Create smarter business processes with a tactical transformation strategy
It’s becoming widely understood that digital transformation is not something that can be successfully achieved with one large, big bang project, nor will a paperless office appear overnight. Businesses that embark on a journey of manageable steps, identifying and prioritising processes and workflows for digitisation will reap rewards more effectively and efficiently.
Most organisations today work successfully in a hybrid environment, striking a unique balance of digital and analogue business processes. So before investing it’s important to consider, which processes are most critical, challenging and time-consuming? Many of these are found within the HR and finance departments.
The finance department has a reputation for analogue processes and legacy systems. 88 per cent of finance professionals fully admit they struggle to keep up with the business’ digital goals. In a recent Canon survey, a further 1 in 3 respondents said they had digitised or automated accounts payable, accounts receivable, or vendor management.
Where should you start when considering digital transformation in the finance department? One of the first steps should be to review invoice processing. Manual invoice processing is relatively common but can cause great issues to cash flow. Studies show the human error rate in completing manual invoices is between 12 and 15 per cent, regardless of seniority or experience of the team. The best remedy here is to implement invoice automation to streamline workflows and automate invoice data capture, validation and matching.
Another way to further operational efficiency is to introduce an automated, end-to-end, purchase to pay (P2P) solution. Where unproductive and outdated workflows limit growth potential and hamper profitability, an automated P2P solution will reduce time, money and admin.
Digital evolution, and the journey towards a more paperless office remains high on the corporate agenda for its ability to empower a workforce and accelerate innovation. Yet whilst HR is under increasing pressure to improve the data literacy and skills of current employees and new hires, 2 in 3 businesses continue to manage their HR records on paper.
Digitising the HR department starts by looking at administration processes that continue to be handled manually. Digital document management and archiving reduces both time and compliance costs for employee administration.
Automating processes such as expense claims, annual leave requests and employee feedback capturing can increase time available for workforce planning, guidance on predictive recruitment and devising training development programmes.
Reaching across finance (e.g. invoicing) and HR (e.g. job applications), and ultimately underpinning the efficiency of business processes across an organisation, is the way that in-bound mail is managed and archived. Without the right system in place, sorting mail is time-consuming, open to error and doesn’t indicate who has seen mail or when. Implementing a digital mailroom solution enables in-bound mail to be automatically captured, identified, validated and sent with relevant index data to the right systems or people within a matter of hours. Through these processes a digital mailroom can reduce operational costs and improve customer service.
Businesses may find that different departments or functions sit firmly within various stages of digital maturity and the processes within them will also vary in degrees of digitisation. The key to improving an organisation’s business processes is not to focus on reaching a final destination of a paperless office, but to devise a smart hybrid solution that reaches a balance between manual, digital and automated processes which is ideal for the business in its digital transformation journey.
Canon’s simpler, smarter approach to invoice handling helps you take control of your cashflow
Processing paper employee files by hand is laborious – costing you time and money. HR digitisation demonstrates the power of going paperless
Canon’s Digital Mailroom allows all incoming mail to be automatically captured, identified, validated and sent with relevant index data to the right systems or people
There is increasing pressure on HR departments to drive new talent to improve data literacy and digital skills
How can CFOs transform the finance function in to a profit centre that drives business performance?
How digital transformation aims to provide relevant, engaging customer experience in a rapidly changing world
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