David Tyler: As an established provider of document management solutions, Laserfiche is no newcomer to the UK market, nor the EU or wider EMEA region as a whole. Can you give us a brief background of your involvement with the company, as well as how the launch of Laserfiche Cloud ties into the specific needs of organisations in the region?

Daniel Herndon: I have had the pleasure of working in the software industry for over two decades, which has included delivering award-winning products at Microsoft, Expedia, and Zillow.com and consulting on technology-powered products and services for companies in the healthcare, music, energy, and aviation industries. I joined Laserfiche in 2018, focused on driving innovation through a data-driven approach designed to deliver value to our customers where they need it.

Laserfiche's solutions are set apart from the competition by delivering enterprise-wide single source of truth for an organisations data. At Laserfiche we champion a paperless office, with our platforms continuing to evolve to help eliminate system and data silos by modernising the management of forms, digital documents, and records lifecycles - further expanding to enable the optimisation of business processes through automation and aggregation in a single source.

Moving forward, Laserfiche's cloud-first development approach will continue to incorporate innovations in machine learning and AI to enable organisations to transform into scalable digital businesses. We have existing data centres in North America, and we are excited to launch Laserfiche Cloud in EMEA so that enterprises in the region can experience this level of transformation as well.

The last two years have been marked with challenges related to COVID-19, dramatic market shifts and rapid acceleration of digital transformation across industries and regions. Unprecedented business challenges, changing business landscapes paired with unpredictable disruptions are reshaping expectations for enterprises around the world, leading to an increasing need for cloud-based solutions for education, healthcare, government and other key sectors. Focusing more on business resiliency, continuity and agility through more adaptable mobile solutions, we have witnessed organisations across industries throughout the region accelerate digital to meet increased stakeholder expectations and foster innovation faster than ever while navigating the new normal.

As many businesses are still struggling with the effects of the pandemic, change management shouldn't be an additional disruptive burden: one of our goals is to make the transition to cloud as seamless as possible, providing organisations with an opportunity to upgrade to Laserfiche Cloud and experience the benefits of process automation, document and records management features, as well as integrations with commonplace third-party applications. This helps customers focus more on accelerating innovation and elevating end-user and customer experience during post-pandemic re-emergence.

DT: In the context of this new normal, the effects of the pandemic is a persisting problem throughout the region. As businesses in EMEA prepare for the resumption of in-person events and services, how can Laserfiche Cloud support safe work and event environments, even as COVID cases continue to fluctuate and response remains uneven?

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"Cloud-hosted systems serve as a powerful tool for content management and regulatory compliance: we are witnessing enterprises moving to the cloud in order to keep up with constantly expanding content needs, especially in response to the latest technology trends like IoT, video, chat solutions, and exponential growth in data associated with these technologies. They are also moving to the cloud to leverage the full potential of insights and knowledge inherent data-driven advantages through the latest ML and AI technologies."

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DH: As companies prepare to fully reopen, there still seems to be a mindset of either working fully remotely vs. transitioning back to in-office operations. Laserfiche Cloud allows for a hybrid approach to the transition back to the office as opposed to companies being forced into a binary decision as cases fluctuate. Laserfiche Cloud also allows companies to follow phased approach to in-person work and blend it with remote work by providing a consistent content management solution regardless of the location of your workforce or the state of your workforce transition plan. Should those plans change, it doesn't alter how you work with Laserfiche Cloud. This flexibility is in line with our approach to digital reopening as a company, supporting post-COVID resiliency efforts for both constituents and customers through workflow automation solutions requiring minimal coding and enterprise-grade security.

Along with reopening plans, digital and cloud-based solutions are being deployed to support healthcare institutions as well. In the UK, we have worked with NHS hospital trusts to develop comprehensive records management systems. With quick deployments, customisability, and support for integrations, Laserfiche Cloud is an ideal solution for the healthcare industry. Laserfiche is already well-known for the Business Process Library solution template collection, and paired with Laserfiche Cloud, rollout is more efficient and cost effective - resolving challenges relating to hardware and software procurement, maintenance, security reviews and other commitments. Laserfiche Cloud supported by our SP network provides a turnkey solution for organisations who need outsource certain solutions, which has been especially important in terms of investing in community health and safety.

This has long-term impact on how organisations approach business continuity and resiliency beyond the pandemic as well, supporting disaster preparedness plans for businesses and engaging with customers fully remotely.

DT: Outside of resolving on-site storage needs and helping to achieve business continuity, another long-term concern that many enterprises weighing out the pros and cons of cloud-based solutions is that there may be a lack of total control over stored content, especially with regulations such as GDPR becoming more prevalent and the average individual being more aware of data privacy issues. How do you address those concerns?

DH: Being on both sides of developing on-premises and cloud-hosted solutions, we definitely understand this concern.

Data security and privacy is a growing concern for all organisations as the adoption of technology-powered products and services pervades every aspect of an organisation's operations. This is especially true as organisations undergo digital transformation and their attack surface expands with the expansion of their enterprise systems and networks.

The effort required by enterprises to secure their organisation's data against attack vectors such as phishing scams, DDoS attacks, and the proliferation of ransomware has made data security a paramount concern for organisations going forward.

Security risks are a persisting, always evolving concern, and most organisations don't have the skills or bandwidth to properly address these needs. Laserfiche Cloud is a SaaS solution that offers a streamlined way for organisations to utilise the leader in records management solutions while also taking advantaging of the pre-existing investments Laserfiche has made in data security and privacy. With the launch of the new data centre in Dublin, companies and organisations based in EMEA that control or process data within the EU, as well as data related to EU residents, can leverage Laserfiche Cloud data privacy and security features to facilitate compliance with GDPR. Supporting both localised and regional business needs, Laserfiche Cloud was built from the ground up to support a global customer base. And, as a result, data residency and data privacy requirements are considered in every step of the software development process. As the compliance landscape evolves along with EMEA's business environment, so will our solutions to meet the needs of our customers' customers.

In addition to shifting business needs across industries and regions, the pandemic has really highlighted the need for accelerated adoption of cloud-based systems. Technology represents a competitive opportunity over traditional, on-premises systems - addressing content management concerns, including data privacy and security.

In this sense, cloud-hosted systems serve as a powerful tool for content management and regulatory compliance: we are witnessing enterprises moving to the cloud in order to keep up with constantly expanding content needs, especially in response to the latest technology trends like IoT, video, chat solutions, and exponential growth in data associated with these technologies. They are also moving to the cloud to leverage the full potential of insights and knowledge inherent data-driven advantages through the latest ML and AI technologies. Lastly, they are moving to ensure the security of both internal and external stakeholder data.

Through Laserfiche Cloud's SaaS model, compliance is facilitated by a system that does not require major changes to existing infrastructure, supported by robust content management solutions.

More info: www.laserfiche.com