“It seems to work ok”….. "It’s how we’ve always done it”… "We don’t have time to make changes” – These are just some of the things our sales team often hear when talking to prospects about process optimisation.

Since when was ‘ok’ good enough? And just because something has been done in a certain way for a long time, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it.

The idea of process optimisation may seem daunting, especially if your organisation has a lot of areas to address. Breaking it down by process will help, along with effective planning and mapping to understand exactly what’s needed.

Get to know each of the key stages from all employees involved. Ensure everyone knows why changes are required, what the goals are and that the whole team is on board.

Optimising a process will make it perform better and yield better results, while ensuring employee time is better spent. Hours wasted on manual tasks, repetitive data entry or hunting down lost information due to poor processes, can be better spent on more meaningful work.

In our experience, to get the most out of process improvement there a five key areas we feel it best to focus on first. Read more in our Ultimate Guide to Process Optimisation.

Your Guide to Process Optimisation

Going Paperless

Organisations still printing the majority of their documents are not as efficient as they could be. Paper means printing, storage and shredding costs, as well as the obvious environmental impacts. Having information ‘trapped’ on paper can be lost, misplaced or duplicated.

A physical document is understandably reassuring but if is causing problems such as duplicate payments, information is difficult to find or there's too much time spent on manual data entry, the move to digital documents would bring many benefits.

Removing paper all together isn’t always needed, but to reduce the reliance on it and to store documents digitally means processes can be automated. A Document Management System stores information in one single and secure location.

Documents are easily accessible from anywhere with an internet connection and are safe from unauthorised access and malware.

To make the move to paperless, start by asking suppliers to send invoices electrically. Anything still received on paper or any historical documents that are needed, can be scanned in and automatically stored and categorised into the document management system.

Information that arrives by email can also be saved straight into the system with little or no manual intervention. Rules set up on implementation mean that should an email or attachment meet a certain criteria, it can be moved straight to a virtual tray for processing.

Automating Business Processes

Manual, repetitive and routine tasks can slow processes down and increase the opportunity for error. Data taken from an invoice and typed into a finance package may not always be 100% accurate. Once in the system and processed, spotting errors can become difficult and costly mistakes can be made.

A document management system can automate these manual tasks. Accurately capturing data at the start ensures the right information is initially stored which can automatically be pushed to an ERP or finance system.

When an invoice is saved, a check can be made in the system and if there is a matching purchase order, payment can be authorised. If everything adds up, why have staff involved in these mundane tasks when their time could be better spent elsewhere.

Automating business processes makes them more efficient.  Customers can receive their goods quicker, payments are made sooner and management have visibility of where a process is up to. Automation relieves staff of repetitive work and has a huge impact on process improvement.

Utilising the Cloud

Utilising the Cloud has gained more popularity over the years as it’s a solution people are now more familiar with. With Smart Phones regularly using the Cloud to store pictures and files without clogging up the phone memory, businesses are recognising its power too.