Over the last couple of weeks we have outlined some of the different ways a document management solution can improve your company’s processes. From reducing the obvious and hidden costs of paper, and improving employee productivity; to the significant benefits that come with its integration with your ERP system, the value seems endless. But there’s more! An often overlooked capability of document management is its ability to save your company from data loss in the event of a disaster.
This week’s focus on Improved Likelihood of Disaster Recovery is considered a “soft” benefit of document management, meaning that while it may not have a direct ROI, it is invaluable nonetheless.
In a study it was determined that 90% of critical business information exists only on paper and that 70% of today’s businesses would fail within three weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records due to fire or flood. Electronic document repository can be utilized as a back-up archive of business critical documents and is a hedge against those types of disasters. As well, the movement to a paperless work environment allows companies to become socially responsible by “going green.”
To navigate through today’s economic climate and ensure business continuity, make sure you pick the right tool. Document management and workflow solutions help reduce overall operating costs, increase efficiencies within your organization.
To learn more about the things to consider, should your company choose to go paperless, download our whitepaper: Armed and Paperless - Ten Key Considerations When Selecting a Document Management Solution.
Image by David Fletcher, courtesy of www.cloudtweaks.com.
Last week we began a series on document management and discussed some of the hidden costs of a paper-based office. This week we will take a closer look at the:
Benefits of Document Management Software
Many companies are implementing a document management and workflow solution to reduce costs AND improve efficiencies. Even the basic document repository systems can help companies significantly reduce the cost of: utilizing, filing, storing, and retrieving documents. Some of the benefits include:
- The ability to automatically capture documents from fax machines, multifunctional devices, and ERP applications.
- Individual security rights giving employees easy access to applicable documents from any workstation, whether in the office or remotely.
- Reduced necessity for on and off site storage space.
- Eradication of paper storage has proven to be a tremendous cost savings, especially for companies who are required to archive records for a predetermined number of years.
However, organizations interested in going beyond a simple document repository and investing in a system with even greater capabilities will be pleased to find these benefits:
- An Output Manager feature which allows documents and reports to be automatically distributed to business partners in the appropriate format and method required by the recipient.
- An electronic workflow system that can be configured to mimic your company’s existing business processes. Based upon certain actions or events, the electronic workflow system can automate business rules and bring control to critical transaction processes.
- Then instead of physically routing hard copy documents throughout a company and its remote locations for approvals, the electronic workflow system can give you the ability to route, annotate and approve documents, providing an audit trail of every action taken.
- This also provides full visibility to the history of a particular document, which supports a company’s efforts in being in step with mandated compliance regulations such as HIPPAA or Sarbanes Oxley.
- Annual audits can be greatly simplified as auditors can be trained in minutes to retrieve a particular document and see who, where and when a document was routed, as well as all of its annotations and approvals along the way.
If you want more information on document management, download our whitepaper: Armed and Paperless: Ten Key Considerations When Selecting a Document Management Solution.
Stay tuned for our next article where we will cover how document management software can be an integral part of your disaster recovery process.
The overall impact of processing, handling and storing paper documents in the workplace is astounding from a financial, environmental and resource perspective. Not only can the inefficiencies inherent with paper-based bottlenecks be cumbersome on day-to-day operations, but the improper storage or loss of these documents can cripple or devastate a business.
Over the next few weeks we will highlight some of the different benefits of going paperless and how Document Management software can be beneficial. This week’s focus:
The Hidden Costs of Paper
Some of the costs of paper processing are obvious. These would include:
- Time spent by employees processing, filing, faxing and routing documents
- Storage costs, and fees charged by storage facilities to retrieve documents
- Time spent trying to find lost documents, and/or having to re-create them
- The simple cost of paper and ink (the average office worker can use between 5,000 and 10,000 sheets of paper per year!)
Other costs are a bit more obscure. For example it can be a little bit tricky to measure the cost of paper-intensive and repetitive tasks in regards to paper-management. However, many companies find that they are able to greatly increase employees’ output by automating laborious paper-intensive tasks and save substantial amounts of money as a result. A good example of this is in regards to faster invoice processing.
