How can businesses continue their document workflow in the current remote working environment, especially without the traditional comfort of scanners and printers for staff?

PDF Management

Working with PDF documents, without access to a printer or scanner, can seem particularly difficult should you be required to edit the document.  There are numerous PDF editors available on the market, each with varying degrees of functionality. Most will allow basic editing features such as marking up the document, extracting pages, deleting pages and merging PDFs.  

The programs we recommend include the following: 

Nitro Productivity

With a rich feature set, intuitive interface, and advanced security, Nitro Pro enables you to quickly and easily create, convert, edit, sign, review, and protect PDF documents—without the hassle. Nitro offer a complete turnkey solution including the benefits of unlimited eSigning making the transition from desktop to cloud very compelling and cost effective.

Nitro has become the world's number 1 alternative to Adobe Acrobat and it is proudly Australian too!

Bluebeam

Bluebeam is one of the more feature rich offerings on the market. It is tailored to the engineering, construction and architecture industries, and is considered the gold standard of PDF editors, even for administrative tasks. 

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat ties in with the Adobe ecosystem. Acrobat is available as a standalone program or as part of the greater Adobe Creative Cloud.  

Document Signing

The ability to ensure a document, be it a proposal, quotation or contract, is signed in a timely manner has been made all that more difficult with client meetings occurring virtually.  Any delay introduces the potential for the unexpected. Online document signing tools are a great way to ensure a document is signed anytime, anywhere. 

Some of the features and advantages of document signing platforms include: 

  • Eliminate the chance of a signed document being lost.
  • Capable of integrating with a CRM.
  • Ability to ensure all fields where a signature is required are marked and signed.
  • Sign anytime/anywhere on any device, as long as there is an internet connection.
  • Built in analytics, for example: the part of the document the most time was spent on can be viewed.
  • Auto reminders can be set to email recipients who haven't signed.

Two recommended providers are Nitro and DocuSign. Both offer a free trial of their services and have tiered pricing plans depending on your requirements.

File and Document Sharing

Email has long been the traditional way to facilitate file sharing, but put simply, it lacks any sort of control or collaborative capability. Using file sharing platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint and Google Shared Drive allows you to share files to external and internal parties while setting parameters to ensure greater control and protection of your files. Both of these platforms are available as part of Microsoft 365 and G-Suite, respectively.

Some of the features of these cloud based file sharing platforms include: 

  • Password protecting access.  
  • Setting access expiry dates.
  • Allowing multiple parties both internal and external to access the one file.
  • Controlling levels of access i.e. read only or edit.
  • Allows the sharing of files above email size limit. 
  • Does not contribute to a greater mailbox size.

The move to working remotely has meant an adjustment to the operational needs of many businesses. Video conferencing providers and document workflow providers have stepped in to fill the void and ensured business can flourish wherever it may be, even from home.