Optimising your workflow doesn’t have to cost the earth
The pace of change today is really astounding. Looking specifically at technology, the rate of change is such that sometimes it’s a case of blink and you’ll miss it. The really crazy thing about it all is that it’s changing things across pretty much every industry; none of us are immune to it.
For some people, it’s a scary proposition. I often hear small business owners talk about technology in this way and as a business owner myself; I can understand where that comes from. While I don’t necessarily share their sentiments I can understand why some SMB’s think that technology isn’t for them, it’s made for ‘big’ business or is just too expensive for them to access.
The good news is that this isn’t the case: The reality is that today’s technology is accessible to anyone. One area all SMB’s should be looking at is using technology to automate information workflows.
It’s not as complicated as you think
Moving information around your business more efficiently can bring some really strong improvements to the way you do business. What has probably held people back in the past is that it hasn’t seemed accessible. The reality is much different: You can really make significant improvements in productivity with some easy changes to your processes.
Take document scanning for example. It may sound boring to some but I’m still amazed at the reactions we get from clients when they see the benefits of being able to connect information across their business and removing manual data collection. By simply extracting key information at the time of scanning a document you can automatically push that into other business applications, saving the time and hassle of manually entering data.
It doesn’t need to be some big complex workflow; automating something simple can make a significant difference.
Our business is a great example
We’ve made a number of changes in our own business that take advantage of information workflow. On the scanning front, we use OCR technology to scan every contract that comes into the business. Contracts are automatically routed and stored securely so we can keyword-search any contract at any time. It makes it so much easier to find a document when we need it, just by implementing a simple scanning workflow.
Now we’re looking at taking this a step further. We’re in the process of automating workflows to remove paper entirely from our ordering process. This means a client can sign our order form digitally, which is then automatically routed to our finance department for approval, and then pushed directly to our order management team for fulfilment. Never once does the order need to be printed, making it faster to approve and deliver to our client.
How do you start?
With technology, there’s virtually no limit to what you can do. The only limitation is getting started! My advice is to pick a problematic workflow and sketch out the process on a whiteboard or a piece of paper. Once you’ve drawn it out its much easier process to then look at ways of automating it. Focus on the areas where manual intervention is required. The more manual handling the bigger the impact from automating the process.
Keen to know more? Drop me a line to find out how workflow can dramatically improve the way you do business.