The digitization of business documents makes it possible to simplify internal processes, reduce errors and reduce management costs, especially in strictly regulated sectors such as pharmaceuticals. The goal is to replace paper forms with intuitive digital solutions, exploiting as far as possible the technology already in use. Just one pharmaceutical company turned to us to modernize the collection and signing of data starting with its Microsoft 365 licenses. Here's how it went.
Our customer had to manage two main types of modules on a daily basis, essential for carrying out their activities.
The use of paper format entailed a series of critical issues that are no longer sustainable given that the company operates in the pharmaceutical sector, where data traceability is essential in order not to face sanctions.
The problems to be solved therefore concerned the presence of:
In addition, the company complained of poor use of its Microsoft 365 licenses.
Despite having invested in the adoption of tools such as SharePoint and Forms, ideal for collecting and archiving business information, the management of forms was still totally based on paper consumption and on an “obsolete” digitization process.
It was necessary to replace the system in use with a more modern solution, based on a better user experience and on the automation of those repetitive tasks that, precisely because carried out manually, posed the greatest risk of error.
In all this, however, there was the customer's desire to contain the costs of replacing the system, which meant limiting themselves to only the products included in the Microsoft licenses available without custom development interventions.
This was the starting challenge.
The paper management of documents and forms is, unfortunately, a reality that is still widespread in many companies, despite the limitations of this approach being increasingly evident.
The compilation, approval and archiving of business documents almost exclusively manually is one of the reasons why an organization fails to manage the flow of information underlying its operations, leading to poor alignment between colleagues, lower productivity and, as in the case of our client, a greater risk of error that may result in non-compliance punishable by sanctions.
Digitization means simplifying, standardizing and automating activities that would otherwise require time and resources that are not always justifiable. Information becomes more accessible, ordered according to logical criteria and stored within compliant, secure and scalable systems.
This is how a properly digitized document management system enables you to:
In addition to these operational advantages, digitalization also makes it possible to enhance investment in the technologies available to the company. An example is that of Microsoft 365 licenses which, if used properly, allow you to create structured flows without having to resort to external solutions or tailor-made developments.
To meet our customer's requests, namely to digitize the management of internal forms without the use of custom code, we relied on the Microsoft 365 licenses available to the company to provide a fast, intuitive and automated solution.
Our solution is based on the integration of:
All automated thanks to the implementation of Power Automate flows, which can be configured and modified at any time in low-code mode.
But let's see in detail how the whole process takes place:
Despite the apparent simplicity of our solution, the team faced some major challenges to be able to digitize the process within the agreed time frame.
One of the main difficulties consisted in the analysis of paper document flows, often heterogeneous and not very standardized, which required a careful logical reconstruction in order to be converted into digital.
Added to this was the need to replace a rather complex pre-existing system, without introducing custom code and, therefore, working within the limits of the native functionality of the tools included in the company's Microsoft licenses.
Finally, it was essential to adopt a strategy that would exploit the available technologies, ensuring continuity, compatibility and sustainability over time.
After the release, we monitored with the company the effectiveness of the new form management process. The goal was to understand if a standard solution could guarantee concrete results without sacrificing flexibility and control.
Initial data confirm its positive impact:
The Modern Work team specializes in developing and integrating custom solutions across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We design native applications for Microsoft and Azure platforms, and we implement business processes that maximize the return on investment in Microsoft 365.
