“Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance.” – Wietse Venema
The idea of paperless documentation presents a captivating thought – an evolved concept admirably suited to alleviate environmental stress and economic pressures that pervade contemporary times. The idea posits a radical departure from traditional paradigms of documentation and paperwork, promises significant savings in existing costs of conducting business, could confer high levels of flexibility in designing and executing organizational processes – and holds potential to accelerate processes of collaborative ideation.
Paperless documentation could serve as a lynchpin that allows thinkers/designers to expand the scope and depth of processes, introduce high levels of agility in the domain of servicing clients, develop new modes of activity in archival ventures, abbreviate expansive processes into compact mechanisms, and empower businesses to harness/wield the collective powers emanating from digital technologies and human workforces. When we consider these varied contexts, we may consider the use of flowcharts to drive the design and execution of various forms of paperless documentation. Such a venture – when undertaken across an enterprise – could yield incremental levels of outcomes that boost performance levels inside organizations.
Digital technologies and software packages remain instrumental in building various forms of paperless documentation. This imperative stems from the manifest waste generated by paper-based systems and processes. Observers have noted, “Manual processes result in delays and errors as documents move between critical business functions such as procurement, accounting, sales, and human resources.” In such scenarios, digitally-enabled technology such as scanners, desktop computing devices, email systems, instant messaging platforms, cellular and wireless networks, and a variety of high resolution display panels may combine to drive the mission of paperless documentation. These elements could find embedment inside flowchart diagrams – and output new modes of viewing (and interacting with) documentation – when designers set about creating various processes mediated by digital.
Consulting firms – widely considered a key aspect of the modern knowledge economy – could undertake transformative voyages into paperless documentation. Such organizations may deploy flowcharts to delineate a variety of operational channels and services designed for clientele. Effective elements of digital technology – such as cloud storage, removable media, and local devices, tools to record notes, webcam-driven interactions, public websites, and intranets designed for use inside organizations – represent the building blocks of paperless documentation. We may note flowcharts play a central role in operationalizing different editions of such techniques; these illustrations allow designers to create functional levels of digital interaction between consultants, specialists, associates, and client teams. In addition, flowcharts offer mileage in terms of fresh ideas that promote the sharing of information across appropriate levels built inside consulting firms. Certain editions of these illustrations also empower troubleshooting initiatives that boost the ability of firms to react rapidly to client mandates.
Different forms/modes/types of interaction represent a central feature of concepts that animate dominant ideas of paperless documentation. Pursuant to this, designers could utilize flowcharts to detail interactions undertaken via instant messages, email-driven protocols, and digital conversations via web-enabled devices, text messages, video conversations, digital voicemail, and electronic bulletin boards. Flowcharts enable designers to create the technical specifications of platforms (and devices) that enable such conversations. These illustrations can also posit various types of connections built inside organizations, the modes of recording expansive interactions, systems to retrieve and display the content of such conversations, techniques to convey updates to relevant individuals, reviewing mechanisms, among others. Such a comprehensive stance can further the cause of effective paperless documentation, thereby imparting form and structure that serves the greater objectives espoused by modern organizations.
Back-office operations and their constituent systems could embrace paperless documentation as part of efforts to promote digital technologies in service-oriented industries. Operators could embark on such transitions through the agency of flowchart-based documents that detail the flow of information in digital back-office environments. For instance, different types of request forms can undergo digitization to promote automated processing of these documents; this ensures high levels of seamless efficiency in the initial stages of back-office operations. Subsequently, the paperless documentation can enter various silo-based functional structures, undergo corrections as required, and find integration inside downstream processes. Document management, storage, and disposal systems can augment such processes in the interests of furthering said category of operations. In essence, flowcharts impart specific momentum to automation strategies that hinge on paperless techniques.
Workflow designers could drive the idea of paperless documentation in the many functional and strategic aspects that animate the modern workplace. This stance can serve as a precursor to multiple implementations of automation in different arenas of workplaces. Such an idea envisions deeply transformative actions that bear potential to promote human productivity, engender greater ability to shorten process-reaction time cycles, burnish the competitive edge of organizations, drive the element of transparency and accountability in operations, and heighten the number of opportunities to win client delight. Pursuant to this stance, workflow designers could introduce practices such as online faxing, the creation/generation of contracts rendered in electronic formats, paperless billing, the digital scanning of all forms of legacy documentation, the use of instant messaging platforms, video-driven conferencing systems, among others. Flowcharts retain a critical role in such re-design initiatives, thereby helping organizations to bridge the digital divide and harness the power of electrons in every stage of their operations.
Geographical dispersion of work teams could provide massive boosts to efforts that achieve paperless documentation across a trans-national enterprise. Each team could adopt a formatted flowchart (or similar diagram) and populate it with specifics in terms of work strategies, stages of professional competence, marketing ideas, client development strategies, key business metrics, outcomes of brainstorming sessions, ideas to expand the market footprint of the trans-national enterprise, etc. Alternatively, work teams could elect to develop singular expressions of flowcharts as part of efforts to promote digital documentation at every level of these teams. Successful implementations of seamless digital documentation could allow teams to collaborate more productively, drive efficiency in projects undertaken jointly among work teams, fashion smart execution strategies in projects undertaken on behalf of clients, and generate greater levels of impact in competitive markets. Additionally, such documentation empowers organizations to pitch for complex, multi-stage projects that can boost the business bottom line of service providers.
A close examination of these paragraphs enables readers to appreciate the various techniques of implementing paperless documentation in a variety of contemporary contexts. Flowcharts rendered in the digital domain may serve as appropriate enablers that assist in such implementations. These diagrams promote effective planning and development of digital strategies that could multiply outcomes for sponsor organizations. Flowcharts can also help designers envision changes in the roadmap towards paperless missions; such alterations – when plotted and undertaken correctly – can greatly expand the scope for positive outcomes. The direction/velocity of such journeys could find additional calibration inside master illustrations formulated at the highest levels of sponsor organizations.
Further, documentation rendered in digital holds significant potential in terms of expanding the scope of modern commercial, industrial, scientific, analytical, creative, and technological processes. Such documents can incite the brains of (process and system) designers to output streamlined instances of process inter-linked through logic and operating elements of grand objectives. Further, designers could work to append the essence of interventions based on critical observations of operating systems and processes. By helping develop these scenarios, flowcharts serve as handmaidens that elevate and enable the possible into stalwart instances of tested functionality.
