Stage 1: Exploratory

Your score means that you have only just begun exploring the potential of digital document processes and technologies at your organization. To elevate your organization’s digital document competencies, start by:

• Developing and integrating a digital document strategy as part of your organization’s technology strategy.
• Enabling basic digital document capabilities across all high-value journeys requiring documents.
• Supporting an increasingly mobile workforce by enabling them to access documents securely from wherever they want.
• Training your employees in using digital document processes and technologies.

Stage 2: Implemented

Your score means that implementing digital document processes and technologies is underway in your organization, but gaps exist in digital document competencies holding your organization back from delivering superior CX and EX. To elevate your organization’s digital document competencies, focus on:

• Ensuring digital document investments and initiatives are properly defined and measured.
• Integrating digital document processes and technologies with critical IT systems and productivity applications.
• Ensuring your digital document technologies leverage a modern architecture to ensure speed, flexibility, and reusability.
• Regularly collecting and reviewing customer and employee feedback to continually improve document workflows.

Stage 3: Advanced

Your score means that your organization has made significant progress on its digital document journey with technology implementations in place, and only minor gaps in supporting competencies. To elevate your organization’s digital document competencies further, look to:

• Design digital-first workflows that move beyond paper-based workflows (and traditional chokepoints).
• Implement document automation capabilities that augment or replace operational tasks across key document workflows.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Congratulations! Your score means that your organization is leading when it comes to the deployment of digital document processes, technologies, and supporting competencies. If you are not already, look to:

• Explore ways of reusing and optimizing digital document and workflows.
• Ensure your digital document processes and technologies are enabled evenly across your organization.
• Take advantage of your digital document technology’s modern architecture to experiment and elevate what your organization can accomplish with its current digital document suite.

Stage 1: Exploratory

Develop a digital document strategy integrated with your organization’s technology strategy and roadmaps.

As your organization looks to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that it is done in a way that is planned and aligned with other technology priorities within your organization today. Digital document processes, technologies, and competencies can play a role in various dimensions of a technology-enabled business. Ensure that the aims of your digital document strategy are disseminated into more detailed roadmaps in areas including enterprise collaboration (EC), automation, and digital experience.

At the next level of maturity:

• Define and measure digital document investments and initiatives to track how they affect your organization. As your organization looks to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that investments and initiatives are properly defined and measured to ensure successes, roadblocks, and failings are all being recognized and learned from. Best practice — which will increase your likelihood of success — is to develop your business case as a lifecycle. Follow an iterative process, using early results to justify or halt further investment.
• Continually collect and review customer feedback to improve customer-facing document workflows. Customer feedback will help identify gaps in digital document processes, technologies, and competencies that require investment in order to deliver improved customer experiences. Integrate this process as part of your organization’s broader voice of the customer program. This will enable you to actively listen, interpret, act, and monitor the health of your customer-facing document workflows as part of your larger CX.

Stage 2: Implemented

Ensure that your organization has a digital document strategy that is integrated with your organization’s technology strategy and roadmap. To ensure that your organization advances its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies in a way that is planned and aligned with other technology priorities within your organization today, ensure that the aims of your digital document strategy are disseminated into more detailed roadmaps in areas including enterprise collaboration (EC), automation, and digital experience.

Define and measure digital document investments and initiatives to track how they affect your organization. As your organization looks to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that investments and initiatives are properly defined and measured to ensure successes, roadblocks, and failings are all being recognized and learned from. Best practice — which will increase your likelihood of success — is to develop your business case as a lifecycle. Follow an iterative process, using early results to justify or halt further investment.

Continually collect and review customer feedback to improve customer-facing document workflows. Customer feedback will help identify gaps in digital document processes, technologies, and competencies that require investment in order to deliver improved CX. Integrate this process as part of your organization’s broader voice of the customer program. This will enable you to actively listen, interpret, act, and monitor the health of your customer-facing document workflows as part of your larger CX.

