According to Statista, total global spending on data storage will exceed $78 billion by 2021. As data reserves increase exponentially, enterprises face the unenviable task of maintaining their data in an organized system that allows them to use it effectively.
With Infor Document Management (IDM), companies can categorize and connect critical information, automate workflows, and enhance their company-wide performance and productivity as a result.
This article will explore how Doppio’s Infor M3 Managed Services and Infor Document Management (IDM) can work in tandem, showing how your enterprise can benefit by pairing these services.
What is Infor Document Management?
Infor Document Management (IDM) is an enterprise application that serves as a central repository for organizations to devise and maintain common business rules for document creation and enables users to create, view, edit, and store physical files.
The IDM application comprises an array of functions, which enable and augment many everyday document management tasks, including:
-Document capture – Users can scan and connect documents via a standard web browser. You can also connect documents to your business processes.
-Advanced search – It’s easy to find specific information, even in vast data sets. IDM ensures you can quickly find the latest, more accurate version of any document.
-Automated workflows – You can set up workflows to save time and use the categorization capabilities of IDM to organize and retrieve critical document metadata quickly.
How Doppio’s Infor M3 Managed Service Team Supports Document Software
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, enterprises can use IDM to improve their Infor M3 managed services—on-premises and in a multi-tenant cloud environment.
Let’s take a closer look:
On-Premises Document Support
If you’re operating an on-premises system for document management, you can choose either IDM or Streamserve.
1.)IDM
Running everything in-house isn’t easy. As your business scales, once-simple tasks of managing invoicing, vendor management, and employee records can become time-consuming and arduous.
IDM integrates directly with Infor CloudSuite, so it reduces reliance on third-party document management solutions. Here are two tools you can leverage with an on-premises deployment of IDM:
2.) StreamServe
StreamServe solutions process highly-personalized business documents and M3 Business Engine data to transform it into predefined layouts. This tool accepts both paper and electronic formats and can work with various distribution channels, including email, mobile, printer, and fax.
You can use this tool to automate business processes in B2B and B2C markets, across multiple sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, and utilities. There are around 1000 predefined layouts, making it easy to modify documents as required.
When you integrate StreamServe with your existing supply chain systems and applications, it will improve the efficiency of your internal document management processes, and by extension, your Infor M3 Managed Services.
2a.) StoryTeller Tool
A vital component of the StreamServe solution is the Storyteller feature, which you can use to define a business document’s structure, content, and layout.
To do this, you must export and deploy a StoryTeller process definition to the StreamServer application. The application will process the input data and produce output, which may be page-formatted or unpaginated depending on the device driver.
In StoryTeller, you can perform many functions, including:
-Import LXF, XHTML, or RTF files.
-Re-use content created in other StoryTeller documents.
-Link to external content and use its formatting features.
-Use content with an HTML driver or DOCX driver.
-Structure documents by grouping your page definitions.
-Structure page definitions by grouping related objects.
-Rotate and reposition images and graphical overlays on pages.
-Handle multi-language documents, including translation files.
Storyteller uses XML files as an input. As XML files are configurable in M3, we would no longer require M3 modifications or ODBC queries to add extra information to the documents.
Multi-Tenant Uses of IDM
The multi-tenant cloud environment offers valuable business opportunities. Not only can your enterprise use it to cut costs, but the multi-tenant cloud provides a flexible, scalable, secure platform that unites disparate business applications, providing greater connectivity and functionality.
As a complement to IDM, customers also have the flexibility to keep using Storyteller as the output management tool in Multi-tenant. Infor will deliver M3 layout templates based on Opentext Storyteller with PDF as the output format.
So, how can you support Infor M3 Managed Services with Infor Document Management (IDM) in a multi-tenant environment?
Output Management for Multi-tenant
Typically, businesses will use IDM to automatically generate commonly-used documents, such as invoices and purchase orders. In such cases, physical documents originate in the M3 Business Engine and are finalized in Infor Document Management.
This process is made possible through M3 Output functions, which transmit the data to IDM for output management, which oversees document layout design and distribution.
Multi-tenant IDM offers several useful features for businesses. For instance, with the Infor Ming.le homepage widget, you can view and access IDM documents faster and within the context of a user-defined webpage.
Also, while navigating other Infor applications, you may see an in-context widget appear with a prompt for “Related Information”. This widget retrieves information from IDM, so you can view documents related to the asset you’re currently browsing.
Document formatting in Multi-tenant
Infor provides a Microsoft Word plugin to design the layouts of the documents. This plugin is a replacement for Streamserve, and it produces PDF documents by using XML files in combination with the Word layout.
Customers can use custom M3 configurations and build templates for documents like invoices, purchase orders, and emails. You can easily modify these templates to suit your brand and add additional data fields where necessary. Creating and editing documents is as simple as dragging and dropping data elements into the Word template.
IDM also supports multiple formats for the same document depending on various attributes of the document. For example, we can create a different format for a customer invoice depending on the customer country.
Multi-level XML files
When you employ IDM in a multi-tenant environment, the system uses multi-level XML files as the output format. These files are highly-standardized and fully extensible by configuration. IDM also supports Excel output, which is fully configurable using M3 output functions.
The XML files include labels (field headings), which are already translated to the correct language, based on the user, customer, or supplier.
Wrap Up: How Doppio Can help
In the fast-paced, data-driven age, Doppio’s Infor M3 Managed Services and Infor Document Management go hand-in-hand.
With IDM, you can centralize your data storage to improve connectivity with your various Infor business applications and provide quick, easy access to all your business documents. Furthermore, IDM simplifies auditing tasks, ensuring your organization is optimized for productivity, security, and regulatory compliance.
In addition, IDM has made functional changes to existing features to enhance ease-of-use and productivity. For instance, type-ahead searching for document types, and date selection via calendar are a couple of simple automation features that facilitate a more intuitive experience when uploading and searching for documents.
You can enjoy the benefits of IDM with just a few hours a month. If you’re interested in outsourcing some—or all—of your enterprise content management efforts, Doppio can tailor our expert services to serve as an extension of your IT Team.
Get in touch with Doppio Group by filling out the contact form to chat about your goals for document management, and let us help you get the most out of your data.