It is calculated that for best in class companies, or the top 20% of companies, it takes approximately 4.4 days and costs $4.60 to process a single invoice. The time and cost vary by company and can take up to 34.4 days and cost $55.00 to process a single invoice in some less efficient companies. A document management solution allows you to reduce the time and cost involved within your invoicing process and will not only save you money internally, but can also give you the ability to take advantage of early pay discounts and improved financial close cycles.
Document management systems offer further benefits by allowing for compressed cycle times, driving costs down through integration to your ERP application. By leveraging information already known in your ERP system, document management systems reduce data entry steps, improve accuracy and strengthen your accounting controls.
Stay tuned for our next article where we will cover the benefits of document management software in more detail.
If you want more information on Document Management, download our whitepaper Armed and Paperless – Ten Key Considerations When Selecting a Document Management Solution.
Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet (click here for a white paper on the industry standard definition of “Cloud”). There are three distinct things that differentiate cloud from traditional computing:
- It is available on-demand. Most cloud solutions can be purchased and activated almost instantaneously as long as customization is not involved. Even a full scale CRM system can be up and running within 24 hours of a purchase as long as you use the standard product. This can be a huge benefit to companies that have been bogged down by long implementations.
- It is elastic. You can use the software as little or as much as you would like without any change in the monthly fee. Let’s say your ERP is hosted in the cloud and you use it for all of your accounts receivable and accounts payable transactions. If you have an extraordinarily busy month and your users are accessing the system twice as much, it will not affect the performance or the charge. Regardless of usage, the fee structure is locked in.
- It is fully managed by the provider. Cloud applications are available to you as long as you have internet access. The provider handles the servers and maintenance of the application without any of your intervention. It is their responsibility to automatically upgrade your application with the latest fixes and feature enhancements. You will simply log-in and find the new features ready to use.
Cloud computing basically allows your business to expand capabilities and increase capacity without investing in costly IT infrastructure; your ERP applications and files are on the internet, not your local devices. Of course, there are always additional considerations you need to be aware of with this model, and new cloud opportunities are springing up every day. We will explore these and share the ways you can take advantage of the cloud in the coming weeks. Up next, “What are the types of Cloud Computing”.
In the meantime, view this on-demand webcast “ERP in the Cloud: The untold story of simplicity, flexibility, and ROI.” to learn about ERP cloud opportunities and:
- How modern ERP solutions address top business drivers that lead to positive ROI.
- How you can choose the right solution or deployment option to cut costs and complexity.
- What deciding factors, including implementation time, data security/availability, upfront/recurring costs, you should consider before making a decision.
- And much more.
Part 6 of a 6 part series on Overcoming Latencies
In our sixth and final part of our series on Business Latencies, we will be focusing on Integrated Data Analysis and Response within your Business Management Systems.
Definition: The need to automatically and dynamically analyze data between multiple business applications and (if appropriate) trigger the appropriate automated workflow.
There’s a reason why this Latency was saved for last: it’s most difficult to achieve. Most organizations have not considered “integrated data analysis & response” in terms of its embedded Latencies because everyone assumes that those Latencies are a given.
This assumption is based on the fact that most businesses use multiple software applications and the very existence of that variety of software demands that certain Latencies cannot be avoided.
The truth is, they can.
Examples:
- An organization has a “Sales” application and an “Accounting” application. They do not share data. There is no way to know when a client’s pending sales (in the Sales DB) would put them over their credit limit (in the Accounting DB).
- An organization has 3 databases in which employees record time spent on different activities. There is no way to automatically total the times from all 3 databases per employee and see if that employee is above or below certain thresholds.
- If someone in the Finance department puts a client on ‘Credit Hold’ (in their Financial DB), there is no way to ensure that the client’s salesperson knows about it.
- It’s impossible to spot interdepartmental “trouble spots” e.g., customers who have ordered less than $5k of products but have called into Support more than 25 times over the last year.
