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Because Laserfiche is so transparent and easy to configure, because it takes the configuration out of the way, it allows us to do most of that work for the client. We analyse the Business, we translate it to Business needs, and then we build and show and rebuild and show iteratively (because it’s easy) so that we can get the solution close to what the customer needs quickly, covering all scenarios. It’s helped us put Business first, and leave the technology (which is brilliant by the way) in the background.

What are some of the most common challenges organizations face with document management, and how do Matricia Solutions’ products help address these? Could you share specific examples of problems resolved through your solutions?

Andrei Negulescu: A large construction company wants to participate in a public tender. To do so, they need to take the requirements published by the public authority, split it in pieces, and then ask for help across the entire company to get the right information and ultimately create the offer which they upload in SEAP. That whole process was done via hundreds of email chains, with hundreds of documents, relying on people placing them in the right folder. With Laserfiche, the process is centralized. I send tasks to ten people, they send tasks to ten other people each, even to external suppliers. Everybody uploads the right documents, and the system automatically places them in the right folder.

They get the offer in, they win the tender, and now they need to draft the contract. That involves five to ten people in the company who write parts of it, modify it, approve it or sign it. Again, they do that via a Business Process in Laserfiche. And all documents become easy to find, stored correctly, with the right access policies. These are just two examples.

With digital transformation accelerating, what trends do you see shaping the future of document management and digital workflows? How is Matricia Solutions adapting to these trends to stay ahead in the industry?

Andrei Negulescu: Am I going to say AI? Of course I am. The problem is that everybody talks about AI-powered companies, but nobody mentions the fact that AI doesn’t work on documents stored in file cabinets across the office. It doesn’t work on data that doesn’t exist. But when you create the right mechanism to get employees to truly centralize information, their work, their tasks, their documents – and then run a generative model on all of that information you get something new – an organizational brain. A single entity that can tell you what you need to know in a second. So the trend? Getting your documents and data in the right place, so that only then you can become an AI-driven company.

How is Matricia Solutions incorporating AI into its document management solutions, and what benefits does AI bring to the table for your clients? Are there specific AI functionalities or applications that clients find particularly valuable?

Andrei Negulescu: We have. For another large construction company, we’re automatically indexing 14,000 historical contracts. That means uploading them, having an AI model read through them to automatically identify the metadata that defines that contract, and store it accordingly. With people that should’ve taken about two years. We estimate about a day with the AI model. Laserfiche incorporates automatic document summaries directly in the app. And their development timeline involves embedding more AI in the system. One of our core beliefs is to not do technology for the sake of technology. So with AI it’s all about adding it where it makes the most sense, and where it adds most value.

As a strategic digitalization manager, what steps do you believe are crucial for companies embarking on their digital transformation journey, especially concerning document management? Are there common pitfalls to avoid or best practices to follow?

Andrei Negulescu: Have a person in charge. Choose one person who is in charge of optimizing processes. That person doesn’t have to be IT. They don’t have to be an engineer. But they have to have entrepreneurial, strategic thinking, and a knack for optimizing the way people work. And think long-term. Find platforms, not solutions, on which you can iteratively build applications that will serve more needs. Avoid custom development, avoid suppliers whose solutions can ‘do anything’. There’s no such thing. Look for transparency, and beware of the fact that building an application to match your needs, implementing it, and getting people to use it is properly challenging. So choose the partner who can help you and guide you in doing exactly that. IT projects have this tendency of going twice or thrice over budget and overtime. Find the suppliers that will help you stick to 20%, and no more.

How do your document management solutions support compliance, data security, and privacy for clients in regulated industries? Can you describe some of the key features that help organizations stay compliant with data protection regulations?

Andrei Negulescu: You have a procedure that needs to be respected, whereby certain people need to add certain information at a certain step, and others to approve or sign it. That information can be as data, filled in on a form, but more often it comes in the form of one or more documents. A system like Laserfiche means literally drawing that process as a BPMN diagram, and having the system respect it. Laserfiche won’t forget steps, it will remind people what they have to do, and will offer you full control over the process, and a complete audit trail over the way decisions were made on that specific piece of work. That’s why most of our customers are in highly regulated industries.

And then store those documents intelligently. So they’re centralized, easy to find, have a full versioning history, reminders, expiration dates, and metadata. High compliance industries are about systematized information transparency for the right people at the right time. That’s what we’re about too.

What role does user experience play in document management solutions, and how does Matricia Solutions ensure that these tools are accessible and easy to use for all employees?

Andrei Negulescu: We’re all used to ERP systems being unfriendly. We accept that. But for applications that help employees do their daily work, fulfil their tasks – intuitiveness is a must. Employees see these systems as optional, and if you give them something they can’t understand and is hard to use they won’t adopt it. Because the digitalization projects themselves are challenging, a system that makes sense to your stakeholders will make it easier for them to know what to ask for.

When Apple launched the iPhone it was the first phone to skip the instruction manual in the box. We believe Business applications should be the same – self-explanatory. They should make sense because they’re mimicking your process, they’re based on the way you work. Laserfiche is wonderful in this sense.

Can you share an example of a large-scale project where Matricia Solutions helped a client significantly improve efficiency through digitalization? What impact did it have on their business operations?

Andrei Negulescu: One of our largest customers – a healthcare company – had tried for about three years to digitalise their procurement approval process in the wrong platform. They had almost quadrupled the budget, while the initial timeframe for the project was six months. They came to us, and using our platform and expertise we built their highly intricate procedures in about four months. Everything from budgets to any acquisition that is made in the company goes through our solution. Now invoices too. They manage all contracts there, as contracts, POs and invoices and budgets are correlated. It’s an end-to-end process that has become core to their Business, and which they’ve been constantly expanding ever since. That’s one example.

Looking to the future, how do you see digitalization and AI continuing to evolve in the document management space? What emerging technologies do you believe will be most transformative for the industry?

Andrei Negulescu: As I said before – when all documents and data are digital and centralized, a generative AI model can roam through them and find data and patterns that people would never see, organically. This could give companies a never-before-seen level of intelligence, and the capacity to better adapt to changing Business environments.

We see it has become clearer that Documents can’t be managed without also having processes, and vice-versa, so we expect more and more solutions to offer this right mix. And we see that companies are no longer tolerating garage-band IT companies custom-developing unsustainable applications. Customers are educated now, they’re looking for long-term strategies for storing data and information – and that’s the right way to do it. They’re also no longer tolerating ugly, unintuitive applications. That’s also the right way to do it. And they’re looking for strategic partners whom they can truly trust, who bring transparency instead of hidden, delayed costs based on big but empty front-end promises.

We’re here for them.

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*This interview was edited by Romania Insider for Matricia Solutions.