Building a stadium and improving invoicing are similar!
On the 27th of November we hosted our first UK Invoice Processing Roadshow at the new, state of the art Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London. You may be wondering, why this location? Well, the two have more in common than you may think…
1.Recognising the value of face to face
In a digitally-dominated world with instantaneous access and immediate results, face to face meetings are often overlooked. It’s why we wanted to go back to basics - hosting a face to face client event with presentations from our experienced team, to allow attendees to learn more about Webexpenses and to build on their relationships with our team.
Despite being in London, people travelled from all over the UK and Ireland. We believe that if you can deliver value people will come and see you. This was reflected in attendee numbers, with upwards of 60 people joining us for the day.
Much like our event, we believe this is why premier league football stadiums sell out across the country, with 14.62 million tickets sold annually. Despite more matches being available to watch online than ever before, a live experience can never be replaced by a digital one.
2.Thinking outside of the box when delivering customer needs
During the event our team made it a priority to speak with clients and listen to the issues they face with their current processes. We found that 95% still use a manual process to manage their invoices. No matter the industry, invoices are a reality of any organisation, therefore using technology to drive an overarching efficiency for this task can only be beneficial.
The extremely popular stadium tour provided towards the end of the day allowed us to see plenty of examples of how creative thinking can tackle inefficiency. A key need in any football stadium is to serve drinks and, Tottenham have the capability to serve 60,000 pints of beer (near enough the full stadium) in just 10 minutes.
From a business perspective Tottenham were incredibly creative and drove efficiency by utilising stadium space to build their very own brewery, creating employment opportunities and increasing margins.
It would have been easy to follow the crowd and bring in beer like every other club, however Tottenham took the initiative with this ingenious addition to their stadium, meeting the demand and creating a big efficiency for the entire operation.
3. Solving the problem, rather than focusing on the issue
As mentioned previously, invoices are part of any business. Naturally, the more successful you become, the more invoices there are to process. The challenge is not to remove the invoices, but to process them at a quicker and more effective rate. Our tool allows smart organisations to automate the process, saving valuable time and money.
The Tottenham stadium is built with the dual purpose of hosting both football and NFL American Football matches. Those who have visited Wembley stadium to watch the NFL will know that a number of front row seats cannot be sold, due to 50 American Football-stature players standing either side, blocking the view for fans.
Tottenham tackled this issue by building a retractable grass pitch, which divides into three sections before sliding under the South Stand to reveal an artificial pitch underneath for NFL fixtures and other major events to be staged. This offers flexibility whilst protecting the grass surface used for Tottenham Hotspur fixtures - allowing fans to see the action and ensuring all of the seats are sellable. A great example of not just fulfilling an issue but using technology to solve a wider problem.
Tottenham have really tuned in to what their target audience wants, building a state of the art stadium that caters to their needs through the implementation of smart technology, something of which we feel our Invoice Processing software has done for clients of our own; saving them time and money along the way.
Moving forward, we are excited to take our Roadshow to various locations around the country and to assist more businesses with their invoice processing requirements. If you were unable to attend our recent roadshow, there’s another chance to see Webexpenses Invoice Processing in action at our next webinar event: ‘Simple, paperless invoicing’ on Wednesday the 4th of December 2019, from 4:00pm - 4:30pm.