Because so many businesses are still using paper, faxes, emails, etc. to communicate internally, most departments just think that’s the way it is. It doesn’t cost any extra to do this and it seems to be working just fine! This was true for snail mail 20 years ago – until email showed up. The growing problems businesses are encountering without using a workflow management platform are: failure to meet compliance, no transparency, limited collaboration, lost paperwork, delays, time, etc. And because most of the preceding actions are buried in the salaries of the employees shuffling all this paper around, it goes unnoticed. It’s just business as usual.
Until you understand and witness a really efficient business app that is in real-time, with full accountability, that meets compliance, that allows full transparency and where nothing can get lost. Something that allows full collaboration, speed in delivery, and that greatly enhances team efficiency. Something that can be accessed via mobile and in the cloud so employees can complete a task by touching their screen in a second while out of the office. Oh, and something that saves companies thousands of man-hours each year and as an added bonus, something that allows organizations to use less paper which is nice if you want to save some trees. The paperless office is now a reality and it just got a lot better than just paperless.
Even more interesting is that once an organization uncovers the need for a workflow solution, or a business app, many other opportunities seem to emerge as a result. Operations that previously seemed slightly productive become streamlined and take minutes to complete as compared to days. Tasks that are complex are simplified and improved upon. Anything that requires approvals, oversight, multiple signatures or is on paper or Excel can be transferred onto a platform like Intellect’s Accelerate and many hours can be reduced.
So, how much money can an organization save when implementing a workflow management solution? Here’s a simple calculation: If the average salary is $50,000 per year, let’s assume you can save 1 hour per week per employee that uses a business app or workflow solution. You would save 52 hours yearly per employee @ $26 per hour. That’s minimally $1,400 per employee. If you multiply that by 100 employees, you’d save $140,000 each year in time.
But the better question is, can you profit from using this type of system? The answer is yes. If you streamline all business processes, if you have a high user adoption, if you implement a platform in all departments of the business, and if you uncover additional inefficiencies as a result, you will see a profit. Not necessarily recognized as a financial dividend, but as a time savings of your employees where they will have more time to do their jobs and stop shuffling and losing paperwork daily.
When considering a workflow management software, it is important to not view it as an expenditure, but as an investment that will show a return on many levels. Most users will comment that morale is boosted, teamwork is improved, management is refined, transparency is enriched and compliance is met on all levels. So, the cost savings are apparent and the market is seeing a critical mass movement toward workflow and process management platform implementation. If you’d like to learn more and create a Proof of Concept app with Intellect, click here for a free trial. http://www.intellect.com/free-trial
