The concept of optimization implies doing more with smaller resources, manpower and in a shorter time span. Therefore, the concept of business process optimization would be quite self-explanatory. It’s about finding a way to outcompete much larger corporate entities as a newcomer to the market and keep this level of competitiveness for as long as possible.
Still, how does one reach this level of business organization? One of the simplest ways is to properly utilize technical and digital tools that you have available, as well as take advantage of some industry trends. Here are a couple of useful tips to help you get a grip on things.
1. Streamline Forms to Data
The first thing you want is to streamline all the forms that your applicants and customers have to fill straight to your master data. Why? Well, because this improves your subsequent analytics and customer profiling. With the data in hand, you can easily provide superior service with a lot less effort than you would otherwise require.
This method also improves the reliability of your processes. Sure, manual errors are still possible, but these errors have to be made by customers. This, however, is not a new risk. When it comes to data entry, human errors are not just possible but also highly likely.
This is also a way to speed things up a bit. How? Well, by improving the automated ordering method. An automated order can prohibit orders being placed by unapproved vendors, which, again, acts as an additional layer of protection for your workflow.
Most importantly, this is the feature that your accounting will be very thankful for. This is mainly because it will provide all the necessary information in real-time and allow your accounting software to do a quarterly report in a fraction of the time.
2. Data Access and Analysis
The next thing you need is real-time access to data you collect in order to use it in your work. With the previously-discussed system, you will gather vast amounts of data, so how will you find what you need here? The best method is to use an information management platform. This provides expediency, clarity, and ease of use.
This is the best way to avoid information silos and get only the data that you need at the moment. It gives you a chance to spend your time focusing on value-adding tasks instead of scrolling through an endless table, looking for a figure that may not even be relevant at the given moment. Other than this, it helps you put the right content in the right context.
From the logistical standpoint, all of the above-listed advantages reduce costs, increase revenue, and help you manage risk much more accurately. Aside from this, the use of such a platform even allows you to segment the access level according to one’s function in your organization.
For those who need on-demand reporting and valuable insight into the data they’ve collected, here’s nothing quite like this digital tool.
3. Notifications Instead of Approvals
Waiting for approval over and over again can be necessary, but it’s also something slowing you down. So, how do you handle this particular problem? Well, you can always try going for notifications instead of approvals. Is this always a good idea? Of course not, but when done properly, it can be a huge improvement to your workload expediency.
Think about an average subscription service. The majority of them renew automatically until they’re canceled by the user. What we have in mind is a similar process with one minor exception. Every time just before the process is renewed, what we would do is send the notification to the user/employee in question.
This makes the process user-friendlier, portrays you as more careful and consistent consent-oriented. From the standpoint of workload expediency, this could make a world of difference, seeing as how it provides you with a perfect compromise of flow and control. From the legal standpoint, this can be made quite ironclad.
Moreover, you can still keep the people in the loop without deceiving them or hoping that they’ll simply forget to cancel your subscription. This is not what your business model should be based on. This kind of notification system will help you avoid any implications or allegations of this being the case.
4. Consider Outsourcing
There’s nothing wrong with sharing some of your workflows with others. One of the simplest ways to approach this issue is to outsource some of your business processes. Remember that there are a lot of processes that are standard for the majority of businesses. Therefore, someone with previous experience in handling this for another company would do just as good, if not better than your own team.
At the same time, you would unburden your staff and allow them to handle core tasks. These are the tasks that are industry-specific and, as such, cannot be transferred to third-party providers as easily. In this way, you would gain massive improvements in cost-efficiency, time-efficiency, and stability of your corporate structure.
Another thing worth pointing out is that this method is, for the most part, scalable. This means that regardless of whether your business grows or gets downsized, you still get to benefit from outsourcing. It also means that once you find reliable partners, most of your troubles, in this regard, will be done with.
What you get this way is the privilege of focusing on business growth and development without being tied down by menial administrative tasks.
5. Software and Intra-department Integration
One of the best ways to improve your workflow is to check whether the tool you want to start using can be integrated into your digital system. Needless to say, you need to do this for every single additional tool that you intend to start using. This includes your collaboration system, time management platform, communication tools (IM), and even payment methods.
Other than this, you need to be fully aware of different departments working simultaneously in this work environment. So, what you’re looking for is one central platform where all of these departments can interact, as well as situational access to the relevant data.
For instance, if you’re using a fleet management system, your fleet manager is not the only one who needs to know the GPS coordinates of the vehicles in question. This information should also be shared with the customer service and, in some cases, limited access to particular shipments can be even given out to customers.
Overall, your team cannot work without having access to proper information. Having it all in one place is something that we’ve already discussed, but it’s so big that we need to stress it out again.
In Conclusion
In the end, you need to make things simpler, quicker, and less workforce-intensive. Anything that can be (safely) streamlined should be streamlined as soon as possible. Second, you need to improve how your staff gets the information they need on-demand. This way, you’re keeping things efficient and keeping all the sensitive data both safe and available at the same time. With just a couple of digital tools, you can easily revolutionize your business processes and reach a whole new level of business process optimization.
