A document management solution can often be effective in many business sectors, but there are cases in which an industry-specific solution is more beneficial. This situation can occur when an industry has unusual characteristics that affect their document software platform, including regulatory compliance, interoperability needs, diverse data sources and limited resources. The following industries face significant challenges in document management that allow them to benefit from industry-specific software:
- Financial services
- Insurance
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
Document Solutions for Financial Services
Workers in financial services typically have a college education with additional certifications such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP). They’re often ambitious and work when their clients need them, whether it’s during the evenings or on weekends. This type of schedule can blur the line between work and person life, significantly increasing the need for a mobile document software solution.
Financial professionals have often been in business for a long time, resulting in a large accumulation of paper forms. These documents can come from a variety of regulatory agencies such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Even in the 21st century, these professionals frequently have small offices jammed with filing cabinets.
A document management solution that’s designed specifically for the financial industry should be able to manage on-the-spot requests, allowing financiers to reduce the feeling that they’re working at the whim of their clients. The need for increased mobility means the system should be immediately accessible at all times, even when users aren’t in their offices. Additional requirements of financial document management software include versioning history, allowing users to document the client changes that often occur in this industry.
Document Software Challenges for Insurance Companies
Insurance workers tend to be highly diverse in terms of background, education level and experience. Consequently, they use many approaches to solving their document management problems. Specific document issues in insurance include regulatory compliance at the state and federal levels, audits, data breach protection and maintaining policyholder satisfaction. Human resource (HR) workers also share some of these requirements since they often handle insurance matters in many organizations.
Insurance is a strongly sales-driven business, so a document software platform specific to the insurance industry needs to help these workers sell more policies. It should offer features such as e-signatures, which reduce document processing times. Paperless billing is another feature that allows document management software to distinguish itself in the insurance space.
Measures that reduce the threat of data breaches are also highly desirable for insurance-specific document management software. Additional features that insurance organizations find highly valuable include integration with existing solutions. In addition to facilitating implementation, this capability also helps document software solutions provide branding consistency across all applications.
Document Platforms for Healthcare Services
Industry-specific document management problems in healthcare include compliance requirements for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which regulates healthcare privacy in the United States. HIPAA compliance generally allows healthcare workers to disclose public health information (PHI) only when necessary for specified purposes.
HIPAA compliance is usually expensive in terms of human capital, so anything that a healthcare specific document software can do to expedite this process is highly beneficial for healthcare professionals. Information interoperability is another common barrier to timely document management, as is the growing trend towards treating patients according to their needs as well as their condition. Additional challenges include the common practice of healthcare providers taking on unwanted administrative roles and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with poor usability.
The effective integration of document software with mobile devices increases the usability and portability of this software, which is critical for reducing the workload of many healthcare workers. However, the sensitivity of healthcare information and a high patient-to-provider ratio in the healthcare industry increases the risk of security breaches via mobile devices. The increasing prevalence of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace also poses a security threat, especially in contract nursing. Mobile devices such as smartphones typically use Android or iOS, so document management software should be compatible with these operating systems (OSs).
Manufacturing Require Flexible Document Software Solutions
The manufacturing industry deals with many specific items, from industrial chemicals to consumer products. The size of these businesses is also highly variable, ranging from multinational corporations to firms with just a few employees. These large differences raise many industry-specific problems in document management for manufacturers. Very small companies often encounter some of the greatest challenges in this area due to their limited resources. Workers for these companies are also less specialized, so they need to have a greater overall understanding of the manufacturing process for their products.
Barriers to productivity and sales present a particular challenge for document management and document software in manufacturing, where workers often need to find a paper invoice in a filing cabinet. The growing use of lean manufacturing techniques is also increasing the need for workers to have easy access to documentation, including Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) and ISO standards. Adherence to these standards is essential for ensuring reliable manufacturing processes, adequate quality control and rapid inventorying in modern manufacturing, all of which requires effective document management.
Document software that manages documents specifically for manufacturers can reduce the need for paper forms by automating much of their workflow. Capturing invoices and inventorying are highly time-consuming tasks for many manufacturers, as are the processing and transportation of these documents. The elimination of overproduction is another advantage that document management software can provide for manufacturers.
Summary
The reduction of paper forms is a benefit of document management software that applies to virtually all business sectors. However, many businesses have specific needs that this software needs to address if it’s to be fully beneficial for them. For example, a requirement for regulatory compliance greatly increases the control that a business needs to maintain over its document management. Businesses that rely on a particularly large number of different forms may also benefit from an industry-specific document management solution.
J.C. Olivares
Business Development Mgr. at DocPath Corp.