The management system ensures that business processes perform efficiently and in alignment with the organization’s vision. As 2020 unfolds, it’s clear that undergoing digital transformation plays a significant role in improving process efficiency. Regardless of the industry, going paperless is just not about being an environmentally conscious business, but a necessity for business sustainability in the rapidly changing landscape. Whether it is a conglomerate, hotel, ride-share service, engineering and consulting firm etc., if the management system documentation is still maintained as a thick binder of verbiage, the organization is losing more money on maintaining and discarding the paper-work as opposed to reaping the benefits of digital transformation.

Employees within an organization often work in silos. Therefore, necessary documents on an employees’ laptop are often inaccessible to other team members unless shared via email and each time the document is updated, the document has to be emailed. The first and obvious benefit of undergoing digital transformation is the availability of updated documented information such as the manual, policy, procedures, forms, templates etc. on one shared platform. The access to each document can be customized as per the job function of the users. For example: a process owner can update a form pertaining to their department, but a secure pdf version of the form will be uploaded on the drive by the office of the MD upon approval and users can be notified about the update through email.

Organizations often appoint a Management Representative (MR) who oversees the certification audit process and is responsible for maintaining it. If one person is able to maintain the management system single handedly, you should be concerned. It simply is not a one-person job. An efficient management system is supported by the leadership, monitored and controlled by the management and executed by every single person in the organization. An online portal or shared drive will centralize the management system and allow every individual accessing it to understand their contribution in upholding and improving business process excellence.  

Other benefits of digital transformation include reduction in operational cost over time, reduction in time consumed for reporting/maintaining documentation, improved quality of documentation, increased storage capacity for records, reduced time in record retrieval, obtaining customer feedback and real-time analysis through online survey platforms. Finally, the main purpose of improving process efficiency through digital transformation is to speed up and maintain the high quality of operational processes and increase time spent on growing the organization’s market share. 

Fatema Tuz Zohra
Management Systems Professional