How to Overcome the 4 Most Common Obstacles to Invoice Automation

I was reading  2018 Trends in Cloud Computing published by the Computing Technology Industry Association (COMPTIA), a leading tech association the runs education programs across the IT channel. Four data points that say a lot about why document management and business process automation in the cloud are so transformative to organizations caught my attention.

1. “Cloud computing has drastically changed the IT landscape. From offloading routine work to redesigning IT operations to accelerating efforts around emerging technology, cloud has driven companies towards a new appreciation for the relationship between technology and the business.”
2. Reading on, COMPTIA sees the primary benefits of cloud computing as follows:

   Small Organizations	Mid-sized Organizations	Large Organizations
   Simplicity or speed in implementation	Modernization of legacy IT environments	Modernization of legacy IT environments
   Cloud solution is simply the better option	Cloud solution is simply the better option	Ability to add new capabilities or features
   Independence for business units	Ability to add new capabilities or features	Avoidance of software licensing/upgrades

3. Cloud also has a profound impact on the ability of organizations to explore emerging technologies, by allowing them to do these key things:

   Key Capabilities the Cloud Enables
   Access new tools	46%
   Lower cost of exploring new technology	45%
   Consolidate datasets	44%
   Focus on innovation	40%
   Easily create testing environments	39%
   Lower barrier to software development	34%

• Lastly, “Email, web presence, business productivity, and collaboration are essential table stakes for today’s digital organizations, and any improvements in these applications will have broad impact.”

What do these four points tell us about the pivotal role that document management in the cloud plays in digital transformation?

Let me take a crack at linking them together:

The cloud allows organizations to align IT and the business (point 1), modernize their enterprise technology stack (2), and become more agile in how they deploy technology (3). And the highest leverage place to start is with office automation -- the tool kit that knowledge workers use every day (4).

It is that last sentence that makes cloud document management such a killer application.

Office automation combines document management and intelligent workflow to automate tedious, repetitive tasks and free up knowledge workers to focus on work that matters. It is central to a digital workplace. 

The cloud allows more organizations to embrace these transformative workplace technologies that ever before by allowing them to start small, “buy by the drink,” and do all this with a minimum of IT strain. Instead of purchasing large on-premises systems and implementing complex, cross-departmental models, cloud office automation scales, no matter how small or great your business demands. This flexibility enables your teams to start small and scale as your business requires.

The cloud drives employee engagement by allowing employees to work anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Employees are freed from the limitations of working on internal networks. Most importantly, the cloud puts the business owner at the heart of technology decisions.