DocuWare Cloud Enables Federation of Organizations’ Staff to Boost Productivity and Enhance Focus on its Core Mission

It’s the last (but certainly not least) day of DocuWare Customer Appreciation Week! July 16 is the next official Get to Know Your Customer Day but at DocuWare, we celebrate in June – and why leave it to just one day? Each day this week, we celebrated our customers. Visit our Modern Digital Business blog to read their DocuWare success stories.

Federation of Organizations (Federation) is a multi-service, community-based social wellness agency and a major provider of health and wellness, senior and children’s, housing and support services in New York City and Long Island. They operate in Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan.

“Prior to my tenure, Federation had been using DocuWare on-premises for almost 10 years. However, it was only being accessed for its basic capabilities,” explains IT Director Michael Serrano. “When I was promoted to IT Director, one of my main focuses was to review and further leverage our existing solutions. My review of DocuWare’s capabilities was part of that effort.”

Michael began looking into the increased functionality that would be gained through a migration to DocuWare Cloud. After discussing his goals with the team at their Authorized DocuWare Partner Toshiba Business Solutions of NY/NJ, Michael developed a plan to migrate to DocuWare Cloud. The cloud solution went live in early April 2020. "Employees were adapting to the work-at-home environment put in place due to COVID-19 restrictions at the same time as they were moving to a newer DocuWare platform," he says. “Since the staff had a core understanding of the processes, transition time was minimal. Everyone acclimated quickly, and the tools DocuWare provides helped ease the stress.”

Advantages of using DocuWare Cloud for remote work

Today, the Accounting, HR and IT departments are DocuWare’s primary users. Staff no longer depend on scanning documents from a multifunction printer now that most documents come in electronically. They can print electronic documents directly into DocuWare: the documents are sent to a monitored folder that automatically distributes them into the correct DocuWare in-basket. Specially designated email addresses are also monitored, and emails are sent to the watched folder as well. “This is one of the ways DocuWare enables us to continue to accomplish the full scope of our work remotely. Workflows run as efficiently as they did when we were all in the office,” Michael says. DocuWare Cloud is also integrated with their Abila MIP accounting software.

Managers and staff also appreciate the system’s automatic notifications and reminders. “For example, once an invoice is ready for approval, the manager is notified by email. Before automated reminders, approvers would block out time in their schedules to do approvals. If something else came up during this block, it could cause delays,” he explains. “Now managers receive an email alert and click on a link that brings them into DocuWare. This makes it more likely that they will approve documents immediately. DocuWare ‘remembers’ what needs to be done and keeps the process moving without human intervention.” There are plans to add new workflows and features. Federation is implementing its first electronic form for onboarding and offboarding employees. More online forms are in the works. Federation has plans to use electronic forms for the complete employee lifecycle. “We will continue to increase the use of DocuWare. Every new online form or process automation results are financially impactful when measured over the course of a year because of time savings and increased productivity,” he says.

Championing the advantages of a cloud solution

Michael notes that reluctance to move to a cloud solution is often based on security concerns. The Federation deals with protected health information and that added to the management team’s initial discomfort. “I broke down the misconception that if software is not on-premises it’s not secure, by including department heads and staff in the conversation,” Michael says. “Once I explained how information is encrypted and transmitted, everyone jumped on board."

“In some industries, instead of handling processes more efficiently, more staff is hired. A not-for-profit has a limited budget and is reliant on government funding which can fluctuate. The focus is on being able to retain and leverage staff and to give them adequate time to work on critical tasks,” he says. “I’m excited about what we’ll be able to accomplish with DocuWare by the end of the year. And in 2021, we can take the solution to another level.”

Check out DocuWare in action and see how it can streamline and automate your key organizational processes: