document management software Archives

Integrated Business Software: What You Need To Know

Posted on July 12, 2021May 9, 2023 by Brian Kinney

Every business has a lot of moving parts. Whether your business manufactures goods in a factory or provides in-home services to customers, it is equally important to have a unified and clear picture of all of the components of your operation.

As you work towards attaining a more all-encompassing view of your operations, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of projects and tasks. In other words, sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

One skill that can be useful in tackling an abundant and overflowing to-do list? Delegation.

When you hear the term “delegation” you are probably imagining handing off work to your employees. While this will still be true, some of the most powerful delegations are not ones you task to your employees—it’s the work you hand off to your integrated business management software.

Delegating tasks to your integrated business software provides some of the same benefits as traditional delegation. You (and your employees) will have time to focus on higher-level tasks, it will open up time to learn new skills and conduct market research, and it will improve efficiency across the board.

Even for tasks that still require a deft human touch, integrated business software provides a tangible procedural advantage that improves operational success and efficiency across the board.

What Is Integrated Business Software?

Integrated business software is a seamless collection of solutions, processes, and data. Accounting modules, customer records, and smart calendars are just some of the previously isolated functionalities and features that integrated business software unifies.

Notably, business needs vary by size, industry, and even season of the year. One key element of integrated business software is that it’s adaptive and elastic to the nuances of industry needs—while one business is looking for an alternative to their existing accounting software, another will focus on generating automated sales reports.

Integrated business software handles it all, providing connectivity and clarity throughout every facet of your business.

On the highest level, it ensures that you, your customers, and your employees have immediate, accurate, and complete access to all pertinent information. It detangles and connects previously disconnected silos within your business so that processes can run smoother and more efficiently than before.

Challenges Caused By Disconnected Software Systems

Without an integrated business management software system, businesses typically rely on a handful of disconnected software suites to get the job done.

Even if you’re primarily using standard, powerful spreadsheet and storage software systems, there are still issues that arise. The tricky part? Many of these issues often don’t come to light until it’s too late.

Let’s take a look at some of the operational issues and inefficiencies caused by disconnected software systems:

Delayed Data and Reporting

Having accurate data is good—but having accurate, real-time, and easily accessible data is great.

Without accurate, timely, and complete information, businesses suffer each year—it’s estimated that businesses lose 20% of their potential revenue due to poor-quality data. From marketing to sales to inventory management, bad data can have a profoundly negative impact on your bottom line.

Wasted Productivity

Every minute spent having to correct an error or reiterate a piece of information’s authenticity is a minute wasted. Businesses that are aiming for rapid growth can’t afford to waste this much time.

If your business is using software systems that don’t communicate with each other, it sets into motion a cascade of worsening problems—extra time spent accessing and parsing data sets leads to errors in data entry, which delays reporting time and adds unnecessary hours to your payroll. In turn, it takes time away from more important tasks.

When your employees are entering data in multiple locations, manually sifting through invoices to address a single customer’s issue, or constantly having to check back in from the field, progress suffers. Processes like these can be automated by integrated business software.

Increased Cost

As business owners know all too well, unexpected costs always have a way of dipping into—or breaking—your budget.

Some costs of having disconnected software systems are obvious and upfront. As in, paying for numerous software solutions and the corresponding upgrades, repairs, and support.

Other costs are more indirect—multiple software systems mean multiple interfaces, which typically require additional employee training and time spent learning the nuances of each. This leads to more time spent learning how to transfer data between each and time spent correcting errors that occur during this process.

This wasted time eats into productivity which could be spent on more productive and profitable tasks.

Benefits of Having Integrated Business Management Software

All businesses have growing pains. It’s natural. But as a business owner, it’s important to recognize the difference between when you’re simply adjusting to a learning curve rather than when it’s time to rethink and reshape inefficient processes and procedures.

