allows for operational optimization and integration to other systems that are part of the work processes.

“The digital age rewards change and punishes stasis.” That’s the verdict of global management consultants McKinsey, and our experience at TerraLink allows us to confirm that analysis as correct. Implementing an ECM platform is the initial win that can propel your organization on the path to a full-scale digital transformation, driving processes into or from SAP, SuccessFactors, Ariba, Microsoft and many other applications.

Understanding that content stored in an ECM system is part of a corporate work process that usually crosses corporate value chains is the moment at which an ECM system becomes a genuine catalyst for digital change. Our customers across a range of industries have realized enterprise value from their content management digitalization projects.

TerraLink has more than 25 years’ global experience in enterprise content management, delivering world-class systems that increase efficiency, cut costs, strengthen compliance and enable better decision-making. Among others, we are recognized experts in OpenText and SAP solutions. Whether you’re looking for a full-scale implementation or a simple upgrade or extension to an existing solution, TerraLink’s specialist team is ready to help your business achieve its full potential.