In his latest reflection, Anton Gazvoda, Business Digitalization Specialist at Mikrocop, points out that one fundamental issue sits at the center of most challenges: organizations introduce digital tools, but the core element that holds processes together - the document - is still unmanaged or overlooked.
Below is his perspective on why real digitalization begins long before technology enters the picture.
Organizations often focus their digitalization efforts on technology, processes, and organizational change. All important. But there is one element that ultimately determines whether digitalization brings control or simply increases complexity:
The document.
In regulated industries - and in many others - a document is not just a file.
It is proof.
Proof of an action.
Proof of a decision.
Proof of compliance with a rule, a standard, or an internal control.
Without a document, there is no evidence.
And “no evidence” is one of the most costly outcomes in any audit or regulatory review.
This is why audits, assessments, and controls always return to the same question:
Does the document clearly prove what it should, in a consistent and controlled way?
When documents fall out of controlled environments, the consequences appear quickly:
multiple versions of the same document,
updates made outside official workflows,
“final” documents hidden in long email threads,
critical records stored in personal folders,
missing activity trails showing who did what, when, and why.
Individually, these issues look small. Together, they lead to delays, non-conformities, audit findings, operational risk, and decisions that cannot be verified.
And this is not primarily a technology problem. Nor is it a process problem. People can only work responsibly if the environment supports control and traceability.
The core issue is document discipline - or the lack of it.
Most organizations still treat documents as by-products, instead of as central evidence elements around which controls, workflows, and responsibilities should be built.
That is why at Mikrocop we follow a principle that is simple but essential:
Digitalization starts with the document - not with the tool.
Because without a controlled document:
a process cannot be proven,
a decision cannot be traced,
compliance cannot be demonstrated,
and control is not real.
Digitalization can accelerate efficiency - but it can also accelerate disorder.
The key question is: Do your documents provide clear proof of control — or only digitalized fragments of it?
The text is adapted from the original article by Anton Gazvoda, published on LinkedIn.