In the interview with Patrick Plenz, Marketing Manager at windream GmbH
windream GmbH from Bochum develops and distributes the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system windream. The company currently employs more than 100 people and has a global partner network of a total of 250 sales, integration and cooperation partners. The customer base includes numerous companies at home and abroad. Due to its modular structure, windream is suitable for use in both medium-sized companies and large corporations. The modularity allows users to adapt the system precisely to their company's requirements.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The “digital transformation” is progressing in leaps and bounds. Is electronic document management still THE central area of digitalization in companies?
Patrick Plenz: Yes, it is. And for two reasons: On the one hand, information that exists in paper form must be digitized. On the other hand, a DMS or ECM system provides a central storage location as the basis for all company-relevant information and documents. After all, handling complex information stocks is still a central challenge for every company. And even though the term “digital transformation” addresses many other aspects, this transformation can only succeed with a solid information base. Our systems bring order to chaos, which is why they are in greater demand than ever.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: What are the basic components of windream’s Enterprise Content Management System and what differentiates your system from others on the market?
Patrick Plenz: Our ECM system essentially consists of a tamper-proof archive for long-term storage, a DMS for meaningful tagging and quick retrieval of information, and a system for mapping and automating electronic workflows. All of this places great importance on the system’s ease of use. Because only if all employees can use the system comfortably and without much effort does it provide real added value. And that’s exactly where we highlight our USP: We have integrated windream so seamlessly into the Windows operating system that users don’t even realize they are working with an ECM system.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: How does the integration into the Windows operating system work? Why do you consider this integration to be a decisive advantage?
Patrick Plenz: windream presents itself to the user as a “normal drive”. Users do not need to start any special software to work with documents in windream. Any software can recognize the windream drive and load and save documents. And the additional ECM functions are available in Windows directly using the familiar onboard commands of other programs. This means users apply our software correctly without even thinking about it.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The introduction of new systems in companies is often the critical point, as it consumes a lot of time and money. Do employees need to be specifically trained for this system?
Patrick Plenz: Thanks to the described Windows integration, training requirements are reduced to a minimum. And even without training, users can leverage most of the functions right away. What's even more important: this intuitive access leads to rapid acceptance of the software. After all, a failed project due to lack of acceptance is much more expensive than the investment in software or time.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: In practice, you certainly encounter numerous different platforms and systems. Are there any additional integration options?
Patrick Plenz: Thanks to the patented drive, windream is an extremely "open" system that can be quickly linked to other systems. Any software can immediately and without restrictions save its files to the windream drive or load them from there. For more advanced functions, there are of course corresponding connections to all commonly used programs that our customers have in use, such as ERP, merchandise management, and accounting software. I would particularly like to highlight our seamless integration into Microsoft Outlook, as this product is open almost everywhere during the entire working day. Here, we offer the complete range of windream functions within Outlook.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Electronic process management, including the linking of processes with accompanying documents, is becoming increasingly important in the course of digitalization. What solutions do you offer in this area?
Patrick Plenz: In addition to our ECM system, we have been offering a BPM system for years that is used for modeling and processing business processes. Think, for example, of an electronic vacation workflow or an automated process for invoice approval. Such a system can be used wherever classic forms are used or where cross-departmental and timely communication is required. And this is used productively by almost all of our customers. After the digitalization of documents and information, the electronic control of business processes is the second step in the "digital transformation".
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Finally, the question: Decision-makers must increasingly prepare for the fact that their employees work and communicate with each other from distributed locations and across different devices. What importance does the use of an ECM system gain in this context?
Patrick Plenz: Users now take it for granted that they can access all the information they need for their work on mobile devices. Companies that have opted to implement an ECM system to centrally manage and provide company-relevant documents and processes are therefore in an excellent position. The windream ECM system can be used as a fully configurable progressive web app across platforms in the ECM area. Users always have mobile access to their documents and processes with any device. However, what is also crucial is the “user experience”, which is increasingly cited as an argument. After all, a system will only be fully accepted by users if it offers them high usability – without long training periods and unnecessary time losses.
Contact:
windream GmbH
Wasserstraße 219
44799 Bochum
Tel.: +49 234 9734 - 0
E-mail: info@windream.com
Website: https://www.windream.com/