Digital transformation is touching just about every industry. Businesses embracing emerging technologies are doing so, for the most part, to drive better customer outcomes. As organizations explore methods to use digital technologies to bolster customer experiences, many are finding that dynamic case management technologies are becoming essential in helping them keep up with the unpredictable nature of interactions.
Change Ahead in Case Management
Case management has always been a complex and demanding practice. Individuals involved in the process need to bring together best practices in communication, research, reporting, records management and incident response in order to keep up with operational demands. As digital solutions accelerate the pace of these types of workflows in isolation, case managers need tools that help them bring related processes together under a single operational umbrella. Dynamic case management is emerging to meet this need, providing the flexibility, transparency and breadth of functionality that can't be matched with traditional solutions.
Emerging technological capabilities are rising as a key component of the case management sector moving forward. MarketsandMarkets found that the market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 9.7 percent for the 2017 to 2022 period, largely fueled by a growing need to improve efficiency and quality in case management processes. However, the study also indicated that many businesses are struggling to find their path forward due to the amount of customization that is typically needed to make a traditional case management solution fit the unique workflows of a given organization.
"As businesses embrace digital functionality for case management, platform-based solutions are emerging as essential."
Dynamic case management solutions hosted in cloud platforms can change this situation, overcoming the key hurdle in the marketplace. Cloud application platforms provide low-code tools that empower non-tech users to quickly customize an app to align its interface or workflow with their process-related need. As data and process management tools are all housed within the platform, those systems integrate with the app without requiring custom code. This empowers businesses to build dynamic case management systems that can change on the fly, adding new functionality or tweaking the interface to align with operational demands.
As businesses embrace digital functionality for case management, platform-based solutions are emerging as essential. Here are three reasons why:
1. Transparency and Collaboration Gains
Have you ever been on a team where you email a stakeholder for input and then wait for hours or even days wondering if you're going to hear back, only to get an unhelpful answer that doesn't really address your issue? These kinds of problems are common with traditional technologies because users lack easy access to the background data and information they need to make decisions quickly and communicate in real time.
Dynamic case management solutions streamline key collaborative processes, such as incident management, by:
- Unifying relevant data in a single location so users can understand the full context of the work being done on a case.
- Defining tasks so every member of the team understands their responsibility and can check off when they've addressed key workflows. This includes allowing leaders to easily create new tasks on an ad-hoc basis when needed.
- Providing secure file-sharing capabilities within the case management platform to make it easier to view external records and similar documents.
- Alerting stakeholders when various tasks have been completed so everybody is on top of what is next and able to pick up where other team members have left off efficiently.
It doesn't matter what industry you're in, if you're practicing case management, you are going to have to rely on colleagues or partners from different parts of your business, possibly even from external organizations, to support operations. In retail, a customer service representative managing a support case may need to contact IT users, warehouse managers and external supply chain stakeholders within a single case. In government or health care, cases can involve an overwhelmingly complex collection of stakeholders and authority figures. Streamlining and simplifying collaboration through intuitive tools saves workers from menial data sharing, messaging and similarly repetitive work.
2. Robust Records Management and Reporting
We just discussed the importance of real-time data sharing in the context of collaboration, but that's only one component of the information problem facing case management professionals. For many businesses, improving or even overseeing case management properly is overwhelming because organizations are spending huge quantities of time pulling old files to find key data and trying to report on processes for regulatory purposes. The very act of self-auditing or preparing for a third-party review can take weeks or even months, requiring some organizations to maintain dedicated teams devoted solely to managing files.
"Operational and customer needs can change quickly, even if your processes remain fairly constant."
In today's digital climate, businesses simply can't afford to operate so slowly when they need data. The call for constant improvement is too strong and organizations need to self-monitor, document in real time and report with ease. Dynamic case management platforms make this easier by bringing all data into one place and keeping it contextualized with processes. As a result, the system creates a built-in audit trail and logs all data digitally, making it easy to for the software to scan information and form it into custom reports that drive process improvements.
3. Flexibility for Change
Operational and customer needs can change quickly, even if your processes remain fairly constant. Dynamic case management platforms let you tweak interfaces, optimize visualizations, adjust business rules and quickly integrate new information into your solution without having to jump through a bunch of IT hoops. The result is a much more adaptable solution that can align with the pace of your case management demands and ensure your team is never left finding their own solutions when technologies and procedures don't line up.
Case management systems are becoming applicable in a wider range of industries as more companies focus on managing customer or client experiences with greater care. In fact, the MarketsandMarkets study found that incident management is expected to experience the fastest growth in the case management segment, pointing to the growing need to handle immediate issues that impact user experiences as quickly and efficiently as possible.
As a leader in the digital transformation space, Appian can offer the flexible, dynamic case management functionality today's organizations need. Contact us to learn more.
