Written By: Naji Kazak, Managing Director – EMEA at Kodak Alaris

COVID-19 has been a massive catalyst for digital transformation, but companies need to do more than implement short-term solutions that enable remote work. Businesses with an eye to fully automated workflows will enjoy benefits that far outlast the pandemic.

Work From Home – Work Must Go On

Working from home isn’t exactly new, but the need to work from home is. When it became apparent that social distancing would be a key tactic to slow the spread of COVID-19, immediately closing office buildings was the natural response.

In fact, it is likely that companies’ familiarity with remote work — if only on an occasional basis — has smoothed the rapid transition and enabled ongoing operations.

However, this urgency has served as a sort of double-edged sword: While it is responsible for the rapid transition to remote work policies, it is also responsible for quick fixes that may do more to hinder than help workflows in the long run.

Urgency Spurs Tech Adoption

Companies that embrace digital transformation are more successful than those that lag behind.

Digital companies typically have a superior customer experience, better employee engagement and retention, and increased business growth and profits, among other benefits. What’s more, manual processes can cause companies to miss opportunities, make ill-informed business decisions, and lose clients to competition.

In the midst of this global pandemic, these realities take on even greater importance: Digital transformation is no longer a question of “sinking or swimming” over an extended period of time, but of sinking or swimming now. Technology adoption has been one of the single biggest factors in ensuring business survival.

For instance, grocery stores have turned to online ordering and curbside pickup, restaurants have implemented QR code menus to minimize shared objects, and healthcare organizations have relied on telehealth platforms to provide virtual care.

For companies that have turned to remote work, tech adoption has meant using equipment such as document scanners, mobile devices, and multifunction printers (MFPs) as specific needs arise.

From Digitizing Paper Processes to Fully Integrated Workflows

Getting the right information to the right employees is challenging enough when everything is paper-based and everyone’s working remotely, but the issue is greater than that.

Enabling digital workflows isn’t just about scanning paper documents into electronic files so that the immediate task at hand can be completed, but about automating the processes themselves so that work can be carried out efficiently and effectively over the long term.

This automation requires taking a close look at business processes, reengineering them as needed, and investing in technology that goes beyond simple document capture.

For instance, when faced with these issues, Xenith Intelligent Workplace Solutions teamed up with Kodak Alaris to create a new Scan@Home Solution with preconfigured automatic workflows. Built on Kodak Alaris’ INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution, the offering enables workers to save information to the right place, send documents to the right person, and scan directly into line-of-business systems from home — all without a PC connection or local software.

A Cultural Shift

Remote work seems to be here to stay, and digital transformation will continue to facilitate it. For companies that haven’t embraced it, now is the time to invest in the digital transformation strategies that enable remote work, and in the technologies that spur digital transformation.