The economy’s getting back on its feet and the market’s definitely looking better, but there’s still uncertainty wreaking havoc on businesses. Redundancies, shifting roles and talent gaps translate into major challenges for each department in your organization.
- The pains? Disheveled process flow, frustrating bottlenecks, crippled productivity and majorly depreciated employee morale.
- The need? To work smarter with fewer resources.
- The solution? Process automation and document management software.
Here’s how a powerful information management system gets your organization working with more accuracy, agility and cohesive productivity:
Pay bills on time with accounts payable automation.
Leverage the benefits and get rid of the waste in your accounts payable process. Avoid penalties for late payments, get discounts for early payments and keep your vendors happy with your timely delivery. Early-payment discounts go as high as 10%, and that’s a nice boost to your bottom line.
Stop pushing paper and wasting time.
You’ve heard the old adage, “Time equals money.” It’s cliché, but it’s true. Stop haphazardly pushing paper invoices around and then wasting time when you struggle to find them. With digital document management, that wasted time is opened up for more valuable activities: projects that not only promote your company’s productivity, but your team’s workplace sanity as well. Plus, just think of what you could do with that space you’re using to store old invoices. Waste less, do (and grow) more.
Keep track of contracts and end dates.
Have you ever had a lease renew automatically before you realized it needed to be reviewed and perhaps re-negotiated? Consider this scenario: paying office space that you’ve already moved out of because you forgot to cancel the renewal 90 days in advance. It may not have happened to you personally, but it’s happened to other organizations. And it all stems from inefficient contract management. Don’t let it happen to you. Don’t get slammed with explaining that expense to your boss.
Keep things safe and organized.
No one likes a contract dispute, but it’s bound to happen. Wouldn’t you like to be able to quickly get your hands on the contract, along with all of its versions and modifications? With digital recordkeeping, everything’s accessible and easy to find. Keep track of things and keep your finger on the pulse of your operations at all times. Never lose a document or have it ruined by fire sprinklers or storm damage.
Stop the back and forth.
Are you emailing contract documents to multiple people, multiple times, and then hounding them to send it back? Once you finally get them all back, you have to merge them into one document and then send it out for review again. Did you make sure you sent the right version? How do you know? Are you sure they sent back the right version? A true document management system with workflow automation eliminates all of this “email tag,” allowing you to focus on actually reviewing the contract.
Make purchase approvals painless.
Most organizations require approvals before purchases are made. This helps control costs, ensure that project goals are met and keep compliant with purchasing guidelines. This should not be a complicated process, and with workflow automation, it isn’t. Simply identify the people who need to be involved, what their approval and spending authority levels are and then set it up in your workflow software. Now everything is tracked from start to finish. Plus, the system won’t let you backdate approvals. Bonus points: These are things that your auditor loves to see.
Authorize travel with ease.
Does your organization involve a lot of employee traveling? Then simplified travel authorization – approving the trip before buying the plane ticket, booking the hotel and reserving the rental car, as well as committing to all other travel-related expenses – is calling your name. With an online workflow solution, it your people get approvals quickly, no matter their location. And since everything is being tracked, they know who is holding up the authorization. Another bonus: Your auditors see that you are complying with corporate rules and travel guidelines.
Put proposals on autopilot.
Most organizations don’t submit proposals for projects without going through a review and approval process: making sure that the correct language is used, the right pricing is laid out and all of the specifications are addressed. Just like managing contract reviews, this process is incredibly tedious (and practically impossible) without a strong document management solution.
Show credit applications some respect.
If your company issues credit to customers, you’re already processing credit applications. Ask yourself the following questions: Do you keep them in locked file cabinets or do they just sit on people’s desks? How do you keep track of them during the review process? How long do you have to keep them? Credit applications contain very sensitive information, and they’re deserving of a secure system. Document management and workflow automation not only tames the credit review process by eliminating wasteful paper pushing, searching and storage, but it also (and most importantly) protects your customer’s sensitive information.
Pumped up about improving your business processes? You’re in good company. Click the button below to download DocuVantage’s free eBook: Business Process Improvement from Design to Flow.
