The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that was signed into law in late March 2020 in response to the economic fallout that resulted from the global COVID-19 pandemic. Local governments of municipalities with populations exceeding 500,000 were eligible to receive direct payments from the Relief Fund.
According to the U.S. Treasury, state and local governments can use CARES Act funding to cover expenses that…
- are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19);
- were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and
- were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.
Electronic document, records, and workflow management has been growing in popularity for many years. One of the advantages of cloud-based enterprise content management (ECM) systems is that employees can securely access documents from anywhere with an internet connection—including their homes.
Before the pandemic, municipal governments and countless private sector businesses perceived remote work capabilities as something that was simply “nice to have.” Then, COVID-19 changed everything. As organizations transitioned to remote environments, employees found their access and ability to collaborate severely limited by legacy software systems.
While many municipalities are loosening restrictions and some are returning to work in their offices, the need for organizations to maintain productivity in remote environments isn’t likely to go away. Cloud-based ECMs can help organizations resume their pre-pandemic productivity while also creating many other efficiencies—whether employees work from home or the office.
If you haven’t yet allocated your CARES Act funding and paper-based business practices or legacy software is hindering your productivity, then using the funds toward an ECM implementation may be a wise choice for your organization. The benefits of going paperless are clearer now more than ever.
Have questions about what ECM can do for your organization? Our workflow and document management experts are ready to help! Contact QFlow Systems today to get your questions answered.