UTI Mutual Fund’s footprint is spread across 160 locations around the country and data staking physically for us was a herculean task. So, we wanted to come out of the mandate of physical availability, time bound dependency and device in generated the document for preserving our documents evading multiple layers of physical approvals. We, therefore, selected Datamatics’ Digital Workplace Solution and streamline our data storage process, said Raghunatha Reddy, Executive Vice President and Head-IT, UTI Mutual Fund.
During a Live Webinar organised jointly by Elets Technomedia and Datamatics, Raghunatha Reddy, Executive Vice President and Head-IT, UTI Mutual Fund shared his views on the rising significance of Digital Workplace Solution especially during the pandemic and how it benefited UTI Mutual Fund in handling their data storage with ease.
Excerpts of the address:
How paperless office powered by Datamatics helped UTI Mutual Fund
The first challenge that we face faced in continuing with the email and paper-based work culture is getting go ahead as our approvers are spread across geographical locations. We have a footprint of 160 locations across the country.
We at UTI MutualWe wanted to make our processes independent of place. The moment you talk about accessing a physical document, you need to be at the place of the document. So, we wanted to come out of the mandate of physical availability. In case of a physical document, there is also a need to follow the office timings of the place where the document is located. We were looking at a solution which could help us get over time bound dependency. In addition to this, we also wanted a solution that could help in omitting the need of a device in generating the document.
Digital Workplace Solutions at UTI Mutual Fund
The current challenges that we face at UTI Mutual Fund, I assume that resonates with most of the organisations especially in the public sector as well as the large corporate where decision making is done at multi-level. The first challenge that we face faced in continuing with the email and paper-based work culture is getting go ahead as our approvers are spread across geographical locations. We have a footprint of 160 locations across the country. This is pertaining to the decisions that are not part of any business application.
Typically in our case, a physical form was required, created on an excelsheet or word document and a printout was taken to initiate a series of approvals. Since this paper has to move from one location to another where someone is physically involved in moving the paper from one desk to other, it resulted in a lot of time delays. Also, as the process involves circulation of the document from one desk to other there are chances of loss of the document in transit. To avoid this kind of situation, the originating office makes a copy of those documents. So, you have one original set and a second copy. Other than these decisions, we also make a lot of payments within the organisation that are to be made through the centralized system. Here too we faced similar challenges that were involved with the movement of physical documents and hence the risk of missing critical payments is a worry.
As physical circulation of payments and documents generates a lot of supporting documents, the cost of storage space for these documents both at regional and head offices attracted a lot of cost. So, you have to store the document atleast for eight years. However, destruction of the documents after completion of eight years is also challenging. So, I have never seen any department in my organisation of any other PSU following this practice of destroying the documents and they finally end up having a pile-up of documents.
What made UTI AMC to adopt Digital Workplace Solution
We wanted to make our processes independent of place. The moment you talk about accessing a physical document, you need to be at the place of the document. So, we wanted to come out of the mandate of physical availability. In case of a physical document, there is also a need to follow the office timings of the place where the document is located. We were looking at a solution which could help us get over time bound dependency. In addition to this, we also wanted a solution that could help in omitting the need of a device in generating the document.
Keeping all these factors in mind, we went ahead with the Digital Workplace Solution.
Key processes that will benefit immediately under lockdown
When we implemented Digital Workplace Solution, we wanted the whole process to be carried out in ad digital manner. So, that the user can send the digital document for approvals. He can create the document on his laptop or mobile and it to his supervisor for approval. The supervisor can then send it to the higher authority for clearance and all the involved authorities get the information digitally just after the approval. This solution ensures higher transparency, agility due to parallel decision making and faster collaboration of feedback and opinion.
In terms of payments processes, the digital note would process after the invoices are released. Those digital invoices would then be run through for the particular location and then it is pushed to the accounts department for release of payments and then moved to ERP for the audit purposes. These are the two processes that we implemented using Digital Workplace Solutions.
Implementation of Datamatics’ Digital Workplace Solution
We use Datamatics’ Digital Workplace Solution as our implementation partner. We went through an elaborate process of identifying the product as well as the implementation partner. So, we looked at all the leading platforms as well as service providers. However, we choose Datamatics as our partner based on their experience of the product we went ahead within. We have chosen open text as a product. Datamatics has vast experience in implementation of Open Text across large organisations. So, we choose this product based on both conceptual and implementation process which got completed in 3 to 4 months. The whole project went through during pandemic times. We only had very low physical interactions during the implementation.
When you are deploying Digital Workforce Solution, start with small workflow process that is used by many employees. Then, gradually expand to large and complex processes to leverage the momentum. Ensure Access on mobile fir faster adoption by senior employees and select a solution that offers good security and encryption.
Some tips to be taken care of prior to deploying Digital Workplace Solution
- Go within time tested solution.
2. Select a product that is a market leader in ECM.
3. Choose an implementation partner with proven experience for faster implementation.
4. Consider all invisible costs during business case preparations.
5. Solution should be cloud ready and scalable.
