Grant Thornton Cyprus
A Leading Professional Services Firm Partners with M-Files to go Paper-free and Secure Their Document Process
Highlights
- Fully paper-free document management
- Streamlined workflow and task automation
- Secured way to manage confidential documents with customers
Use Case
Client Information Management
Confidential Documents
Quality Management
Workflow Automation
Industry
Accounting & Financial Services
Professional Services
Country
Cyprus
Company Introduction
As one of the premier professional services firm in the country, Grant Thornton Cyprus offers Audit, Tax, Outsourcing and Advisory services including Regulatory Compliance and Fund Services, Distributed Ledger Technology, Digital Risk, Quantitative Risk, ESG and Sustainability, Insolvency and Asset Recovery and Business Consulting.
They are trusted by clients of every size, from small private firms to public multinationals. First founded in 1942, they combine award-winning technical knowledge with the intuition, insight, and confidence gained from 80 years of extensive sector experience. Today, they employ more than 160 people and have two offices on the island.
Key Challenges Before M-Files
Entering a New Era of Information Management
Even before the pandemic, everyday tasks required the use of a large quantity of paper and it was becoming more difficult to safeguard critical information using physical documentation.
They needed an information management system that could store and manage documents from a single platform, giving its people quick access to the latest versions, while ensuring that confidential documents are handled securely both internally among their people and externally with customers. Another significant factor that led to the decision to invest in M-Files was the need to reduce their environmental footprint.
In their line of work, documents are used extensively for the execution of day-to-day business. In addition to critically important internal policies and data, the firm needs to process and send clients' financial information. Obviously, this type of information needs to be kept extremely secure.
"Our operations were based on Windows filesystem permission," said Michalis Michael, IT Manager, Grant Thornton Cyprus. "We were using network storage and cloud storage such as OneDrive and SharePoint as well as local storage." While this setup provides easy access to the folder structure from explorer view that users are familiar with, it created a problem with multiple copies. Duplicates of the same document were saved in different folders. This was consuming disk space. In addition, these services offered a fixed folder structure. This can be a problem because a folder structure that may be logical for one user, does not necessarily mean is logical for others. Finally, M-Files aided to reduce to the minimum many requests we had to restore deleted or corrupted files from backups.
"M-Files is an end-to-end document management system. This means that documents are saved electronically, and can be edited, shared, or deleted within our company. In addition, we can categorize and manage documents using the filtering and views and take advantage of the metadata of the system."
Michalis Michael, IT Manager, Grant Thornton Cyprus
The M-Files Solution
Scanning and Securing
After discussing their issue with Iron Mountain, an M-Files partner that offers secure document scanning and inventory management, Grant Thornton Cyprus decided to implement the M-Files document management platform across their entire organization. All their printed files were scanned, ensuring that important historical records are now kept securely. Not only can this improve the sustainability of paper-centric businesses, but it will also boost efficiency, with hours lost from sifting through filing cabinets and piles of documents put towards tasks that will yield productive results.
"We wanted to adopt a paperless, more technologically advanced way of doing things, and managing documents was part of that," said Michael. "With that in mind, we researched and evaluated technologies that could assist in becoming a more environmentally friendly organization, with a requirement to be integrated with our current systems. We decided that the M-Files platform was the ideal solution for our needs. Now, we have eliminated the use of paper to a minimum degree."
After some careful planning, the firm was able to implement M-Files without much disruption.
"We had kick-off meetings with our project managers focused on planning and analyzing the requirements. The designing process and the finalization of the implementation strategy were taking place in parallel with testing and our customized comments and requests," Michael said.
"As part of the workflows, we have also introduced automated procedures in relation to the 'Acceptance/Reacceptance of our clients' – the purpose of this workflow is to have proper audit trails in place and automate workflows that will reduce our risk of non-compliance to a minimum degree," said Michael. "Also, the client onboarding time is expected to be reduced through these automated workflows."
"In addition, we had workshops and training sessions with our colleagues to get them familiarized with the platform and to obtain their feedback. Iron Mountain was next to us, providing continuous support which was really important for a solution that required users to shift from the way they used to do business."
"The purchase of M-Files was part of our strategic plans as we wanted to adopt a paperless, more technologically advanced way of managing documents as part of our digital transformation and the protection of the natural environment. The M-Files document management platform provided a way of working with the ultimate goal of smoothing out procrastination and modernizing our processes. The platform has automated processes of our main tasks while offering more accurate security and control to our technological systems."
Michalis Michael, IT Manager, Grant Thornton Cyprus
The Results
Streamlined and Simple
Now, Grant Thornton Cyprus has a more streamlined process for their documentation. No more duplicates or different versions floating around. With the M-Files metadata-driven platform, the right information is accessible almost instantly.
M-Files' workflow automation provided a structured and organized way to keep track of the firm’s processes and guidelines on how to complete any task in the document management lifecycle. The M-Files platform automates processes of the main tasks while offering more accurate security and control in the technological systems. Grant Thornton Cyprus people were able to cut back on unnecessary emails and online miscommunication.
Workflows provide confirmation that internal procedures are carried out in a predetermined sequence. Tasks are assigned smartly and automatically, for constant collaboration among departments and activities. In addition, workflows help ensure consistency, by verifying that every step in a business process is followed and reduces the exchange of emails internally as approvals and deadlines are managed within workflows.
"Our continuous investment in M-Files in support of our digital transformation journey has increased our efficiency and security, while it proves to be the right decision in assisting us continuously improving our environmental performance" Stavros Ioannou, CEO, Grant Thornton Cyprus said.
Document Management at Grant Thornton Cyprus
Documents are used extensively by Grant Thornton Cyprus people to execute their day-to-day work and share information with others either internally or externally. At Grant Thornton Cyprus, documents serve the following purposes:
- Safeguarding critical information (internal policies and procedures)
- Representing confidential information (info shared by clients, i.e., financial information)
- Circulation of information internally for the performance of our work (fieldwork and reports as well as alerts)
- Sharing information (collaboration, budget)
- Final deliverables to their clients
- Regulatory and compliance documents
- Organization of information (central planners' deadlines, annual planning of tasks to do).
"M-Files was designed and implemented, based on our needs, and aligned with internal policies and procedures. M-Files' workflow automation provides a structured and organized way to keep track of our processes and guidelines on how to complete any task in the document management lifecycle."
Michalis Michael, IT Manager, Grant Thornton Cyprus
Partner
Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a global business dedicated to storing, protecting and managing, information and assets. Founded in 1951, is the global leader for storage and information management services. Trusted by more than 225,000 organizations around the world, and with a real estate network of more than 85 million square feet across more than 1,400 facilities in over 50 countries, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of valued assets, including critical business information, highly sensitive data, and cultural and historical artifacts. Providing solutions that include digital transformation, secure storage, secure destruction, Iron Mountain helps customers lower cost and risk, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and enable a more digital way of working.
Contact
Iron Mountain Cyprus
+357 7777 86 66
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