At the next level of maturity:

• Design digital-first workflows that move beyond paper-based workflows (and traditional chokepoints). Don’t simply digitize individual interactions, look to building end-to-end digital journeys. Review existing processes and workflows holistically to identify inefficiencies and investigate options to streamline and enhance those journeys to be free from traditional chokepoints (e.g., physical signatures) and empowered by the digital document capabilities (e.g., e-signature, integration, automation) you have at your disposal.

Stage 3: Advanced

Ensure that your organization:

• Has a digital document strategy that is integrated with your organization’s technology strategy and roadmap. To ensure that your organization advances its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies in a way that is planned and aligned with other technology priorities within your organization today — ensure that the aims of your digital document strategy are disseminated into more detailed roadmaps in areas including enterprise collaboration (EC), automation, and digital experience.
• Tracks how digital document investments and initiatives affect your organization. It is critical that investments and initiatives are properly defined and measured to ensure successes, roadblocks, and failings are all being recognized and learned from.
• Continually collects and reviews customer feedback to improve customer-facing document workflows. To help identify gaps in digital document processes, technologies, and competencies that require investment in order to deliver improved CX.

Design digital-first workflows that move beyond paper-based workflows (and traditional chokepoints). Don’t simply digitize individual interactions, look to building end-to-end digital journeys. Review existing processes and workflows holistically to identify inefficiencies and investigate options to streamline and enhance those journeys to be free from traditional chokepoints (e.g., physical signatures) and empowered by the digital document capabilities (e.g., e-signature, integration, automation, etc.) you have at your disposal.

At the next level of maturity:

• Explore ways of reusing and optimizing digital documents. Stop thinking of your documents as files — they can be assembled sets of objects, with context and meaning wrapped around them. Or for truly cloud-native authoring tools, documents are blobs in a giant cloud database, never files at all. As organizations become more digitally savvy, documents should become more connected and compartmentalized to enable re-use, personalization, and content analytics. This will help your organization use documents more efficiently and effectively to deliver superior CX and EX.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Ensure that your organization:

• Has a digital document strategy that is integrated with your organization’s technology strategy and roadmaps. To ensure that your organization advances its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies in a way that is planned and aligned with other technology priorities within your organization today — ensure that the aims of your digital document strategy are disseminated into more detailed roadmaps in areas including enterprise collaboration (EC), automation, and digital experience.
• Tracks how digital document investments and initiatives affect your organization. It is critical that investments and initiatives are properly defined and measured to ensure successes, roadblocks, and failings are all being recognized and learned from.
• Continually collects and reviews customer feedback to improve customer-facing document workflows. To help identify gaps in digital document processes, technologies, and competencies that require investment in order to deliver improved CX.

Continue to design digital-first workflows that move beyond paper-based workflows (and traditional chokepoints). Don’t simply digitize individual interactions, look to building end-to-end digital journeys. Review existing processes and workflows holistically to identify inefficiencies and investigate options to streamline and enhance those journeys to be free from traditional chokepoints (e.g., physical signatures), and empowered by the digital document capabilities (e.g., e-signature, integration, automation) you have at your disposal.

Explore ways of reusing and optimizing digital documents. Stop thinking of your documents as files — they can be assembled sets of objects, with context and meaning wrapped around them. Or for truly cloud-native authoring tools, documents are blobs in a giant cloud database, never files at all. As organizations become more digitally savvy, documents should become more connected and compartmentalized to enable re-use, personalization, and content analytics. This will help your organization use documents more efficiently and effectively to deliver superior CX and EX.

Stage 1: Exploratory

Digitize high value customer and employee document processes and workflows. Ensure customer and employee needs are being met across high value document processes and workflows. As other organizations digitize their document processes and workflows, legacy paper-based and manual processes may be the difference between a new, or lost customer and/or employee today.

At the next level of maturity:

• Advance beyond high value customer and employee document processes and workflows. While it is important that high value document processes and workflows are digitized, uneven adoption slows document processes and workflows, and can lead to unintended frustrations for both customers and employees. Continue advancing your organization’s digital document adoption to ensure it is spread evenly across all document processes and workflows, not just high value ones.

