Many organizations struggle to manage the large volume of physical and digital documents created within their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Far too often, these documents end up becoming separate from the ERP process, leading to situations where employees have to switch back and forth between different applications or go on a manual “file hunt” for the document they need. Not only are these methods inefficient, but they can become a significant problem when it comes time for compliance and auditing.
Luckily, there is a way for businesses to speed up document-centric processes by integrating their existing ERP system with Infor Document Management (IDM). Infor Cloudsuite IDM allows you to categorize and connect critical information, automate workflows, and enhance performance and productivity, all at the same time.
This article will break down what you need to know about IDM and how you can get started. Let’s get started.
What is IDM?
IDM is a central repository where you can maintain business rules for creating, storing, and managing documents, such as invoices, vendor files, and employee records. When it’s integrated directly into Infor CloudSuite, IDM eliminates the need for document interfaces or third-party content management solutions.
The many various functions that make up the IDM application enable and augment common document management tasks, including:
- Document Capture—With this function, employees can scan and connect documents using a web browser. You can also use this function to connect documents to your business processes.
- Automated workflows—Set up workflows to save employees time and take advantage of the categorization capabilities of IDM to organize and access critical document metadata.
- Advanced search—This function simplifies finding specific information, even in large data sets. With IDM, you can easily find the latest, most accurate version of any document (without going on that file hunt).
Features of IDM
IDM supports the entire lifecycle of your business documents from input through storage, retrieval, and sharing. Let’s look at how this would benefit manufacturing organizations as an example.
In the manufacturing industry, employees produce countless documents, from purchasing materials to shipping an order to a client. Add in the clients and the suppliers who create and share documents in a variety of different formats, and you’re looking at a veritable blizzard of documents to keep track of. Add IDM to the picture, however, and documents can be organized so that updating and accessing them quickly (from any location) becomes a snap.
Here’s a closer look at some of IDM’s specific features:
Input Documents
You can automatically add documents to IDM through a capturing process or an automated process. You can also manually add documents using your ERP applications or any IDM clients, all inside Infor Ming.le. IDM even works with Microsoft Office applications. The system creates the appropriate metadata, referencing your documents to your ERP objects.
Store Documents
IDM stores your company’s documents in a central repository that uses role-based authentication and authorization to ensure sensitive information is protected. It also comes with versioning and other capabilities so you can have confidence the version you’re working with is the latest and greatest.
Connect Documents
Soft links are created between your documents and your applications with attributes that are stored with your documents. The application doesn’t need to know any of the details about a stored document to connect it—IDM creates this connection for you, since your business objects and documents share all of the same attributes.
Getting Started with Infor CloudSuite IDM
IDM centralizes your data storage to improve connectivity with all your Infor business applications to enable quick and easy access to your business docs. It also simplifies auditing tasks, to ensure your organization stays secure and compliant.
If you’re ready to start enjoying the benefits of IDM, our team of senior-level Infor Lawson consulting team can get you set up. Whether you need help with implementation, training, support, or something else, we’re ready to guide your team through this process.
Contact us today to get started.
