INTRODUCTION

The present situation of companies in the post-pandemic context continues to be very uncertain, for many of them are facing severe economic, organizational, technological and corporate crises, in addition to other issues that are severely shaking the Peruvian and world economy. Most of them, including large corporations and small companies, were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of them were reinvented and others were technically restructured; the changes have been far-reaching in all senses, many of which have accelerated digitalization, as it contributes to development, competitiveness, productivity and conservation of resources. ^{Reyes (2020}) maintains that the crisis organizations are facing in Peru can be regarded as a moment of reconstruction; that is, a starting point for a business to rebuild itself based on integrity, ethics and total transparency.

In this respect, ^{Rincón (2021}) emphasizes that the current situation compels companies to seek new sales strategies and more creative ways to continue operating. As the future of Peru and global trade has changed, thousands of small and medium enterprises have ventured into the world of digital services to stay in the market and remain financially viable during the pandemic.

The BPO services company under study provides collection services to a variety of private companies. BPO companies are not immune to the current economic climate and their financial ratios have dropped significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as many entities have withdrawn their outsourced portfolios. As a result, many contracts were not renewed and several people lost their jobs as the workforce was reduced to almost 30% compared to pre-pandemic levels. The company’s Senior Management reacted quickly to this situation and turned to technological restructuring, with a strong emphasis on digitalization and process automation, which allowed them to stay in the market and reinvent themselves using new strategies according to the situation.

Internationally, studies by ^{Ramírez (2019}) and ^{Goyes (2020}) demonstrated that the optimization of processes is justified by the application of cloud computing methods, as well as by bringing many benefits of going paperless, thus allowing the incorporation of new electronic systems into the organization and contributing to the care and protection of the environment. Likewise, ^{Sánchez (2021}) concludes that cloud computing is a disruptive innovation that can be used in multiple ways by users, owing to its accessibility and efficient technological infrastructure.

At the national level, ^{Bayona and Meneses (2020}) stated that a document management system (DMS) allows the automation of processes, thus achieving a more continuous and versatile analysis, taking into account the needs of users. Meanwhile, ^{Vilchez and Villegas (2020}) concluded that cloud computing is a technological technique that holds a very important place in Peru and that its implementation is booming, thus it is becoming a tactical element to optimize document management in the companies of the future.

In light of the above, the purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between cloud computing and document management in the company under study. For a proper analysis, variable 1 (cloud computing) was subdivided into three dimensions: productivity, information systems and information security; while variable 2 (document management) was also broken down into three dimensions: document management processes, organizational policies and organizational objectives. The specific objectives were to analyze the relationship between variable 1 and each of the dimensions of variable 2.

At a theoretical level, this research is justifiable, because it seeks to contribute to the scientific knowledge in Business Sciences. At a practical level, because it aims to be useful for companies in similar fields, which can adopt and apply the cloud computing methodology to optimize their DMS, and because it aims to be useful for the academic community as a precedent for future research. And at a methodological level, because a Likert scale questionnaire that underwent psychometric evaluations of validity and reliability was elaborated. The main limitation of the study was that only people working at the Lima headquarters were surveyed for data collection.

METHODOLOGY

Based on ^{Hernández-Sampieri and Mendoza (2018}), the study used a quantitative approach (using numerical data), a correlation rank (aims to determine the level of relationship between the variables studied) and a non-experimental cross-sectional causal correlational design (the variables are not manipulated, they are studied at a single moment in time to establish the association between the variables).

A total of 45 employees participated in the study, mainly from the HR, Innovation Management and IT Management departments. Due to the small size of the population, all the population was used as sample. The survey technique was used for data collection, as it is the most widely used in the social sciences; an 18-item Likert scale questionnaire of five points (strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree and strongly disagree).

Expert judgment was used for the psychometric evaluation of the instrument. Three professors from the School of Business Sciences of the Universidad Científica del Sur, who hold Master’s degrees and have extensive experience in the subject, found the instrument to be optimal for application. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the instrument, obtaining .729 for the items of the cloud computing variable and .769 for those of the document management variable.

