As a former senior manager over various organizations and missions, I recall using the New Year’s holiday to reflect upon my professional performance. The change to the new year brought consideration of key business processes within my organization that could use increased attention in the coming year. As we view 2019 in the rear-view, no-doubt some Federal managers are contemplating their 2020 professional New Year’s resolutions and strategies. The following are a few common areas within your organization where progress can be made with minimal investment:
- Business Enterprise Work-Flow
- Records and FOIA Management
- Efficiency & Productivity
- Accountability and Compliance
- Communications
Digital Workflow Solutions Improve Efficiency and Effectiveness
So what exactly am I talking about? Designing and deploying a digital workflow solution that supports your organization’s mission enterprise can go a long way towards improving communications and information sharing among staff, ensuring performance accountability by design, and establishing a retrievable and permanent record of activities across the enterprise. These kinds of content, data, and records management solutions provide managers the ability to evaluate organizational efficiencies at all levels. Further, developing and implementing an ability to effectively combine legacy data sources – digital and hard copy- into one customized interface will undoubtedly improve efficiency and productivity. With talent acquisition still a challenge, automated workflow can assist managers to make improvements without the need for additional staff. Digital workflow solutions efficiently manage your records and ensure NARA compliance by reducing storage duplication and making data and records fully and accurately retrievable for mission support and FOIA purposes.
My Advice
I’ll acknowledge there are hurtles for some managers to maintaining the operational status quo, let alone tackling improvements to mission enterprise processes. For example, talent acquisition and retention challenges continue across government. Additionally, Continuing Resolutions have stymied budgets and delayed investments in enterprise technologies. Despite these impediments, progress can be realized with minimal effort. Investing in a customized software solution that focuses on organizational inefficiencies can help catapult your organization to new performance heights, even in today’s environment. Consider investing in a business and records management software to automate business processes. This one-time investment could free up one or more Full-Time Equivalents (FTE) to perform more meaningful work. Investing in a software that provides lasting and uninterrupted business process efficiencies is a stronger move than using valuable human resources to perform the same tasks over and over. My advice: create a plan now to explore how to do this, as it requires minimal time and costs nothing, and will serve as the first step towards realizing your professional New Year’s resolution.
Why Use a COTS Solution
There is another factor to consider. When researching which software to use, understand that a COTS solution that is configurable, as opposed to coded, is your best bet. Here’s why: configurable software is deployed more quickly and costs less which means build time is reduced! The OnBase COTS solution is the one my company uses at Next Phase Solutions, LLC, but there are others. OnBase is encrypted, secure, flexible, cloud and on-premise friendly, can be used in-house and while mobile, and will configure to almost any Federal mission business enterprise requirement—data, records, financials, inventory, case management, applications, etc. Additionally, OnBase and Next Phase Solutions can make your organization compliant with new requirements established in recent data laws such as the 21st Century IDEA and OPEN Government Data Acts. An important point to consider is that with our OnBase COTS solution, you retain ownership of the configured solution. We can train your technical staff to make configuration changes as organizational needs change in the future (or we can do it), so you are not hand-cuffed to a company’s proprietary “no-access” coded software solution with which you’ve become disenchanted. You won’t become disenchanted with OnBase because it is extremely flexible and can address almost every digital business process need within your organization; now, and in the future.
Make your professional New Year’s resolution and take action to improve your organization’s performance. Start your plan now! Consider implementing a COTS work-flow and data, records management digital work-flow solution that is configured to your mission needs. Next Phase Solution, LLC, a woman-owned small business, and offers our Federal customers OnBase by Hyland, a versatile data information management solution developed here in the United States. We have a record of success in the Federal space. On GSA Schedule 70 and registered in SAM, Next Phase Solution, LLC is ready to help our Federal partners. Contact us at (407) 440-1411 or send us an email at npscorp@npsols.com.