A Global Economic Crime Survey conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2014 reveals that South African companies experience more fraud than their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

As these economic crimes threaten the basic processes common to all businesses, Adobe Systems Territory account manager, Simon Bromfield, explains why increased susceptibility to fraud is only one of the costly
consequences of document disconnect.

“Document disconnect is essentially the concept that organisations are investing heavily in ERP, CRM, SCM and other management tools yet the ‘last mile’ of many critical business processes is still fraught with discontinuity and inefficiency,” says Bromfield.

The entrenched reliance on paper in everyday work life creates practises that are often slow, wasteful and fragmented.

“At least 80% of employees are still dependent on document storage facilities that fill rooms, and in some cases even entire buildings, to run their businesses. The sequential journey of the signing of a document is often flawed and this can result in a document disconnect and a huge opportunity for fraudsters,” says Bromfield.

Businesses across the entire economic spectrum are at risk. When sensitive documents are not adequately secured, cybercrime becomes a much greater threat. And even if we remove fraud from the equation, disconnected document processes have some serious downsides: revenue is negatively impacted, administrative tasks take up too much time, the ability to plan, forecast and budget is impaired due to lack of visibility and audit issues are created.

“A recent Adobe study called The Document Disconnect: hidden opportunity, big payoff, conducted by international market research company IDC, reveals that 51% of business leaders are plagued by misfiled or lost documents while 46% aren’t sure that they have copies of all signed agreements,” says Bromfield. “The document environment can be fragile, error prone and labour-intensive.”

The advent of mobility and connectivity have profoundly changed the way in which we work and live today. The IDC study also shows that as many as 73% of information workers spend some part of each week working from a location other than an office within their organisation. And at least 63% of these workers are currently using a mobile device (smartphone or tablet). This figure is expected to climb beyond 73% within the next 12 months.

Customers and workers are increasingly relying on mobile to conduct business. It is feared that the document disconnect will only become more apparent as business continues to go digital.

“Digitising the signing process and creating a connected document environment can significantly reduce risk, save time and money, increase revenue and improve customer experience,” says Bromfield. “While most forms of content have successfully made the move to digital (books, movies, and music), documents and the process of working with them have not. This needs to change.”

Today’s rapid technological advancements often mean that the information needed for business documents is contained in multiple systems that don’t talk to each other. This leaves organisations scrambling to improvise using a hodgepodge of general-purpose productivity and collaboration tools to compile data.

Turnkey document solutions that include features such as PDF creation, electronic signatures and business system integration can overcome these ‘digital silos’ and speed up processes.

“Adobe has developed Adobe Document Cloud to address the challenges associated with document disconnect. Document Cloud is a web contracting electronic signature service that allows users to view, manage and sign documents from anywhere, at any time, on any device, including phones and tablets,” says Bromfield.

“Delays across critical business functions such as sales contracting and quoting, procurement, talent acquisition and onboarding can dent both revenue and morale. The competitive advantage of efficient and secure document processes cannot be underestimated.”