Business Impacts:
If it’s difficult for an organization to keep on top of the activities of just a single business unit or department (such as Sales, Finance, or Customer Support), think of the challenge of trying to maintain a high level of awareness of the “convergence points” of business data between those departments and their separate business management systems.
From a “lag-time” perspective, consider this:
If the average department has the time and energy to analyze and respond to their business data once a month, how often will an organization as a whole have the time and energy to analyze the combined business data between their departments? Quarterly? Yearly? Ever?
And lastly, who within an organization has the time, energy, or expertise to analyze cross-departmental business issues? The CEO? CFO? Anyone?
Any organization that focuses all of their attention on departmental goals, exceptions, and thresholds is being short-sighted. An individual client may appear to be a spectacular customer from the perspective of Sales, but might be a nightmare to Customer Service and Finance. The client might be a late-payer, always near their credit limit, and call into Support ten times a day.
A complete picture of this client cannot be gleaned from any one department. The truth to that client’s status and value lies in the sum of all their activities.
The impact of an organization’s inability to see this can be significant.
Consider a customer whose Sales profile is rosy but whose Financial profile is bleak. Without cross-departmental awareness, Sales staff can spend extensive time and effort closing a deal only to have it put on hold by the members of Finance. Lost time? Wasted Effort? You bet.
The problem with most cross-departmental situations like this one is that they typically do not reveal themselves until its too late. It’s only after Sales has worked hard to win an opportunity and thrown it over the wall to Finance that a problem is detected. And although the sale itself may be halted, the time spent by the Sales Team is gone, never to be regained. That’s a Latency that no company can afford on a frequent basis.
More and more companies are understanding that cross-departmental analysis is an essential part of managing their business. However, the cross-departmental analysis methods adopted by some companies often result in even greater Latencies than before. The problem here is that many cross-departmental analysis tools themselves cause more Latency than they relieve.
The reason for this is that most organizations assume that they need two, three, or more Automation solutions to adequately address the need for cross-departmental analysis and response. These solution sets typically include:
- An Integrated Data Mining tool (to combine and analyze data between departments)
- An Integration tool (to move the data from one application to another)
- A Workflow tool (to trigger the creation of follow-up actions)
Unfortunately, it is often the case that three such tools as these do not easily integrate with each other. And so, the time and effort required to integrate these solutions with each other and then apply them to cross-departmental awareness often results in a net loss of time rather than a net gain.
Reducing the Latency in Cross-Department Analysis
Although the challenge of cross-departmental awareness is significant, the method to address it is relatively simple and consists of two steps. The first step is to identify the departmental “convergence points” of business data.
To identify convergence points, you need to ask such questions as:
- What actions by department ‘a’ require a response from department ‘b’?
- What actions by department ‘a’ can be impacted by actions from department ‘b’?
- What thresholds which are determined by department ‘a’ can impact actions or decisions by department ‘b’?
- What actions by department ‘a’ need to inform members of department ‘b’?
Process flowcharts are an invaluable aid to identifying business process convergence points. In most flowcharts, you will readily be able to see when a decision point has been reached, and what departmental data is required to reach that decision.
Keep in mind that the earlier in a process that decisions can be reached, the less impact a Latency will have. For example, a process that waits for a sales opportunity to be worked on and closed before checking a client’s financial status has a much larger Latency than a process that checks a client’s financial status as soon as an opportunity is created.
The second step in addressing the challenge of cross-departmental awareness is the selection of a single Business Process Automation solution that encompasses all three capabilities mentioned previously.
Effective cross-departmental analysis and response requires a solution that offers a combination of Integrated Data Mining, Data Integration, and Workflow capabilities. Historically, those three functions have been available only as separate Automation solutions, but the last few years (from 2000 onwards) has seen the introduction of such consolidated solutions onto the market.
