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Application of OpenKM Document Management Solution in the service system of a company

 Written by Igor Grgur, OpenKM Serbia staff member on 30 July 2021 

 In this blog article, we will try to explain using OpenKM DMS or ECM solutions and the additional SQM application for managing service interactions, i.e., for managing the company's service system.

 "Since a large number of service interactions are accompanied by a large number of documents and records, we use SQM coupled ​with the state-of-the-art DMS and ECM platform OpenKM."

So what are service interactions? Service interactions can be internal or among employees in the company and external with partners and clients. Also, service interactions can be those in which direct services are performed to clients or those in which certain services are performed to fellow employees.

Also, service interactions may be those in which the recipient of the service participates in the co-production of the service or not. All those interactions are part of the service system of a company.

And, to what extent are documenting dominant in service interactions? It is often the case that during these service interactions, documents are created, updated, or that employees rely on some document information during the service and that new document records are created. The approach of the author of this text is that DMS software should be present where interactions with documents take place, i.e., in the service interactions.  

The question is how to deal with the mentioned challenges? Software for managing service interactions, or service system, and such software is SQM, will best manage these interactions. It will offer the user fast and easy parameterization by various types and subtypes of services without programming engagement. As well as provide easy creation of service requests, easy change of status, and collaboration of service associates, provide unified overviews of a series of service interactions for different positions, i.e., management views of service system. SQM is service management software, not document management software.

On the contrary, DMS or ECM software specializes in advanced document management or corporate content management and will perform this best for all other software types. For these reasons, the combination of OpenKM and SQM software applications is very logical and capable. It offers flexibility for designing and managing new service interactions and tuning service systems for best productivity and service quality with advanced approaches to document management. This approach is offering distinct benefits and capabilities like: compliance, document security, and advanced search, metadata, and records management.

We can set up the first Impression: Management of service system is of vital interest to every company, but companies lack solutions to do so!

Many companies have an ERP solution for planning enterprise resources and a DMS or ECM solution for managing enterprise documents and contents. Still, they lack a solution for managing an enterprise service system. Since all companies can be viewed as service companies - regardless of whether the products they deliver to the customer are more or less a product or service - it is paradoxical that companies lack such a service system solution. We do not mean only the execution of customer services but also a multitude of internal services).

To further emphasize the seriousness of the topic, we will mention that the most important output of one service system is service quality. Without service quality, service recipients have no satisfaction, and work becomes unproductive. Many studies have been written about customer and employee satisfaction in a company's business success. Paradoxically again, companies do not have system tools to measure service quality by executor, department, partner, or the whole company during the execution of the service.

How, then, can we seriously discuss a company's service quality or productivity?

The SQM solution was developed to make the service quality and service system measurable and manageable, thus increasing the company's productivity and competitiveness.

Now we quickly come to the following second Impression: Service system is one of the critical factors and conditions of competitive advantage.

To remind, the service system of a company is critical because it is one of the key factors and conditions of the company's competitiveness. Physical resources or contracts are not a competitive advantage per se if there is no quality service system in which they operate. Real competitive advantage comes only if your organization can handle dozens or hundreds of internal and external service requests with quality and on time. We believe that the SQM tool is a very significant, even unavoidable, factor in managing service design and service delivery process, i.e., developing the service system of one company to achieve real competitive advantage and productivity.

The third impression is that: In the current pandemic conditions, we must consider the development of a competitive remote work environment.

The advanced SKM + OpenKM system enables work from different locations and different devices to be performed smoothly with key features: 

• New service organizations and new service delivery processes (phases and activities) can quickly scale without programming work. 
• You can easily create custom phases and statuses of delivering service unique to your service interactions or new work situations. 
• Work faster through a well-developed granulated view of service interactions and service system. 
• Enjoy easily customized organization, more transparency, precise actions, and feedbacks.  
• Enabled remote access to applications and controlled access to sensitive information, with reduced information silos. 
• Information organized in taxonomy, categories, and metadata, with advanced search options with compliance and security. 

The fourth impression is that: A sound service system is cheaper.

Poor service is more expensive and has very negative consequences for the company! Having excellent internal service quality (among employees) and external service quality (among partners and clients) is not a more expensive option, but cheaper. SQM solution helps customers to reduce costs through measurability and manageability of well-designed service systems and service processes. Reducing redundant or inaccurate communication, downtime, and errors, while improving goal and time management and increasing employee, partner, and customer satisfaction is something that SQM efficiently assists. 

Avoiding silos of information throughout multiple applications lead us to a concept where documents are housed in an OpenKM system. At the same time, the interaction of participants in the co-production of services is conducted in an SQM application. Easy finding and availability of all necessary documents allow us to reduce costs and operate more accurate service.

Companies with the SQM tool can quickly and easily start managing and monitoring service interactions in one or more departments without any programming any lines of code – we can implement SQM by business people only with parameterization through the UI. Over time company can quickly expand the use of SQM to other departments and business processes. 

Conclusion

SQM handles human organization and interactions, while OpenKM DMS handles advanced management of your SQM and other documents. 

• It supports internal and external service systems and service quality development, productivity, and competitive advantage. 
• Provides a higher level of remote work environment
• SQM is easy to implement in hours - without programming.
• Using the SQM tool is easy and takes minimal time.
• With few clicks, it helps streamline your process and gain visibility into the work at each stage.
• Enables the creation of custom workflows and procedures to match exactly how your team works.
• It offers measurability and manageability of service system and service quality. An overview and individual and collective performance reports.