Once you have carefully assessed your business objectives and know how your people access and share information, moving to a cloud-based approach to document management can set your firm on the right path for data security, governance, business agility, budget control, and collaboration.
Advanced and reliable protection against cybercrime is critical
With cyberthreats and ransomware attacks increasing, your cloud solution needs to deliver uncompromised security. To this end, look for cloud native providers that employ a Zero Trust architecture that assumes no implicit trust between any two services – wherein service-to-service communication must be explicitly granted. In tandem with advanced encryption technologies, this greatly inhibits access from both cyberthreats and internal threats, significantly reducing the risk of your data being compromised.
Addressing a common security gap, your enterprise cloud should let you govern who and how people access content. This protection should extend beyond the document management system to applications and tools that your staff use every day. Need-to-know security is automatically enforced, using rules that you create. Your sensitive information is always protected and the burden on end users to navigate restrictions around sensitive information is removed from the process wherever possible, by using security-centric automation. While people can easily access the information they need to get their jobs done, the safety of the data is never compromised.
Business agility that adds value for customers
Adopting a cloud approach is an opportunity to easily introduce new technologies that drive a modern legal experience. The ability to scale as the business requires, and add new applications and capabilities as needs arise, is key to business flexibility and success. Moving to the cloud should allow IT teams to focus on real business drivers rather than managing hardware. A cloud-based system should enable easy access while ensuring the ability to work securely.
Cost savings through budget predictability and reduced infrastructure
For your bottom line, cloud computing costs are more predictable and more elastic than on-premises IT costs. When infrastructure costs, system security, and equipment maintenance are assumed by the cloud provider, scalability is quick, and typically painless. No annual budgeting to guess how many new servers, how much more horsepower and memory will be required in the coming year. This burden of scaling, protecting, and securing falls to the cloud vendor – so you can focus on your business initiatives. Be certain your cloud vendor can accommodate your organizational growth and other changes with no impact to your experience with the solution.
Safe, frictionless collaboration and information exchange
For clients and staff, the cloud increases accessibility, allowing users to be more productive anywhere. The ability to access information they need anywhere, anytime, on any device, without the risk of compromising sensitive data, should be a baseline benefit to your end users and their clients when moving to the cloud.
A modern cloud document management system that can be deployed globally permits greater flexibility and the modern working experience end users crave. Better performance, better search capabilities, and better email integration work together to eliminate friction and unlock valuable knowledge for better business outcomes. The result is a global view of the business, a single source of truth, and seamless collaboration around the world.
Wrap up
The above proof points should be table stakes for the cloud provider you select, and claims should be backed by social proof and customer references. But it doesn’t stop there. Training and support can make or break your success. Seek evidence that your chosen vendor has a history of delivering on the support you need to facilitate and maintain a smooth transition and quick adoption by your staff.
Make sure you’re on the right path. Download the ebook, Top 5 considerations when moving to the cloud.
About the author
Mark Richman
Mark's 20+ years of product management experience includes two tenures at iManage. Mark also spent several years growing and scaling three different technology startups in the B2B and B2B2C spaces. An avid skier, beer brewer and role-playing gamer, Mark lives in Chicago with his wife and three pets.