The best software for quality and risk management.The digital age has many advantages. For instance, you exchange information more easily and speed up processes. But what happens when the information flows within your organisation become too extensive?
To maintain an overview, optimise business processes and make decisions based on the right data, there is no way around it: information flows need to be digitised. How do you do this properly? We show you how to realise digital information flows thanks to a handy step-by-step plan and Zenya DOC.
When we talk about information flows, we are talking about all relevant data that professionals need in their daily work These can be documents, but also, for example, work instructions, audit evidence or protocols.
Digitising information flows goes beyond simply providing an online workplace for employees. It also safeguards the security of privacy-sensitive documents, such as important quality documents or evidence to regulators.
Especially when dealing with documents containing business-sensitive information, it is good when it is stored digitally or in a cloud environment. A local computer can break down and a laptop can get lost. When information is stored digitally, you are protected against these risks.
Two more advantages of digitising information flows are, for example, correct archiving so that information can always be easily retrieved, and the registration of various incoming and outgoing flows.
Are you digitising information flows? Then you apply knowledge management at the same time. You record knowledge, so it is no longer lost. This means you always have the right knowledge and can share it with those involved.
It’s clear; there are many benefits. But how do you organise information flows within your organisation? And what kind of software is best to use for this?
Information flows are inseparable from processes. Every organisation has its own processes. These are all activities that involve people and resources. Think of selling a product or purchasing raw materials for a product.
Every process has a digital aspect. For example, employees work with digital manuals, send e-mails or prepare quotations. To do their work well, employees need the right information.
Want to structure information flows within your organisation? Then start with the processes!
Outline each process within your organisation to get a clear picture. Do this for both primary and supporting processes. In doing so, you can ask yourself the following questions: Which processes take place every day? How do these processes run?
Do you have a clear picture of all the processes in your organisation? Great! Then you can now start looking at the existing information flows linked to these processes. How do you map these properly? By answering the questions below for each process:
Still not getting a clear picture of this? Then draw each information flow per process. That way you can visualise it for yourself.
You probably know the drill: a jumble of emails, Excel lists and papers has been created where employees extract information. For each information flow, identify what the information source is. If you work with this, you will see where improvements can be made.
Does certain information disappear because papers are lost? Or is the same information stored in three different systems? This can be done in a more organised way!
Take the drawings of the processes and information flows again. Add the information sources. To create an optimal overview, you can indicate for each information flow which information source you want to use.
There is often a lot of overlap between processes within an organisation. It is therefore likely that valuable data has been entered into various systems by different employees. In this way, mistakes are often made and an information source can quickly become unreliable.
Overview is insight. Therefore, ensure thorough knowledge management. You do this by keeping all data in one convenient place that serves as a single point of truth within your organisation. Zenya DOC brings all information together in one convenient place.
To always have the right information at hand, it is important to streamline information flows. You do this with handy workflows within your document management system. This way, you ensure that the information is always up-to-date, regularly checked and only available to authorised persons.
A DMS is a powerful way to manage data and documents. This is because a good DMS allows you to find and share information quickly, and to ensure that professionals only work with the most relevant and correct versions of documents.
You can set up folder structures, e.g. by project, customer or team. This helps to organise and map information flows properly and clearly.
Yet another advantage of a DMS is that you can choose who has access to which files. Set up authorisation correctly, so you can be sure that information only reaches the people for whom it is intended. This will prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands, for example.
One of the most important functions in a DMS is well-organised version control. With organised version control, it is possible to view changes to a document and find out when these changes took place, and by whom the change was made.
It is possible to retrieve previous versions of a document and, in addition, you can often indicate and make corrections easily. When the document owner is automatically notified of corrections or suggestions, for example, it is also possible to easily keep documents up-to-date.
We talked earlier about the importance of keeping all documents and data in one place. This way, you keep an overview and there is less chance of mistakes in information.
Zenya DOC is a document management system that ensures that organisations have insight and control over their digital information flows anytime, anywhere. Why choose Zenya DOC?
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Want to see for yourself what Zenya DOC can do for your organisation?
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