These are the main ways that integrated business software will help alleviate ongoing procedural woes:

Increased Visibility

Your data needs to be universally accessible—one person on a certain device in a particular location shouldn’t be the sole arbiter of your data. Sure, not everyone in your organization will need access to the same information, but it’s important that people have access to what they need, anywhere and anytime.

Informed decisions are great— but those that can be made quickly without sacrificing accuracy are the best decisions. When most employees are required to get data to make a business decision, only 3% are able to do it in seconds. For 60%, it takes hours or days.

Process Efficiency

Inventory management, accounting, project management, and the hiring process—while these processes all seem separate and different in nature, they actually have a lot in common.

Namely, they are all common business processes that can eat up valuable time during the workday. In other words, your business can benefit from automating these processes using integrated business software.

Currently, CEOs spend 20% of their time on tasks that could be automated—imagine the innovation and growth you could achieve with 20% more time to put towards work that requires that critical human touch.

Cost Savings

According to a McKinsey report, 45% of current paid activities can be automated by today’s technology, an equivalent of $2 trillion in total annual wages.

Automation capabilities aside, integrated business software is a cheaper alternative than procuring, installing, and maintaining multiple software—and possibly hardware—systems.

Integrated Business Software: The Bottom Line

Integrated business software isn’t only for large businesses or even businesses in certain industries. Sure, there will always be nuances, but at the end of the day, every business needs to put an emphasis on efficiency and cost-cutting.

It’s not always easy to abandon the way you’ve done things in the past. After all, your success has gotten you this far. The good news is that you don’t have to abandon anything really—utilizing integrated business software is about changing how certain processes are completed, not changing the processes themselves.

Increased operational visibility, process efficiency, and reduced costs are just a few of the benefits that integrated business software can offer. Every business is unique—talking with an expert can help you figure out how your business can put integrated business software to work for you.

Automation: Linking Manufacturers and Localization

Posted on April 21, 2021May 9, 2023 by Julie Basello

For a long time, manufacturers have operated within the parameters of globalization as a necessary strategy for success in a worldwide marketplace.

What is the definition of globalization? According to the World Economic Forum, globalization can be defined in simple terms as “the process by which people and goods move easily across borders. Principally, it’s an economic concept – the integration of markets, trade, and investments with few barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations.”

In manufacturing, globalization has long been a strategy. Because of this strategy, products produced in large factories in low-cost areas such as Asia have benefited consumers. Low costs for doing business have generated operational cost savings that have been transferred to end users. The volume of available products has also been a benefit to consumers.

Yet globalization may be moving past its prime in terms of effectiveness in the world of manufacturing. Labor pools are dwindling and costs of doing business continue to rise. There is a shift towards localization happening in manufacturing.

This shift provides economic opportunities for companies of all sizes and it’s changing how manufacturers are doing business. When you add automation into this shifting paradigm, it becomes even more effective.

What is localization?

In manufacturing, localization is having a network of smaller manufacturing facilities around the world rather than a few large production centers. Why is localization important in manufacturing? It allows manufacturers to be closer to where their customers are. With a localization strategy, large companies can still think globally but build locally. This is efficiently achieved through automation in the form of micro factories.

What is a microfactory?

Microfactories are smaller factories that utilize automation rather than human labor, saving money while increasing the quality of production and consistency of output.

Normally, smaller factories serving regional markets would seem at odds with the goals of large companies with production centers. Through automation in the form of microfactories, however, large companies can effectively achieve localization strategies. This opens the door to lower costs, more efficient operations, and greater scope of use for manufacturers. It gives large companies the best of both worlds.

Microfactories have another added benefit in the world marketplace. They even the playing field because they make manufacturing more accessible to businesses that can’t afford massive manufacturing overhead but still have products to produce.

Small businesses looking to better utilize automation can now utilize the scale of manufacturing for their products without the overhead costs that exist in a global strategy. With machine automation and localization, and the cost efficiencies that accompany them, manufacturing becomes accessible to just about anyone.

