Go Green with Document Management

Introduction

How much content does your organization manage daily?  We’re talking about emails, invoices, reports, spreadsheets, documents, videos, slide decks, and all the other content forms that hold your organizational data and information.  Regardless of what your business does, content and data drive it!  Organizations thrive or fail based on their ability to effectively manage their content and make smart decisions based on the data within the content, while efficient processes enable management and staff to carry out the decisions.   

Electronic Content Management (ECM) offers a systematic approach to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver information related to business processes. Automation tools within many modern ECM platforms allow processes to be automated, speeding results while reducing errors and costs.  When it comes to business processes, especially core business processes, accurate information and efficiency are key to organizational success.

Office Automation – Efficient Technology or Job Loss Nightmare?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation promise more efficient, less costly ways of performing traditional business tasks.  Is this a new era of  effortless processes and freedom from tedium or is it the prelude to job loss?  How do business bring about exponential technological changes without  disrupting the workforce and breaking their workers economic autonomy?  Interestingly, the technology that causes job loss in one sector can be the same technology that creates jobs in another sector.

Take office jobs – your typical “white collar” job -- or in a less-flattering depiction -- the typical “paper-pusher.”  Let’s face it, there are a lot of us out there.  We work in small mom and pop companies and in large corporate enterprises.  We pay invoices, analyze data, generate contracts, and so much more.  From banks and doctor’s offices to government agencies and schools, there’s an entire, and mostly invisible, “back-office” that manages the paperwork that keeps every organization going.

Does office automation eliminate these jobs?  Or does it create opportunities?  It all depends upon how you look at it...

How to Succeed with Office Automation

Introduction

What’s the most important part of your business?  (Hint:  It’s not your products or services.)  Customers are the most important part of any business.  Without customers, you don’t have a business!  Success depends first and foremost on how well you serve your customers.  Next in line are the quality of the product or service you offer and how you differentiate yourself from the competitors.

Did you know that office automation can be a key factor when it comes to improving customer service and retention?  Additionally, office automation empowers your employees to carry out their duties in an efficient, fulfilling manner, thus avoiding dissatisfaction at the most important junctures.

How Efficient is Your Company? Take this Test

Most managers and business owners want their companies to run smoothly and efficiently.  Many even set up processes and procedures to aid efficiency.  But, despite the desire for efficiency, and the processes and procedures designed to aid efficiency, the sad truth is that companies across the globe lose millions every year to inefficient practices. How can this be?

Why Your Small to Mid-Size Business Should Automate

No matter what business your company is in, if you’re a small to mid-size business, then you’re concerned with three things: 

• operational costs
• profit
• competition

While large corporations also face competition and monitor costs and profits, a change in any one of them doesn’t have the same impact that it can have on smaller companies. 

Small to midsize businesses compete not only with each other, but also sit squarely in the shadow of larger, more powerful companies.   In order to succeed in the face of this type of competition, an investment in process automation helps small to mid-size businesses control costs, accommodate growth and compete in changing marketplace.  Put simply, in order to remain competitive, you need to automate before someone else automates you out of business. 

3 Business Resolutions for 2018 that’ll Pay Off for Years

The stock market is up; corporate taxes are down; and the economy is good.  Businesses of all kinds are looking toward growth for 2018.  The only potential downside is Too Many Jobs and Not Enough Workers, according to the Washington Post. While Fox News reports that  six-figure construction jobs are going unfilled.   Monster.com looks at how a tight labor supply, and uncertainty about how government policy will affect business.

With these and many other sources, economists and business leaders looking at potential labor shortages, Paper Alternative’s focus for 2018 is to help businesses expand productivity even when they can’t expand their labor force.  No business wants to lose out on this bull market due to labor shortages!

How to Use Existing Business Resources Better

Every business wants to be able to do more than they're doing now; do it better than the competition; and improve profitability.  Efficiency, communication and leaner processes can help get you there.

The Role of Processes Automation

Labor is one of your biggest expenses. Finding a way to make better use of the labor force that you have can have a major impact on your profitability.  For instance, if it costs you $40,000 per year to add an additional team member, that person needs to add $100,000 value to your core business to maintain your current level of profitability.  Back office departments (accounts payable, human resources, payroll) contribute nothing to your core business profitability.  So, an additional employee in the back office detracts from your profitability.  But, if there's more work to be done than you have people to do it, you need a solution!

Business Challenge:  Improving Productivity in a Digital World

Digital transformation...information overload...the chaos of data. Businesses today spend more time than ever shifting information from one place to the other. Yet, despite the increase in data and data mobility, employee productivity is falling, according to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The question is: What can be done to improve employee productivity?

Organizations of all sizes and types are faced with a near-constant influx of paper and digital documents. Some predictions indicate that digital data will exceed 44 trillion gigabytes by 2020, with 90 percent of that growth in the form of unstructured data.

Automate Document Routing to Streamline Business Processes

Did you know that that you can make any of your standard business operations easier to execute and easier to manage by electronically routing documents?  This process is called Business Process Improvement.  When you route electronically there are three immediate benefits:

• the elimination of paper
• the notification of pending work
• the ability to track work progress

 Increase Efficiency/Cut Costs with Business Process Management (BPM) 

Here are three things that successful businesses have in common:

• Successful businesses are highly efficient
• Their employees are highly productive
• They understand and use Business Process Management (BPM)

In fact, it’s Business Process Management that contributes to the productivity and efficiency; and all of those factors equal success.

So, what is BPM? And why does it create the dividing line between success and “just getting by?