Stage 2: Implemented

Advance beyond high value customer and employee document processes and workflows. While it is important high value document processes and workflows are digitized, uneven adoption slows document processes and workflows, and can lead to unintended frustrations for both customers and employees. Continue advancing your organization’s digital document adoption to ensure it is spread evenly across all document processes and workflows, not just high value ones.

This will support your organization’s ability to use advanced digital document capabilities (e.g., integration, automation) and derive reliable insights and actions from documents and workflows.

Stage 3: Advanced

Advance beyond high value customer and employee document processes and workflows. While it is important high value document processes and workflows are digitized, uneven adoption slows document processes and workflows, and can lead to unintended frustrations for both customers and employees. Continue advancing your organization’s digital document adoption to ensure it is spread evenly across all document processes and workflows, not just high value ones.

This will support your organization’s ability to use advanced digital document capabilities (e.g., integration, automation) and derive reliable insights and actions from documents and workflows.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Check to ensure customer and employee document processes and workflows are digitized evenly across your organization. As your organization grows increasingly digital, manual and/or paper-based processes become accentuated pain points. At the same time, unevenly digitized document processes and workflows will hamper the move to becoming a digital-first organization — compromising your organization’s ability to use advanced digital document capabilities (e.g., integration, automation), and the opportunity to derive reliable insight and actions from documents or workflows.

Stage 1: Exploratory

Implement basic digital document capabilities across all relevant high value document processes and workflows. Starting with basic digital document capabilities, real-time document collaboration capabilities, and e-signature capabilities will ensure basic customer and employee expectations are met while being cost-effective and quick to implement. Remember, these capabilities are as valuable in the front office as they are in back office. Failing to digitize both front- and back-office departments and processes will erode the benefits of these solutions. This work will set the groundwork for more advanced digital document capabilities as your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies.

At the next level of maturity:

• Integrate digital document processes and technologies across critical IT systems and productivity applications. As your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies, it is critical that its digital document processes and technologies co-exist with other systems and applications in use. Integration will be critical in helping streamline processes and workflows to increase productivity while also minimizing error. Begin with the systems that your employees use most, including your productivity applications, CRM, and ERP.

Stage 2: Implemented

Ensure that your organization has implemented basic digital document capabilities across all relevant high value document processes and workflows. Basic digital document capabilities, real-time document collaboration capabilities, and e-signature capabilities will ensure basic customer and employee expectations are met while being cost-effective and quick to implement. This sets the groundwork for more advanced digital document capabilities as your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies.

Integrate digital document processes and technologies across critical IT systems and productivity applications. As your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies, it is critical that its digital document processes and technologies co-exist with other systems and applications in use. Integration will be critical in helping streamline processes and workflows to increase productivity while also minimizing error. Begin with the systems that your employees use most, including your productivity applications, CRM, and ERP.

At the next level of maturity:

• Implement document automation capabilities that augment or replace operational tasks across document workflows. Automating document workflows will help you realize significant time savings, reduce errors, and boost your ability to react quickly and effectively to change — helping you deliver superior CX and EX. Begin with relatively simple, low-value tasks that require high volumes of manual effort.

Stage 3: Advanced

Ensure that your organization has implemented basic digital document capabilities across all relevant high value document processes and workflows. Basic digital document capabilities, real-time document collaboration capabilities, and e-signature capabilities will ensure basic customer and employee expectations are met while being cost-effective and quick to implement. This sets the groundwork for more advanced digital document capabilities as your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies.

Integrate digital document processes and technologies across all key IT systems and productivity applications. Ensuring that digital document processes co-exist with other systems and applications already in use helps to streamline processes and workflows, while also increasing productivity and minimizing error.

Implement document automation capabilities that augment or replace operational tasks across document workflows. As your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies, automation will be critical in further streamlining processes and workflows to save time, reduce errors, and deliver superior CX and EX. Begin with relatively simple, low-value tasks that require high volumes of manual effort.