When reviewing potential Business Process Automation solutions, an organization needs to first evaluate what extent of functionality they need in each of the three areas mentioned previously (Integrated Data Mining, Data Integration, and Workflow) as different organizations require different levels of functionality in each of these areas. Once that analysis is complete, an organization can effectively choose a consolidated Automation solution that offers the precise level of functionality they require.
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Suppress Crystal Subreports without losing hidden Shared Variables
Up until two hours ago, using Crystal Reports was giving me fits! I had a subreport that contained a shared variable which was filling my report with blank rows which I could not hide without messing up the data in the main report. It looked terrible with all the extra blank spaces in it, but I needed the subreport with the shared variable to make it all work.
I seriously dislike shared variables in subreports!
Admittedly I have a love-hate relationship with shared variables and subreports. However, I am learning to work around them and found a new trick that is a huge life saver.
To give some background: In using Crystal Reports, when you pass a variable from a subreport up to the main report, the subreport must remain available to pass the data. Normally this results in blank sections that take up space in the report and may create awkward, uneven blank areas. Suppressing the sections conditionally may not always be an option, especially when the condition depends on the data coming in on the shared variable. Meaning, I have to use the value from the variable to calculate if it should be suppressed in the main report but once I suppress it, I lose the variable for the calculation and so the rule gets broken. It's the chicken and the egg all over again.
The image below illustrates my hidden subreport that is passing a variable into the main report. The variable is used to provide the Committment which affects whether the item is Below Minimum. When the user selects to suppress items that are not below minimum it affects the spacing in the crystal report as seen below. The blank rows are from the subreport above each suppressed above minimum item row.
Now for the new business tip and trick: There is a workaround that will eliminate the blank spaces left behind by that subreport. In order to suppress the hidden subreport there are several steps to take. I have put together printscreens to help you as we go along.
1. Go into the subreport, and hide all sections of the report using the Section Expert. Suppression will prevent the data from being available to pass into the main report.
2. Go to the main report, right click over the section that contains your subreport. Note: the subreport needs to be in a section that does not contain anything else.
3. Using the Section Expert, set the section to suppress all blank sections by checking the appropriate box as shown below.
4. Go to the Subreport field in the main report and right click over it, and select Format Subreport.
5. Go to the Subreport Tab, and check the Suppress Blank Subreport checkbox.
6. Once you complete all the steps, your report should hide the subreport that is passing the parameter without losing the data being passed. The result on the example report is shown below. Always make sure to tie out the values of the data in the report, as changes to subreports with variables that are used in calculations can cause adverse effects if done improperly.
Voila - a beautiful report, and my numbers all tied out when I compared them to the report that did not have the suppression/hide set up in it.
Part 5 of a 6 part series on Overcoming Latencies
In part five of our series on Business Latencies and solutions for businesses, we will be focusing on Generating & Distributing Reports.
Definition: The ability to automatically trigger, generate, and deliver reports to the appropriate recipients.
Note: Report Distribution may be divided into two categories; Scheduled Reports (reports that are generated and distributed according to a recurring, periodic schedule), and Triggered Reports (reports that are generated and distributed only when certain business conditions exist).
Examples:
The following are all examples of reports that organizations typically require in their day-to-day business. If run manually (i.e., if it is an employee’s responsibility to run and distribute the report), the process contains unnecessary Latencies.
- A daily “Open Customer Service Calls” Report needs to be generated every morning at 9 AM and emailed to the Customer Service Manager and Sales Manager.
- A daily “Overdue Activities” report needs to be generated and emailed every morning to each Salesperson who has overdue activities.
- Once a week, a Report should be run for any Salesperson whose pipeline contains less than $50,000 in prospective sales. The report is emailed to the Sales Manager
- A daily “Project Management” report needs to be generated and emailed to over 100 employees within an organization.
- Once a week, any client who has more than $10,000 in overdue Receivables should receive a summarized invoice that lists all overdue payments.
- Whenever a new order is entered into the system, an “Order Confirmation” report should be delivered to the corresponding customer.
