Recurring processes are often prone to inefficiencies and bottlenecks. This is mostly due to the various repetitive and menial tasks they entail. Doing things manually and traditionally can result in unnecessary delays and costs for your business operations. So rather than get stuck with the past, it is time you future-proof your business by going digital.
Why embrace digital transformation?
New technology is always around the corner—both software and hardware. Business solutions designed to help increase your profitability and reduce costs are accessible now more than ever. Before, such tools were considered a luxury for companies. But now, it is an essential part of any business operations to remain relevant and competitive in the market.
There are many benefits to embracing digital transformation to your recurring business processes. It offers more flexibility for your organization and helps centralize your operations. But most importantly, it paves the way for automation. This removes repetitive and menial tasks from your recurring processes, allowing you and your workers to focus on other more value-adding tasks. According to KPMG, automation can save effort and reduce time by nearly 60%. In fact, it can bring down the usual 1-2 hours of manual processing time to 20-40 minutes.
With that, here is a list of business processes that you should consider digitizing.
What business processes should you digitize?
1. Document management
One of the types of business processes that would benefit greatly from digitalization is document management. Back in the day, document management was a tedious job. It involves tall filing cabinets and piles of folders that employees must sift through just to get the data they need. Worse, this leaves your data vulnerable to potential damages or losses.
Today, digital technology allows you to sort through and organize all your files in just a few clicks. It does away with the filing cabinets and stores all your documents in an electronic storage that you can access through your devices. What’s more, you can also put these documents in a cloud, allowing you to pull up any files you need via the internet, anytime and anywhere.
2. Employee management
The more your business grows, the harder it is to keep an eye on all your employees. This can also result in employees feeling disengaged and less valued by the organization. Avoid this from happening by digitizing your employee management.
Various software solutions offer collaborative tools which keep your whole team in sync. A popular example of this is a centralized employee dashboard. This feature allows you to post announcements or updates about the company which will then notify your employees in real-time. Some dashboards can even serve as a platform where employees can interact and communicate with their co-workers and supervisors. This feature is great for those employees who work in the field.
You can also use digital tools to monitor and assess your employees’ performance. It uses data and analytics to measure their productivity and progress in their assigned tasks.
3. Customer and lead management
Other business process automation examples to consider are customer and lead management.
Your customers and leads also need your attention. In fact, you need to pay special attention to them since they can easily slip through your fingers if you aren’t too careful. You need the best tools and strategies to make sure that they stay.
Digitizing your customer and lead management makes it easier to keep track of where they are in the sales funnel. Nowadays, there are various software solutions designed exclusively for customer relationship management (CRM) and lead management. These tools record all essential customer/lead data based on past interactions with them. This makes it easier for you to pull up the needed data to create a personalized and relevant customer experience for them in turn.
4. Task management
Task management is more than just distributing task assignments to your employees. It is also the process of overseeing your projects’ respective tasks through their various stages—from start to finish. It involves making decisions on how to execute them, accommodate changes that can occur in real-time, and successfully complete them on time.
Using a top business process management software can help you streamline this process. It can automate task assignments for your employees and shows you their progress along the way. Likewise, it makes it easier for you to apply changes in your employees’ workload since the software itself will sync such changes across all team members and instantly inform them of any changes in their tasks.
Some software solutions provide centralized calendars for your teams so that members can easily check for the deadlines for their assigned tasks. But most importantly, a centralized calendar can help develop a sense of accountancy among team members since everyone can remind each other of their impending deadlines for the project.
5. Monitoring and tracking operations
What started as a small issue in your recurring process can become serious enough to disrupt the whole operation if left unattended for a long time. It is important that you remain vigilant and proactive when it comes to monitoring all your business operations. This way, you can immediately respond to any problems that may arise.
Process automation tools can serve as your extra set of eyes. Unlike humans, digital tools won’t get tired of monitoring and tracking your operations. It won’t need breaks while doing its task. Moreover, it can be more precise when it comes to spotting any issues in your operations as long as you provide specific instructions in its programming of what to look out for.
6. Invoicing and billing
Your invoicing and billing process determines when and how you get paid. Any error in your invoices can lead to a loss in profit. Likewise, any bottlenecks in your invoicing or billing process mean delays in your payments.
Thankfully, digital tools can help streamline and simplify your invoicing. Instead of sending paper invoices to your clients, you can just send them via email or instant messaging. Likewise, your clients can pay you on the spot through the various digital payment methods available. This includes credit/debit card processing, digital wallets, and online banking.
You can also automate recurring invoices or bill payments so that you don’t have to keep reminding your clients about their payments. All you need to do is to ask your clients or customers their chosen payment method, and then the software will automatically deduct the payment from their balance during every pay period.
7. Report generation
Data plays a critical role in business growth and development. Hence, more businesses leverage data and analytics to help them create smarter decisions and strategies. By embracing digital transformation, extracting such data is easier and more convenient than ever.
Most business automation solutions do more than just mine data from your various business process. It also turns that raw data into actionable insights through report generation. It presents them using digestible formats like graphs, charts, and tables so that you can immediately gain new information in just a glance.
Work smart, not hard
Digital technology is now an integral part of our everyday lives. Hence, more businesses are joining the race towards digital transformation to meet their customers’ demands. In fact, 89% of technology leaders believe that digital transformation is the way forward for many organizations.
Your recurring processes are the best place to implement digitalization. Through digital tools, you can reduce the number of repetitive and menial tasks from your business operations, allowing you to focus more on developing better business strategies. So get on with the times and explore what digital technology has to offer for your business.
Back to Smart Business Hub