You don't always need a new platform
Adapting and integrating what you already have can be faster, cheaper and far less disruptive than starting from scratch.
“Our document management system doesn’t fit the way we work.” We hear it a lot in consultancies, firms and organisations with several departments. And the conclusion that usually follows, “we need to replace it”, isn’t always the right one.
Adapt before you replace
Many business platforms already have what you need. The problem is that they were rolled out generically and each department ended up working its own way. In those cases the work consists of:
- Organising document structures by department, client or case file.
- Setting up work forms that capture information only once.
- Adapting document workflows to how people really work.
- Integrating and automating the tasks that today involve copying data by hand between applications.
When it does make sense to build your own
Some processes aren’t covered well by any standard tool: managing travel expenses with several approval roles, tracking official notifications spread across different portals, or a property portfolio with scattered information. In those cases a custom application usually pays for itself quickly.
The question isn’t “new platform or old one?”, but “which processes still happen outside the system, and why?”. The answer usually points the way.