Managing a Growing Volume of Documents Through Structured Information Management
The volume of information within housing associations is growing exponentially. Effective management is therefore essential to maintaining an overview and staying in control. But how does an organization achieve this, and what role does Enterprise Information Management play in this process? CorporatieGids Magazine spoke with Marco van Drogenbroek, a Business Consultant at OneXillium, about this topic.
What exactly does that mean?
In the past—when people talked about digital archiving—this meant that paper documents were scanned and tagged with keywords. This allowed them to be stored digitally and easily retrieved later by entering the correct keywords. There was no dynamic content. Documents were static and could not be updated automatically. Later, a DMS solution was introduced, making it possible to add workflows, for example.
In our view, EIM is the next step, where the “E” stands for the entire organization. The “I” stands for a wide variety of documents that are made “informative” by intelligently enriching them with data from primary business applications. There is also a growing demand to capture messages, such as those from WhatsApp. Enrichments from systems and integration ensure that the information becomes increasingly comprehensive.
Is anyone even talking about document management anymore?
Information management is essentially document management 2.0. The concept of a “document” has expanded significantly and no longer fully captures the scope of the task. It involves a wide variety of files that are processed, such as email messages, but also photos or audio clips. As a housing association, you no longer want to have to search for information. But it’s difficult to find it quickly if it’s stored in multiple locations—and often with a specific person. If you store all information in one place, add the right metadata tags, and link this to the ERP solution, you create a comprehensive information environment.
Information Management Challenges for Housing Cooperatives?
Current solutions often focus primarily on tenant information. However, a housing association also stores data on internal projects, personnel files, and received invoices. In addition, documents are often stored in various locations, such as OneDrive and network drives. As a result, there is no control over the information. Due to changes in legislation and tenant expectations, it is essential to implement a robust EIM system to gain a comprehensive overview of your entire information management process.
Want to manage information easily?
Our society—which tenants are also part of—has become largely digital. Tenants
expect housing agencies to provide prompt responses and services that ensure all tenant information is known, up-to-date, and accessible. However, there are quite a few challenges in this area. Read the free e-book to learn how housing agencies can address these challenges.
What does information management require of a housing association?
Structure is important for ultimately being able to find information easily. Without this structure, an EIM system is less effective. The ERP solution and the existing data serve as the foundation for creating a file structure. This means the user doesn’t have to think about which keywords to associate with a document; the process is fully automated.
EIM systems also ensure that all documents you create yourself are automatically captured. Unstructured data that comes in can be placed in the EIM system, and tools such as an Outlook integration provide labeling suggestions based on information from the emails. This way, you not only ensure that old data is stored in a structured manner, but also that all new data coming in continuously is stored in the same way.
Do laws and regulations play a role here?
Housing associations have to deal with a lot of legislation. In the past, you could store a great deal of information about tenants, but that has changed significantly. For example, you are no longer allowed to record personal data. At the same time, tenants still provide information and documents that contain this sensitive information. There are tools that help housing associations identify these documents and easily remove them when necessary.
Does a housing cooperative eventually go out of business?
By structuring their information management, organizations can operate more efficiently and spend significantly less time archiving content. Using an EIM system also ensures compliance with laws and regulations. Our vision is that, in the long run, every document will be immediately available. This means that a user—regardless of time or place—will have immediate access to all information relevant to them. This applies not only to customer documentation within the housing association but also to various forms of business documentation. It’s a long-term vision for the future, but one to which we contribute with every step we take.
Continue to develop in the coming years?
The number of applications that generate valuable information is growing rapidly. This leads to a fragmentation of the associated digital truth. If the housing association loses control over this information, it becomes more difficult to maintain a complete and reliable picture of it. In the coming years, I therefore foresee the importance of EIM continuing to grow. EIM helps organizations regain this control and quickly and efficiently find solutions to tomorrow’s problems, allowing employees to better focus on their core tasks.
Housing Association Guide LIVE 2023
The CorporatieGids LIVE Knowledge Day 2023 is a one-day event where suppliers and consultants specializing in the housing association sector will lead informative and interesting knowledge sessions.
When and where?
The CorporatieGids LIVE Knowledge Day will take place on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at Expo Houten (along the A27; free parking right outside).
The benefits at a glance:
- the opportunity to attend multiple LIVE information sessions from vendors and consultants in a single day
- Gain knowledge quickly and systematically—knowledge that would otherwise require multiple appointments
networking - Especially for housing association employees
- Coffee, tea, and lunch included
- free