Business Impacts:
The time when an organization had one or more people whose jobs included running countless reports for their Manager or Supervisor are (fortunately) mostly behind us. Specialized business software, Automated Report Distribution applications (and/or add-on modules for commercial Reporting applications) are fairly widespread and, in general, are very affordable. Where standard Report Distribution applications fail, however, is in their inability to self-determine whether a report should be generated, and (if so), what data the report should look for, and whom the report should be sent to.
But let’s begin by looking at the very first example from the previous list, the “Open Service Calls” report. Clearly, the task of running such a report and delivering to the appropriate recipients is not a good use of “Human Time”. Thus one would expect that most organizations needing to run a report like this would have its generation and distribution automated. Even so, there are still some hidden Latencies.
For example, what if there are no open calls? The result will typically be a blank report which is sent to the appropriate recipients. This is a minor annoyance and a waste of time – both on the part of the person who generated the blank report and for the recipients of that report.
But “Human Time” is not the only resource that is impacted by reporting Latencies; so too is System Processing time. Consider the “Project Management” report that needs to be emailed to 100 people. Is it really a good use of system resources to generate and e-mail 100 identical reports? How will those reports affect the processing speed of an organization’s email server? Reports are notoriously “resource-hungry”, and the effect of running (and/or emailing) 100 reports would certainly adversely affect system performance.
Report generation and distribution’s greatest Latency, however, is in its inability to be spontaneous. By definition, “Report Distribution” is governed by a schedule; reports may be scheduled to run every couple of hours, once a day, or even every week. Unfortunately, the business conditions that warrant the creation of a report can occur anytime.
For example, a Sales Manager might receive a report called “Expired Quotes” every Monday at 9 AM. If an opportunity is due to close on a Tuesday – but does not – the Sales Manager will not know about it until next Monday; six days later. By the time that overdue sale is identified, it’s probably too late to do anything about it.
Unless someone is actively watching business conditions, the conditions that warrant a report and the scheduled running of that report may occur hours, days, or even weeks apart. This is the major Latency of reporting; the fact that by the time a report is generated and reviewed, the conditions that caused information to appear on the report may have occurred so long ago as to make it impossible (or at least very difficult) for an organization to intelligently act on and respond to that condition.
Critical information must be detected and acted on as soon as possible.
Some organizations try to address this Latency by running reports very frequently, such as every 10 or 20 minutes. But who can afford the impact on system processing of running a report so often? And (even more importantly), who wants to explain to a Sales Manager that they’ve received 24 blank reports today just in case there was some recent business activity that required their attention?
Today’s departmental Managers and Executives don’t want to receive more reports, they want to receive more meaningful reports. That’s where “Exception Management Reporting” comes into play.
Exception Management Reporting is an approach whereby the conditions that warrant reporting on are watched for on a frequent basis. When those conditions do exist – and only then – does a corresponding report containing the relevant information get generated and delivered. This approach combines the best of Exception Management (see Latency #2) and Redundant Task Execution (see Latency #1).
Not only does this approach dramatically reduce the Latency between the appearance of and response to critical business data, it also frees an organization’s “Human” resources for more important tasks.
Reducing the Latency in Generating & Distributing Reports:
The best way to reduce the Latency in Generating and Distributing Reports is through business process automation, but there are many different solutions for businesses available. Thus the first step is to identify which Latencies you wish to address. You can reduce Latencies that result from:
- Manually-submitted reports
- Distributing multiple copies of the same report (impacting server performance)
- Distributing reports without data
- Distributing reports that are not timely
- Triggering reports based on database conditions
You’ll notice that the preceding Latencies are divided into three groups; each group can be addressed by different types of Automation. (Some Automation solutions address all three types of Latencies.)
Implementing a solution to begin addressing the Latencies of manually-submitted reports is fairly simple, as all that is initially required is a Report Distribution system. Such systems allow reports to be scheduled for generation and distribution on a recurring schedule, such as daily or weekly. Vendors that supply reporting software often offer add-on modules that automate the scheduling and distribution of their reports.
