January is a great time to lay the groundwork for a more efficient and productive work environment for the year ahead. One of the ways businesses can do this is by optimising workflow. By addressing this early in the year, your business and team can reap the rewards throughout 2024.
Optimising workflow simply means finding smarter and faster ways to get things done at work. It involves identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, streamlining processes, and leveraging technology to ensure tasks are completed efficiently.
There are many benefits to streamlining your workflow:
Reduce delays by pinpointing bottlenecks in your processes and streamlining them for smoother operations. Common bottlenecks include manual data entry, approval delays, legacy software, too much time spent on repetitive tasks, lack of visibility between teams and ineffective communication channels.
Perform tasks, such as data entry, just once. Enter or capture data and seamlessly share it with other systems. This helps you become more efficient, reducing the time it takes to manually type in the data, and prevents errors where data has been mistyped or misspelt.
Reduce errors and improve accuracy by minimising the number of human touchpoints in your workflow.
When you create a standardised workflow, tasks are completed consistently – the same way, every time – which improves overall reliability.
Streamlining workflows can often lead to cost savings by improving efficiency and preventing unnecessary expenses. By making work easier, your business can handle the increased workload as you grow, without having to increase the size of your team.
By automating time-consuming, repetitive tasks, improved workflows can contribute to a more positive work environment, happier, less stressed employees, and a boost in morale.
Optimised workflows often result in quicker decision-making processes, which is crucial for agile and competitive businesses.
Automating Processes
Now that we’ve established the importance of workflow optimisation, let’s look at the types of processes that can be automated within Invu Document Management. The types of workflows below have had a significant positive impact on our customer’s operations.
- Document approvals
- Invoice processing and approvals (Read Apex Lifts’ story below)
- Purchase order processing and approval
- Expense forms
- Holiday requests
- Contract approvals
- Purchase requisitions
- Employee onboarding documents
- Change requests
- Quality control documents
- Policy approvals
- Project proposals
We have also done sector-specific automated processes, such as lease forms for one of our property management customers, customer application forms for a funeral plan business, and service charge automation for another of our property management customers.
Apex Lifts, a leading lift manufacturing and servicing company, significantly transformed its operations by optimising workflows. Facing challenges with manual and paper-based processes, Apex Lifts implemented the Agilico Accounts Payable solution, leading to a remarkable improvement in efficiency and controls. The solution streamlined invoice processing, reduced approval delays, and provided full visibility into the purchase ledger process, allowing for better tracking, control, and reporting.
Post-implementation, Apex Lifts experienced substantial benefits, including seamless integration with Sage 200, improved accuracy, and speed of processing. Working with digital documents also reduced the amount of physical storage they required. The Accounts Payable solution not only eliminated manual inefficiencies but also enabled Apex Lifts to improve expenditure controls, ensuring that invoices followed the correct approval path before payment. The company now enjoys streamlined operations, efficient invoice management, and an innovative end-to-end solution that will continue to meet its changing needs.
”We can track all the documents, we know where they are in the authorisation process and we know where the hold up is.
Kevin WarnockFinance Director
As we start the new year, optimising your workflow will set your workplace up to succeed with faster task completion, improved visibility of documents, reduced errors, and seamless teamwork. Whether you’re ready to undertake a complete automated end-to-end project or want to start by automating a simple process, making changes now can have a big impact on productivity and sets the stage for a more productive year ahead.
If you would like to find out how we can tailor workflow optimisation to Make Work Easy for your business, contact us below, and together, we can set your business on the road for success this year.
