Future-Proofing is a Myth, but Future-Forward is a Requirement

The news around AI and the general unease within technology reveals a sad truth: the rapid pace of technological advancements and the unpredictable shifts in market demands make it virtually impossible to prepare a system that is completely immune to future challenges.

This Has All Happened Before…

There are lessons from the past, such as the story of Blockbuster, the video rental store company that was founded in 1980 (not long after I was born). They were not afraid of innovation at all, being quick to embrace DVDs, and digitizing their inventory and point-of-sale systems to enable consistent processes during its rapid expansion to new locations and markets. But none of that future-proofing helped when people stopped driving to a store in order to rent movies.

So what would help us all from becoming the next Blockbuster? No more future proofing?

Well, not quite.

Rather than seeking an unattainable perfect readiness, businesses should focus on building systems and processes that can adapt to change quickly and efficiently. So it’s not that we shouldn’t prepare, but it’s HOW we prepare that changes.

This is where FormKiQ’s flexible information management comes into play. We were lucky that we built FormKiQ when we did, at a time when flexibility can be baked in with today’s technologies, including cloud-native services, scalable applications, and multi-tier architectures.

That allowed us to create a platform that is designed at its very core for evolution, ensuring that businesses can meet both current needs and future challenges with equal competence.

And with no late fees.

The Power of Flexibility and Adaptability

FormKiQ’s architecture embodies the principle of flexibility, offering a suite of tools that cater to various aspects of document management and workflow automation. From handling vast amounts of data with ease through cloud computing, to integrating cutting-edge AI for smarter processing and analytics, FormKiQ ensures that businesses are not just responding to today's needs but are also equipped to adapt to tomorrow’s changes. That’s a level of adaptability that is difficult to achieve in other systems.

Another key factor is modularity; each action that can be taken on a document is a specific component, one that not only allows configuration and customization, but that enables any changes to be seamlessly integrated with the rest of the system. This is why if you get into a consultation call with anyone on the FormKiQ team, you’ll find the answer to whether we can do something is always a variation on “of course we can”.

It’s not that our competitors don’t understand the value of this modular approach; they are just burdened by earlier architectures that don’t have the same flexibility.

Workflow Automation: A Step-by-Step Path to Efficiency

We believe that AI and other automation will lead to more productivity through higher-value work getting done. A key part of that is workflow automation.

In the quest for future-readiness, automating both document-centric and task-centric workflows is a crucial step. By streamlining processes and reducing manual intervention, FormKiQ frees up valuable resources, allowing businesses to focus on innovation and growth. This automation extends across document storage, retrieval, and processing—ensuring that as the business landscape evolves, your information management processes evolve with it.

New paradigm shifts are handled by adapting the existing workflows with adjusted or net new actions as needed. One example is AI; with the availability of Amazon Bedrock as part of a FormKiQ deployment, essential processing can be automated with the help of Titan, Anthropic, Cohere, or other large language models, enabling new workflow steps to trigger generative AI tasks, with no requirement for custom code or integrating with new vendors.

A Community-Driven, Open Approach

The source-available license model adopted by FormKiQ champions a community-driven approach to innovation. This model invites collaboration and contributions, ensuring that the platform remains at the ready for technology shifts. It’s also our acknowledgment that preparing for the future is a collaborative endeavor, one that benefits from the collective insights and expertise of a vibrant and global community.

Infrastructure-as-Awesomeness

With its cloud-native foundation, FormKiQ ensures that scalability and performance go hand in hand. As businesses grow and their needs evolve, the platform adapts, providing the infrastructure necessary to support expansion without compromising on efficiency or security.

This infrastructure also deploys to the customer’s cloud and in the customer’s preferred region(s), meeting compliance and data-residency requirements.

To be honest, we don’t really understand why that deployment model wouldn’t now be the default for cloud-based applications. While we can manage cloud accounts for our customers, we definitely do not want to add unnecessary barriers between an organization and their information.

Navigating the Unpredictable: FormKiQ at the Helm

As businesses navigate the uncertainties of the digital future, the value of a flexible and adaptable solution like FormKiQ cannot be overstated, no matter how many blog posts I write about it.

It’s not just a tool for managing documents—it’s a partner in your organization’s journey towards a future that expects more and more flexibility, adaptability, and foresight.

Conclusion

While the concept of future-proofing may remain a myth, the necessity of adopting a future-forward mindset in information management is clearer than ever.

FormKiQ represents this approach in everything we do, offering a flexible, adaptable, and innovative platform that prepares businesses not just to face the future but to shape it.

And that’s great for us and you, since unlike retail outlets filled with endless shelves of VHS tapes, being future-forward is not a need that ever goes away.

For more information on how FormKiQ keeps your organization and its information and processes future-forward, please contact us or schedule a consultation call.