The ability to reduce the Latency connected with producing and distributing multiple copies of the same report is a bit more challenging. Most people reason that if 25 people need to receive the same report, the report needs to be generated and distributed 25 times. That does not necessarily have to be the case.
There are two very efficient ways to distribute the same report to multiple people; via the Internet (web browser), and via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Some Report Distribution Automation systems have the ability to post (or “push”) reports to a website. Thus if you have 25 people who need to receive the same report, you can have the Automation solution post one copy of that report to a centralized website, and direct all 25 people to that site to view (and optionally download) the corresponding report.
FTP’ing can also be used in a similar fashion. Automation can FTP one copy of the report to a centralized server, where the appropriate recipients could download it. Another option is to have Automation FTP separate copies of the report to each individual recipient’s preferred location. Regardless of whether the Internet or FTP is used, email can also be used to notify the report recipients that their report is available – and even provide a URL link directing the recipient where to go to access the corresponding report.
Among the virtues of distributing reports via the Internet or FTP is that they provide the ability for the report recipients to view the report on-line. In many cases, the need for a recipient to actually print out the report is reduced or eliminated altogether.
The last area of Reporting Latency is the most difficult to achieve, but at the same time it also provides the greatest value, as it dramatically improves the quality of the data being reported on. The Latency in this case stems from the inability of an organization to generate reports when they are needed, and only on the information that requires attention. Called “Triggered Reporting” or “Automatic Exception Reporting”, this is the ability to base the generation and distribution of reports on the presence of certain conditions of business data.
Automation that provides this ability eliminates the problem of blank reports, as reports get generated only if the appropriate conditions exist. Automation that provides this ability also eliminates most of the lag-time between the presence of “reportable data” and the generation and distribution of the corresponding reports.
And, Automation that provides this ability can be restricted to producing reports based on very specific data (such as an inventory item within 10% of its re-order level), or on very specific thresholds (such as a support rep with more than 6 high priority calls).
But keep in mind that Automation that supports scenarios like these is only as valuable as an organization’s ability to identify what those scenarios are.
When considering the use of Triggered Reports, it is essential that an organization first consider which reports would benefit from being more time-sensitive, and then consider what business conditions should trigger a corresponding report. Once an organization has identified those items, the return on investment from a Triggered Reporting Automation solution is easy to justify.
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Back up your data!
Double-check your settings (to avoid deleting your history). Before closing your fiscal year in the General Ledger, check your settings for the number of years of fiscal sets and transactions that will be saved. Any fiscal sets and transactions that are older than the number of years noted will be deleted. You can find this setting in your General Ledger Setup Options.
Import your budget. You can import your budget into the Sage Accpac General Ledger using an Excel Spreadsheet.
Prepare your 1099. Print your 1099's right out of the Sage Accpac Accounts Payable.
Update Your Payroll Tax Tables. If you subscribe to the Payroll Update Plan, you can download the current payroll tax tables for 2011 by visiting www.sageaccpac.com.
If you have special year-end closing requirements or would like assistance with your accounting system please contact us, our financial software consulting team is standing by and would love to help!
PositiveVision has made a list and checked it twice to help prevent Year-End from being naughty, but nice. Here is your Sage PFW ERP system year-end checklist. We encourage you to read through this and contact us if you need any assistance along the way.
Sage PFW ERP Tips
- Back up your data!
- Update your date. Before processing transactions in 2012, be sure to create a new fiscal calendar in General Ledger and in Inventory. Remember you do not have to wait for your year end audit adjustments. You can post these later.
- Confirm new fiscal year is set up in General Ledger.
- Import your budget. You can import your budget into the General Ledger using an Excel Spreadsheet. Save hours of tedious data entry by using this feature in PFW.
- Physical Inventory. Account for all products before ending the year in 2011. Sage PFW has a great add on product to help streamline this process with bar coding technology. Please read our blog on inventory management if you want to learn more about this.
- Update General Ledger Year End.
- Perform the checklist of items in Year-End Processing.
