A guide to improving business efficiency
Finding the most efficient way to work is an elusive challenge. As a business grows and technology continues to change, the processes and tools used within a workplace must also evolve.
Since the arrival of digital communications, tools, and processes, these changes have been radical and the benefits transformative - completely rewriting the way businesses are run...
It’s the failure of so many businesses to properly harness these changes which creates a situation in which more than a quarter of employees’ time is being lost to outdated and unnecessary administrative tasks.
In this white paper, we will discuss six simple ways a business can use digital processes to improve management and administration, including:
- Following the paper trail
- Automating trivial processes
- Going mobile
- Empowering employees
- Rethinking communications
- Creating targets and goals
Six Ways to Streamline Your Processes
In this paper, we outline six achievable steps to take to further streamline business operations to gain control.
1. Follow the paper trail
An effective way to start identifying areas of a business where efficiency improvements can be made is to simply follow the paper trail. Any working processes that involve paper documents and the need to physically create, share, and store paperwork, is an area that can be greatly improved.
By switching to a digital process, claims can be created in a matter of minutes. A smartphone app is used to instantly convert a paper receipt into a digital form, creating a completely paperless process.
2. Automate trivial processes
The real efficiency gains delivered by technology come from automation of administrative tasks, jobs that have previously been managed manually. Traditionally, a large chunk of an office worker’s time has been spent having to input, process, and transfer large amounts of data.
The most obvious example of this has been the shift accounting software and digital processes to automate tasks and remove so much of the administrative burden from finance teams.
Adapting to Change
With the availability of simple and effective tools to streamline operations, why do so many businesses continue to rely on outdated methods? Why do companies persist with processes that contribute to more than a third of their workers’ time being wasted?
The main challenge posed by inefficiency is that it’s much harder to quantify than business elements that are clearly linked to specific financial losses. The consequences of inefficiency are more subtle, tending to remain hidden while affecting every area of operations.
The flipside of this problem is that there are so many businesses that have the ability to dramatically increase their performance and efficiency with a relatively small investment in smarter technology ...