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. A normality test was carried out beforehand for inferential statistics to establish the statistical technique for hypothesis testing. Subsequently, the data were processed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.

RESULTS

Inferential Statistics Results

Normality Test

As the sample consisted of 45 participants, we used the Shapiro-Wilk test for each of the study variables. Plots of normal probability, known as Q-Q plots, were used for a better visualization of the analysis, showing that the data collected did not correspond to a normal distribution (see Figure 1).

Source: Prepared by the authors.

Figure 1 Non Normal Distribution of the Variables. 

From the above, it is clear that the data are not normal and, therefore, a nonparametric test should be used to contrast the hypotheses. The Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient technique was chosen for this purpose, as it makes it possible to determine the level of relationship between the variables. The foregoing is further reinforced by ^{Hernández-Sampieri and Mendoza (2018}), who argue that the Likert scale corresponds to an ordinal measurement and recommend the use of a nonparametric test. Regarding the understanding of the correlation coefficients obtained, the scale by ^{Schober, Boer and Schwarte (2018}), that classifies coefficient in five levels (insignificant, weak, moderate, strong and very strong), was used.

Hypothesis Testing

The proposed hypotheses are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Research Hypotheses. 

General Hypothesis
There is a direct and significant relationship between cloud computing and document management in a BPO services company located in Magdalena del Mar District (Lima-Perú), 2021.
Specific Hypotheses
There is a direct relationship between cloud computing and document management processes in a BPO services company located in Magdalena del Mar District (Lima-Perú), 2021.
There is a positive relationship between cloud computing and organizational policies in a BPO service company located in Magdalena del Mar District (Lima-Perú), 2021.
There is a favorable relationship between cloud computing and organizational goals in a BPO services company located in Magdalena del Mar District (Lima-Perú), 2021.

Source: Prepared by the authors.

As previously stated, Spearman’s Rho was used to test the hypotheses, which made it possible to determine the different positive coefficients for this study (see Table 2).

Table 2 Hypothesis Testing. 

Note. Interpretation of correlation coefficients based on the scale by ^{Schober et al. (2018}).

Source: Prepared by the authors.

DISCUSSION

The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between cloud computing and document management in a BPO services company. The data analysis makes it possible to determine the degree of relationship between the mentioned variables. Cloud computing, which reported many benefits to Peruvian companies, was considered for this research as it was previously analyzed by ^{Lizárraga and Pachas (2018}) and ^{Aguedo and Omar (2019}).

The results obtained showed that there is a significant correlation between cloud computing and document management. This means that the perception of the employees of the company under study regarding the improvements in their document management system following the implementation of cloud computing is directly and favorably related to productivity and the improvement of their performance as a result of the accessibility and efficient operation of a better document system.

Such finding is supported by a similar study conducted by ^{Vilchez and Villegas (2020}), who also found favorable relationships between the use of cloud computing and supply chain management in Peru. They found a moderate association between cloud computing and document management; it should be noted that cloud computing and organizational policy obtained the lowest correlation coefficient, perhaps because the organization neglected the fact that it is essential to provide employees with a daily operations road map, ensure compliance with rules and regulations, optimize decision making and internal processes. All of the above is supported by ^{Russo (2013}), who states that this knowledge is key to the effective use of information as it will enable the development of a good document management system (DMS).

The results drawn from the study will benefit:

CONCLUSIONS

Upon analyzing the results of the research, it was determined that there is a moderate correlation between the main variables, cloud computing and document management; therefore, it is possible to apply these tools in different fields, especially in education and business, as it reports several benefits that, when fully harnessed, allow for successful results.

Likewise, there is a moderate correlation between cloud computing and the documentary aspects and organizational objectives; however, there is only a weak relationship between cloud computing and organizational policies. Based on the above, it can be concluded that it is imperative for organizations to consider the technological aspect in their strategic planning (according to their own reality), as it results in a considerable reduction in costs, flexible operational processes and immediate responses to internal and external information requirements.

Finally, cloud computing is a technological tool that strengthens document management and provides it with new features, making it more efficient, breaking space-time barriers between a physical file and a digital file stored without any risk, encrypted and available 24 hours a day as a source of consultation for internal customers of the organization.