Redefining content services in a cloud-native world

Companies are rapidly deploying new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms to transform their business processes to help deliver on cloud’s potential. These deployments come with the need for advanced content services for the following processes:

• High-volume touchless processing—AI/ML and NLP-infused extraction and automation of data-rich documents such as loan applications, referrals, invoices, and claims to automate manual tasks and reduce processing costs. 
• Centralized repository—Elastic, scalable, single-pane-view repository that facilitates cross-cloud collaboration and access to “single source of truth” documents within and across multiple SaaS applications while reducing the infrastructure footprint and containing operational costs and licensing fees.
• Records compliance—Enhanced records capabilities such as support for retention schedules, holds management, search, and content disposition that enable reduction in the compliance costs.
• Replatforming—Replatforming with cloud content services to replace legacy platforms and reduce high license, infrastructure, support, and maintenance costs. 
• Decommissioning—Decommissioning end-of-life legacy applications and offloading data to a central and compliant archiving solution so only relevant data and content is brought to the cloud.

But why?

Despite the clear benefits of cloud content services, questions often arise that require clarification:

• Why not store documents on a file server and maintain links directly in the core systems?
• Why not use the document storage features in SaaS platforms instead?
• Why not use collaboration tools as the document management solution instead?
• Why even store documents?

Unpacking the why not

Linking to documents stored directly on a file server creates the following traceability and manageability issues:

• Content sprawl, duplication, and redundancy
• Version confusion 
• Poor content auditability 
• Low usability with poor search experiences (due to the lack of rich metadata and taxonomy)
• Limited enforcement of access and information security controls
• Inability to apply records management policies  

Using document storage features in SaaS applications may also create the following issues:

• Expensive storage subscription fees to increase allocations for storing high volumes of documents
• Higher user-license costs to enable casual or non-user access to documents 
• Difficulty sharing documents in cross-cloud collaboration scenarios
• Limited ability to support advanced records management and compliance capabilities
• Limited capabilities to ingest, classify, and extract data from millions of pages of data-rich documents and enable touchless processing

Collaboration tools work well for departmental or project interactions, but using these tools as an enterprise document management solution often results in ungoverned, siloed repositories. Content, site, and group sprawl are common pain points when leveraging the tools. Further, access controls are difficult to enforce, and risk of unauthorized access to information grows. Records management compliance is also challenging as information policies are not applied consistently.

Documents are corporate memory. They are critical assets that contain business insights and drive business processes. Regulators also require corporate records to be kept in line with retention requirements. Therefore, not storing the documents is not an option.

Characteristics of a CSP

Now that these questions are unpacked, let’s explore the characteristics of a cloud-native content services platform (CSP).

API first and headless

A CSP should be built API-first and headless, as a base set of orchestrated content microservices and connectors, consumable “in-context” within a transaction and in a user-centric manner by a core system. For example, APIs for capture, extraction, classification, indexing, search, version control, workflow, and more that are consumable by core business applications. Pre-built connectors for applications from major SaaS providers are also essential.

Serverless and elastic

A CSP’s components should support containerized, serverless deployments, to enable on-demand and elastic scalability. This architecture abstracts away many layers of infrastructure--networks, servers, operating systems, backup, disaster recovery, etc. so that companies can focus on business innovation, not infrastructure.

AI/ML-infused intelligent automation

A CSP’s services should include support for intelligent automation by natively exploiting AI/ML, NLP, robotic process automation (RPA), and other core microservices available from the hyperscalers to enable touchless processing. This approach enables companies to take advantage of the massive investments and innovations that cloud providers are making in their AI/ML capabilities.

Consumption-based pricing

A CSP should support pay-as-you-consume pricing to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for content services for companies. This pricing enables a significantly more attractive alternative to the expensive user-based licensing of traditional platforms.

Potential options

Cloud object storage, AI/ML, NLP, and archiving services from cloud providers have evolved as a feasible and cost-effective alternative to big-box content management platforms. These services surpass the functionality of legacy platforms. Companies can build a full-featured CSP by orchestrating these services in-house or with the help of a systems integrator to enable a scalable enterprise content platform.

Alternatively, Deloitte has a pre-orchestrated cloud content services solution (DocuEdge) that can be deployed at scale within an enterprise, enabling a true cost-effective content services utility. DocuEdge Capture, Vault, and Archive are three independently deployable components that orchestrate services for intelligent document automation, document repository, and compliant information archiving.

The bottom line

Although at first glance, the implementation of a brand-new CSP to replace a legacy platform may seem to be a daunting and massive undertaking, the business case for the switch is easy to make. We have seen immediate return on investment with payback periods of less than a year in most cases. Companies have realized multimillion-dollar cost savings in license, infrastructure, and operational costs alone.