At the next level of maturity:

• Digital document capabilities are enabled evenly across all your organization’s document processes and workflows. Digital document capabilities that are unevenly enabled will hamper the move to becoming a digital-first organization. They compromise the efficacy of more advanced capabilities (e.g., integration and automation), and lead to uneven CX and EX — causing harm to the work already put into advancing your organization’s digital document competencies. After you’ve begun rolling out a new capability (e.g., e-signature, integration with existing systems), ensure there is a roadmap in place to have this capability eventually enabled across all relevant document processes, workflows, and/or systems.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Ensure that:

• Your organization has implemented basic digital document capabilities across all relevant high value document processes and workflows. Basic digital document capabilities, real-time document collaboration capabilities, and e-signature capabilities will ensure basic customer and employee expectations are being met while being cost-effective and quick to implement. This sets the groundwork for more advanced digital document capabilities as your organization continues to advance its digital document competencies.
• Digital document processes and technologies are integrated across all key IT systems and productivity applications. Ensuring that digital document processes co-exist with other systems and applications already in use helps streamline processes and workflows, while also increasing productivity and minimizing error.
• Document automation capabilities are implemented to augment or replace operational tasks across document workflows. Automating document workflows will help you realize significant time savings, reduce errors, and boost your ability to react quickly and effectively to change — helping you deliver superior CX and EX.
• Digital document capabilities are enabled evenly across all your organization’s document processes and workflows. Digital document capabilities that are unevenly enabled will hamper the move to becoming a digital-first organization. They compromise the efficacy of more advanced capabilities (e.g., integration and automation), and lead to uneven CX and EX — causing harm to the work already put into advancing your organization’s digital document competencies. After you’ve begun rolling out a new capability (e.g., e-signature, integration with existing systems), ensure there is a roadmap in place to have this capability eventually enabled across all relevant document processes, workflows, and/or systems.

Stage 1: Exploratory

Implement digital document technologies to enable your employees to access documents securely from anywhere. To accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce, your organization must ensure that all document processes and workflows are securely supported on any platform. This will enable your workers to work however and wherever they want — ensuring improved EX and productivity.

At the next level of maturity:

• Implement digital document technologies that leverage a modern architecture. Contemporary digital document technologies exploit the power of the cloud for scale, with microservices and APIs to speed up integration. Moving to a modern architecture ensures speed, flexibility, reuse, and integration capabilities — which will be critical to ensuring your organization’s technology suite is cohesive and adaptive for the future

Stage 2: Implemented

Ensure digital document technologies are implemented to enable your employees to access documents securely from anywhere. To accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce, your organization must ensure that all document processes and workflows are securely supported on any platform. This will enable your workers to work however and wherever they want — ensuring improved EX and productivity.

Implement digital document technologies that leverage a modern architecture. Contemporary digital document technologies exploit the power of the cloud for scale, with microservices and APIs to speed up integration. Moving to a modern architecture ensures speed, flexibility, reuse, and integration capabilities — which will be critical to ensuring your organization’s technology suite is cohesive and adaptive for the future.

Stage 3: Advanced

Ensure digital document technologies are implemented to enable your employees to access documents securely from anywhere. To accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce, your organization must ensure that all document processes and workflows are securely supported on any platform. This will enable your workers to work however and wherever they want — ensuring improved EX and productivity.

Implement digital document technologies that leverage a modern architecture. Contemporary digital document technologies exploit the power of the cloud for scale, with microservices and APIs to speed up integration. Moving to a modern architecture ensures speed, flexibility, reuse, and integration capabilities — which will be critical to ensuring your organization’s technology suite is cohesive and adaptive for the future.

