Many organizations have implemented content management platforms to automate their business processes but often fail to provide users with tools that increase employee productivity. Business processes are designed to capture important business information, manage unstructured content securely and efficiently, and provide insights into the information that users need. However, due to the complexity of these flows, additional features that support end-user productivity are often skipped to reduce implementation and development time and, as a result, reduce costs. That is when users start looking for other applications to solve their problems.
A low-code platform offers additional capabilities and integrations with minimal investments and reduced risk, due to the flexibility of the integrations. It is a great way to extend use cases and capabilities to a multitude of applications and improve user productivity. However, if not managed, low-code platforms can lead to shadow IT, which is caused by using hardware or software without the knowledge of the IT or security group in the organization.
The risks of shadow IT
- Security vulnerabilities by integrating less secure systems
- Compliance risk by using systems that don’t support the right data privacy rules
- Data loss due to storing content in locations that have no backup rules
- Reduced productivity when choosing applications not optimized for work
- Lack of accountability due to limited auditing and tracking
Why should IT embrace these platforms?
Integrating low-volume processes and systems that sometimes only serve small groups are often dismissed by comparing cost versus benefit or just simply by the lack of skills and availability of people. Low-code applications are an easy way for users to solve their unique challenges, and they have become comfortable downloading and using apps and services from the cloud to assist them in their work.
Opening up your enterprise information management platform to these users by choosing a standardized way of integrating through robotic process automation (RPA) platforms can give IT better control over the solutions deployed, help monitor costs and reduce risks.
Common challenges to overcome when choosing a low-code platform
When choosing a low-code platform, it is essential to consider that not all are created equal, and some offer better options than others for specific businesses. While no-code/low-code is often good enough for simple straightforward processes to get content from A to B, get notified on an event, etc., for most business processes, more control is needed, and low-code quickly requires additional coding by a developer. Therefore, most low-code platforms still need a project, a team, and developers.
Benefits of standard connectors over custom-built integrations to meet unique extensibility needs
Increase ROI: OpenText has over 90% of its enterprise customers using Microsoft 365 and/or Microsoft Azure in one way or another. With the new connectors for the Microsoft Power Platform, customers can use a simple, low-cost, and flexible way to add new integrations to the OpenText platform with a platform they already have access to. This also opens up the opportunity to connect with hundreds of SaaS applications and is not limited to unstructured content. These connectors apply to both unstructured and structured information, keeping incoming and outgoing information flowing.
Leverage standard functionality: The OpenText Connectors for Microsoft Power Automate offer functionality to act on events happening inside OpenText™ Extended ECM, allowing businesses to repurpose that information in any other application based on standard connectors or by creating their own integration using REST, HTTP, or Azure functions. They also add the ability to store any structured or unstructured type of information in the appropriate Business Workspace, making business processes more complete.
Extend business processes: Business processes often extend into other non-business applications like Teams, email, SharePoint, social media, and even public services. Automation platforms allow businesses to extend their processes throughout the enterprise and outside of it, adding full control to every aspect of the process and related information and events. The OpenText Connectors for Power Automate let users easily trigger an external process or Webreport, copy files in and out of a Business Workspace, update metadata based on external events, or leverage existing approval workflows in Power Automate for Business Workspaces. It offers full flexibility to license it for individual users or a single high-volume process.
Examples of use cases where business processes meet employee productivity
Social media content can be challenging to connect with specific business processes, but some governments have found ways to integrate tweets published by employees into their departmental folders for better records management. This helps them use the data for forensic research or other investigations if necessary. Using Power Automate, they can also integrate with AI tools like OpenText™ Magellan™ to determine sentiment and detect any inappropriate or sensitive content. This allows the organization to monitor and act on negative social media.
Since information from non-content management platforms often lacks metadata, the ability to enrich the data is crucial. Connecting data from other applications to business processes allows organizations to apply that business data to other content, increasing the quality of data.
Learn more about connectors for Microsoft Power Automate.
