The aftermath of COVID-19 has wrought big changes in the way we do business. For the foreseeable future, up to 86% of businesses state that remote work conditions will continue even after the pandemic runs its course.

Of course, normalizing the remote workforce means close attention must be paid to encouraging employee engagement and creating a culture that supports and connects teams so they can continue to be productive and efficient.

This strategy can only increase the productivity inherent in a workforce. One study showed that work-from-home staff worked 1.4 days more per month then their office-based coworkers, which adds up to three more weeks of work per year.

While research has showed remote workers to be up to 47% more productive, it is vital that workers stay cohesive and have the right tools to conduct business from their home offices.

That is where technologies such as document management can help foster collaboration and teamwork, and optimize business processes to help employees complete tasks rapidly and efficiently — even if they are at home or on the go.

How Digitized Workflows Increase Remote Employee Productivity

The goal of systems such as document management are to digitize workflows to encourage speedy, error-free processing of standard business tasks.

For remote employees, this is particularly important — even critical — as they do not have access to filing cabinets or other paper storage solutions from which to access the information they need.

Accessing and Manipulating Documents

Job One for any information processing system is the ability of authorized employees to retrieve the data they need easily and without delay. For remote workers, they need the ability to access files as if they were working in their offices.

Sharing, reviewing, changing, approving, and even signing documents digitally is a crucial way to unlock productivity and reduce the number of errors inherent in manual entry.

Using Personal Devices and Third-Party Applications

As IT departments struggle with keeping infrastructure up-to-date and in line with the current trend of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD)— another tool for the work-from-home staff — the ability to access files on personal devices and through familiar applications is essential.

Robust document management software allows employees to work from whatever device they feel comfortable with using mobile information management solutions. Plus, this software integrates seamlessly with commonly used third-party apps to make moving and sharing information simple and secure.

Keeping Data Safe

Finally, document management software is designed with many security fail safes in place to thoroughly protect sensitive data and foster compliance with federal and state data privacy regulations.

Not only will your managed services provider (MSP) conduct routine maintenance, including ensuring all security patches and updates are installed upon release, but they will help you set the correct parameters on access, including downloading, distribution, and audit trails, to keep information secure.

A good document management system will contain versioning features that removes the potential for accidental file deletion or wrong-version usage and integrate easily with compliance standards to ensure you can find appropriate paperwork and audit trails when necessary.

While every software has some limitations, document management software uses the most up-to-date security protocols, including encryption, access control, firewalls, and a host of other features.

Let DSI Help You Get the Most from Your Remote Workforce

At DSI, we have solutions engineers that help our clients transform their slow, paper-heavy business processes into lightning fast workflows that operate as smoothly from a remote device as from an in-office workstation.

After assessing your current infrastructure and business goals, our team of experts can design mobile workforce solutions that can deploy the right features that will help your remote team function efficiently — and securely — from wherever their offices are based.

Our extended third-party application support means our solutions can integrate seamlessly with a broad range of popular applications such as Evernote, SharePoint, DropBox, OneDrive, and more to boost productivity and remove the frustration and learning curve inherent in having to learn new software to manage remote tasks.

Most importantly, we provide ongoing security and surveillance coupled with unparalleled support to ensure that your remote and on-site staff can coordinate, collaborate, and keep business moving with minimal disruptions.

Are you ready to power up your remote staff capabilities? Contact a DSI representative today and learn how our custom document management solutions can help your business reach new levels of productivity.