At the next level of maturity:

• Experiment and explore what else your organization can accomplish with an ecosystem. Integrating digital documents and data with third parties and cloud-based applications can enable your organization to elevate what it is able to independently accomplish today to deliver richer, more personalized CX and EX.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Ensure:

• Digital document technologies are implemented to enable your employees to access documents securely from anywhere. To accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce, your organization must ensure that all document processes and workflows are securely supported on any platform. This will enable your workers to work however and wherever they want — ensuring improved EX and productivity.
• That your organization has implemented digital document technologies that leverage a modern architecture. Contemporary digital document technologies exploit the power of the cloud for scale, with microservices and APIs to speed up integration. Moving to a modern architecture ensures speed, flexibility, reuse, and integration capabilities — which will be critical to ensuring your organization’s technology suite is cohesive and adaptive for the future.

Experiment and explore what else your organization can accomplish with an ecosystem. Integrating digital documents and data with third parties and cloud-based applications can enable your organization to elevate what it is able to independently accomplish today to deliver richer, more personalized CX and EX.

Beyond using data to deliver stronger CX and EX, consider whether data commercialization is also on the cards. For example, a transportation and logistics organization can sell location and business data to organizations seeking to enrich their customer and business information. If you choose to pursue a data commercialization strategy, start with defining a value proposition, and a delivery model to begin turning your data into revenue.

Stage 1: Exploratory

Train for digital document process and technology proficiency across your organization. As your organization continues to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that your employees are trained to use those digital processes and technologies effectively. If not, your investments and initiatives will not be able to live up to their full potential and you risk damaging CX and EX. Support change management with innovative rollout and training programs adapted to remote working to assist your workforce in becoming more fluent with sharing documents, using e-signatures, working in collaborative environments, and more.

At the next level of maturity:

• Continually improve document processes by ensuring employees have a voice in driving digital document process and technology improvements. Employees use digital document processes and technologies daily and will have a more tested perspective on what is and isn’t working with current document processes and technologies. Acknowledging and driving change through employee feedback will increase document process and workflow effectiveness, while also increasing employee engagement.

Stage 2: Implemented

Ensure that your people are proficient with digital document processes and technologies. As your organization continues to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that your employees are trained to use those digital processes and technologies effectively. If not, your investments and initiatives will not be able to live up to their full potential and you risk damaging CX and EX. Support your workforce in becoming more fluent in sharing documents, using e-signatures, working in collaborative environments and more, through innovative rollout and training programs adapted to remote working.

Continually improve document processes by ensuring employees have a voice in driving digital document process and technology improvements. Employees use digital document processes and technologies daily and will have a more tested perspective on what is and isn’t working with current document processes and technologies. Acknowledging and driving change through employee feedback will increase document process and workflow effectiveness, while also increasing employee engagement.

Stage 3: Advanced

Ensure that your people are proficient with digital document processes and technologies. As your organization continues to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that your employees are trained to use those digital processes and technologies effectively. If not, your investments and initiatives will not be able to live up to their full potential and you risk damaging CX and EX. Support change management with innovative rollout and training programs adapted to remote working to assist your workforce in becoming more fluent with sharing documents, using e-signatures, working in collaborative environments, and more.

Continually improve document processes by ensuring employees have a voice in driving digital document process and technology improvements. Employees use digital document processes and technologies daily and will have a more tested perspective on what is and isn’t working with current document processes and technologies. Acknowledging and driving change through employee feedback will increase document process and workflow effectiveness, while also increasing employee engagement.

Stage 4: Digital-First

Ensure that your people are proficient with digital document processes and technologies. As your organization continues to advance its digital document processes, technologies, and competencies, it is critical that your employees are trained to use those digital processes and technologies effectively. If not, your investments and initiatives will not be able to live up to their full potential and you risk damaging CX and EX. Support your workforce in becoming more fluent with sharing documents, using e-signatures, working in collaborative environments and more, through innovative rollout and training programs adapted to remote working.

Continue to ensure employees have a voice in driving digital document process and technology improvements. Employees use digital document processes and technologies daily and will have a more tested perspective on what is and isn’t working with current document processes and technologies. Acknowledging and driving change through employee feedback will increase document process and workflow effectiveness, while also increasing employee engagement.