The ‘nine-to-five’ workday is fast being replaced by remote working, mobile employees and virtual offices.

This constant evolution of how people work in the digital economy is inspiring, but handling documents in such dynamic environments remains a challenge for many businesses.

Workplace flexibility is the key to retaining the best talent and maximising output, but how can we bridge the gap between physical offices and virtual workplaces when it comes to document management?

The challenge

There are plenty of document types that might need to be handled beyond the physical office.

Customer contracts, quotes, account applications and receipts are just some examples, but how do you slot that vital, paper-based information into your digital workflow?

More importantly, how do the remote workers within your business pull documents of this kind from the cloud to use quickly while at home or with a customer?

Doing this reliably, securely and affordably is possible, but it requires specific apps to make remote work as efficient and easy as possible.

Removing document workflow roadblocks with apps

One of the key challenges for mobile workers is the ability to print documents wherever they happen to be. The same goes for scanning; it needs to be easy and fit within their workflow, regardless of location.

Mobile printing apps enable remote workers to use services that don’t require a connection to the company network to print.

This makes IT management far easier, but is a breeze particularly for the user. They simply open the app on their tablet or smartphone and send an email to a configured email address containing the documents they wish to print. In return, they’re instantly sent a passcode which gives them access to the print job.

Solving scanning challenges with apps

Scanning is an inherent part of working remotely in many industries.

Whether it be scanning receipts for expense claims or capturing vital customer documentation, it’s also an essential part of digital transformation.

It therefore stands to reason that you need to be able to scan, no matter where you are.

Despite this, mobile workers typically have concerns about the new tools that enable them to do this. They don’t want to learn new processes each time, but with modern scanning apps, smartphones are able to control the workflow.

However you want a document to be routed (be it via email or print, for example), your smartphone can now scan it and give you the ability to choose the desired workflow, all from one application.

This makes scanning documents on the go faster and much more efficient.

Problems with policy

Mobile printing has made great technological strides, but business policies clearly need to catch up.

Research suggest that, while businesses are already looking for mobile printing solutions, only around 10 to 15% have a mobile printing policy in place. This is concerning when such policies are required to ensure a reliable, safe and affordable document management strategy.

Is it time to update your policies to take account of mobile document management?