The State Agencies’ adoption of “Paperless Meeting” solutions: Modernization and Challenges

With the 4.0 revolution bursting and spreading throughout all professions and industries to enhance productivity and quality of work, the “Paperless Meeting” trend – moving away from traditional office settings and toward digital ones – has become more and more popular. The transition from paper-based meetings to paperless ones is happening at a rapid pace in public institutions. This represents a significant advancement in modernization as well as opens up a series of new opportunities and challenges in administrative management.

Reasons and Motivations Behind This Trend

To better serve the public and keep up with the trend of digital government, digital economy, and digital society, state agencies must address several challenges that include enhancing openness and transparency, saving resources, reducing the administrative paperwork that is kept in meeting rooms, accelerating work efficiency, cutting costs and time, and enhancing the efficacy and efficiency of the management and direction of all governmental levels. With the rapid advancement of information technology, paperless meetings have become the top solution to meet these needs.

Modernization in the Administrative Meeting Approach

1. Work Culture Change: Utilizing technology for virtual meetings represents a shift in methods as well as a new approach to work. It fosters a convenient and flexible work environment that facilitates time-saving and process-optimization for managers and staff of state agencies.
2. Convenience and Flexibility: Paperless online meetings enable participants to attend from a distance without being restricted by time or location, facilitating remote working while also saving money on travel time and expenses.
3. Effective Document Management: Technology facilitates the management of electronic documents after meetings including document sharing, note-taking, and even meeting-recording for future reference and work.

Application of Paperless Meeting Solution in State Agencies

1. Information security: Information security concerns are always a top priority, particularly when transitioning from traditional to innovative technologies.
2. User Adaptation and Training: Changing work culture as well as training new users on new technologies sometimes requires significant time and effort.
3. Using Online Meeting Technology: Online meeting platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet offer spaces for document sharing, discussion, and work management in addition to serving as communication tools.
4. Digital Signing and Online Document Management: Electronic document management systems and digital signatures enable state agencies become more transparent and efficient with their time and resources.

Future Prospects and Benefits

1. Cost and resource saving: Reducing the amount of paper used not only helps cut down on waste but also saves natural resources, money spent on paper and ink to store information, and space needed for document storage. Instead of using paper and pen to take notes and present, users can use touch screens and modern technology to perform the same task.
2. Enhance Transparency and Efficiency: Information transparency is improved by technology, facilitating more collaborative and open decision-making and work processes. Make decisions quickly and accurately
3. Adjustment and Productivity: Using technology improves flexibility and efficiency in the state agency operations while facilitating remote working.

The aforementioned challenges, meanwhile, also present opportunities for improving and modernizing administrative management. Technology use benefits state agencies by saving time and resources while also fostering a more productive and flexible work environment.

Conclusion

In addition to being a big step forward in modernizing administrative management, the paperless meeting solutions in state agencies also opens up a series of new opportunities and challenges. Incorporating technology into traditional approaches not only helps save resources but also improves transparency and efficiency in state agency operations.

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Reference solution – FPT.DigiMeet PAPERLESS MEETING ROOM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Digitizing the Meeting Process and Promoting Digital Government

“The paperless meeting system is an information system that computerizes the management and operation of FPT’s paperless meeting rooms. The system assists in computerizing every step of the planning, execution, and conclusion of meeting management and administration. To provide a comprehensive solution that includes infrastructure, software, organizations, processes, and people, the paperless meeting system runs on multiple platforms and supports a variety of communication and connection methods with peripheral devices and other information systems.”

“Paperless meeting room management system – FPT.DigiMeet” aims to digitize the meeting organization process at state agencies and businesses, bringing new digital experiences to hosts, participants and meeting secretaries.

I. FPT.DigiMeet model

II. FPT.DigiMeet system features

1. Manage participants

• Utilize the AI camera system to monitor attendance (detect and capture face images; compare data collected with information stored in a database; monitor in real-time the number of participants who arrive late, leave early, or are absent; confirm updates of participant representative face data, etc.)
• Manage attendance via QR Code (Create QR code for attendance; record check-in and check-out times; monitor the number of meeting participants, etc.)

2. Manage meeting documents

• Manage key documents during meetings
• Manage meeting reference materials
• Manage personal documents
• Share documents
• Share meeting documents

3. Manage online meetings

• Manage meeting agenda details
• Register to speak
• Manage voting details

4. Managing meeting operations

• Write meeting minutes
• Record meeting content
• See list of absent participants
• Organize meeting agenda
• Decide in what order to present opinions
• Regulate the amount of time allocated for giving opinions.
• Individual/group discussion
• Register to speak
• Voting
• Assign work (linked to job assignment)
• Give comments
• Remote online meetings
• Summary of the participants’ opinions
• Update meeting minutes
• Update meeting conclusions
• Report on implementation outcomes
• Get feedbacks
• Release meeting minutes
• Email meeting minutes to participants
• Look up and keep track of the meeting conclusions
• Track the status of work processing (linked to job assignment)

5. Manage interconnection

• System linking, integration and connection with other systems (executive document management, job assignment management, etc.)

6. System management

• User management
• System category management

III. Meeting organization process

BEFORE THE MEETING: 

Create, send and remind participants of meeting schedules; share documents and materials for discussion and voting prior to the meeting; register to speak; connect organizational meeting calendars with individual meeting schedules, etc.

DURING THE MEETING: 

Check attendance via an AI camera or QR code; update meeting minutes; arrange the order to present opinions; manage speaking time; facilitate individual and group discussions; online voting on the application; connect to remote meetings; record meeting content, etc.

AFTER THE MEETING: 

Publish meeting minutes; send emails to participants; link with the job assignment system to monitor job processing status, etc.

IV. Advantages and benefits of FPT.DigiMeet

1. Provide full meeting information: All meeting details, including content, time, chairperson, location, and participants, will be visually displayed and updated up to date. Participants in meetings can easily, flexibly, and effectively track information using a computer or phone using the paperless meeting room model. User-friendly interface, highly interactive. Meeting efficiency increased by 50%
2. Save costs as much as possible: Paperless meeting room solution helps save printing costs by 100%. Shorten the amount of time needed to prepare relevant documents, print, and organize them, thus increasing meeting efficiency
3. Online conference: Paperless meeting rooms often intergrate with online conferencing technologies, allowing remote members to participate in meetings through live video and audio. This reduces travel expenses and time, while creating a flexible work environment for multi-location meetings
4. Minimize missed and forgotten meetings: Paperless meeting solution supports notification and reminders of meeting schedules via SMS and Email to help participants grasp detailed meeting schedules
5. Information security: Paperless meeting rooms ensure 100% meeting confidentiality
6. Easily manage the participants of the meeting: easily manage the participants of the meeting, the list of authorized representatives, and the list of those who decline to attend the meeting
7. Run meetings effectively: Provide maximum support in chairing meetings, coordinate appropriate speaking time allocation, and summarize vote results with speed and accuracy. Supports quick decision making.
8. Save 150 meeting hours annually
9. Instant support 24/7/365

Exclusive article by FPT IS Technology Expert

Nguyen Thien Thanh 

Senior Expert

FPT Information System Company