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All companies rely on Business Process Management (BPM) in order to run their operation effectively. These business processes are generally made up of a series of repetitive tasks performed by employees. This includes anything from ongoing reporting, authorizations and approvals, to manually tracking stock levels, contract renewals and key performance indicators.
Automating these repetitive tasks will not only save significant amounts of time and reduce overhead costs; but will also provide for more efficient and reliable information organization-wide. Business Process Automation (BPA) is achieved through the implementation of the appropriate business process management software. This technology provides the capabilities necessary to have the computer system handle tasks that were traditionally performed by employees. Automating certain processes gives an organization the ability to streamline operations and reporting, not to mention free-up staff members to focus on more important tasks. Business process management technology is capable of much more than organizing simple static flows, such as task options with multiple choices and contingencies. Rather, it can define, execute, manage and refine processes that involve human interaction; work with multiple applications; and handle dynamic process rules and changes.
Business Process Management technology is the IT industry’s response to problems created by employee-dependent applications. The resulting Business Process Automation allows directors, managers, suppliers and customers to receive instant responses to commercial interactions by leveraging all IT systems across an organization through a real-time, responsive infrastructure.
Which business processes should be automated?
Like any savvy business owner -or- manager, you are likely considering your bottom line. Will the automation of your business processes really save your organization time and money? The answer is: absolutely. The types of processes listed below are most likely to yield a high return on investment once automated.
These are processes that change frequently such as those that must be regularly adapted in order to abide by regulatory compliance changes. For example, retailers who are required to regularly modify how customer information is managed due to changes in federal privacy law and Credit Card Company mandates.
This category covers any processes that involve people and/or typically cross multiple business units, divisions, or departments.
Complex processes are those that require the collaboration of a variety of people from different departments, who may be using different software applications. An example of this would be an organization’s Order-to-Payment process, which covers each step of a product purchase. From an order placed (via phone, web, email, etc.) to the sales rep, to fulfillment by your shipping department and payment to accounts receivable.
- Measurable & Mission Critical
This covers those processes which are vital to the business, and that directly impact performance metrics.
This category includes any processes that rely on one or more legacy applications to be completed. Additionally, this also covers those that require a significant additional capability such as HR functionality for employees.
Manual research processes are those that are currently handled by a staff-member. An example would be a furniture retailer’s reliance on physical discovery, and/or research into inventory aberrances.
These are any processes with exceptions that require quick turnarounds.
Sometimes however, the most important part of a strategy is in knowing what not to do, especially with a fairly horizontal capability like BPA. Areas that are not good candidates for automation include:
- Legacy application replacement
- High-volume transaction processing (such as a point-of-sale application, although cross-channel returns might be a good target)
- Processes with little or no user interaction
- Processes that can be simply and cheaply automated with other tools
For a first BPA initiative, select a process from your organization that is important, but not mission-critical or overly complex. A good first step is to focus on a specific and quick solution where a visible business process improvement will foster momentum for broader and more sustained BPM conversions.
The Benefits of Business Process Management Automation Software
As a technology, Business Process Management software can deliver endless benefits to any organization, no matter the size. Converting your business processes from ‘managed’ to ‘automated’ reduces operational costs and frees up employees to concentrate on other activities that are important for the success of your business. Tasks such as report creation and distribution, or the monitoring and/or reporting on company Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) can now be easily handled by your computer application.
Some of the direct benefits include:
• Stronger Revenue Streams
• Operational Savings
• Reduction in the Administration Involved with Compliance and ISO Activities
• Greater Company Agility
• Higher Customer Satisfaction Levels
• Eradication of Data Entry Errors
• Critical Failure Avoidance
Business Process Management automation software can greatly enhance the day-to-day operations of your company. With increasing demands and fluctuating profit margins – there’s never been a better time to invest in automation capabilities that will enable you to maximize performance. Business process automation will provide you the leverage you need to reduce costs and increase efficiency, enhancing your organization’s ability to remain competitive.
PositiveVision can help identify and automate your business process management. Contact us today for more information.