There are many cost benefits to automation as it affects localization. But there are other benefits for manufacturers as well. Proximity to customers means businesses can be more in tune with customer wants and needs. Marketing plans can be geared towards a specific regional audience and campaigns can be responsive to what customers respond to.

manufacturing management software profit

Globalization is losing the impact it once had in a world where consumer demand for authenticity and affinity is steadily increasing. Automation, as a bridge for manufacturers, increases the ability for companies of all sizes to embrace localization and succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Go Paperless with Document Management Software

Posted on April 19, 2019April 19, 2023 by Scott Hammer

Your cabinets are overstuffed. You’ve filed things incorrectly: receipts, bills, service agreements, invoices. If your document isn’t in the right place, you don’t just have to go through one folder. You have to go through all of them.

We all keep records, and whether we have home offices or just a filing cabinet, losing important documents is something we can all relate to.

For a business of any size, keeping paper records means something is going to get misplaced. And loss is only the tip of the iceberg: reduce.org reports that a typical office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year— plenty of opportunities to waste money and time. It’s stressful.

But companies with document management systems in the cloud provide more significant benefits, both short and long term.

Is a paperless office possible with ERP software?

Some people feel that having a paperless office is not only inevitable but critical to their success. Others, like Heinan Landa, writing for The Business Journals, think that they’re just a myth.

stack of papers due to not using erp software

The truth is somewhere in between. Offices that deal with compliances, governmental documentation, or other materials may still require some paper. But for most companies in 2019, it has become entirely possible to eliminate most paper processes.

Those processes (printing, collating, filing, approving, transferring, locating, re-filing, etc.) consume a business’s most valuable resources: time, money, and workforce. It’s undeniable that going paperless can reduce, if not entirely erase, those strains on an office.

Paperless offices do these things better

So what do paperless offices do better? The list is potentially endless. Forbes, the New York Times, and even HGTV have their own ways of explaining how valuable paperless offices can be to businesses of various sizes.

But these five things should be considered mission-critical to organizations of all sizes and across industries:

1. Find documents faster

If you’ve ever spent time rifling through filing cabinets to find a single document or even an entire folder, you know the feeling. It’s annoying. It takes far longer than it should. Sometimes, hours later, you’re not able to find what you’re looking for.

Chances are that it’s not even your fault: the paper was filed by someone else, weeks ago. And there’s no centralized system to keep track of everything.

Keeping digital documents is the first step to getting organized. But it’s not the only one. You also need a document management system that will act as a hub for everything you need. Searching should take a matter of seconds, not hours.

Your document management software should be cloud-based, so employees can access it from anywhere, even after standard working hours. This functionality is especially useful for remote workers and field-service employees.

2. Improve document security

Not all files are meant for all employees. Some of your company’s documentation is likely sensitive, for certain eyes only.

The security of paper documents is only as good as the lock on your filing cabinet. Document storage software, on the other hand, provides far more document security. For example, your software should allow you to control permissions on documents. That way, you can grant access to only those who need files and restrict others.

Even the sign-in requirements of cloud-based software, such as multi-factor authentication, provide a base level of security unmatched by paper.

3. Report (quickly)

To be clear: it’s possible to report from paper documents. It just takes way longer. Imagine all the steps involved: compile papers, study, enter data, calculate, check, recalculate, produce the report.

talking around tablet about erp software systems

Not exactly “real-time,” is it?

Even if your data is digital, you’ll still have to go through many of these same steps. Data entry on Excel is time-consuming enough and certainly prone to human error.

A good document management software can not only automate data collection— it can also produce real-time reports. Imagine the labor, time, and accuracy saved with this kind of process automation.

4. Save money

Along with labor and time, businesses can save plenty of money by going paperless. That’s because paper isn’t the only culprit in higher office bills. Printers, copy machines, toner cartridges, and ink all comprise annual printing costs. Not to mention the cost of faxing, for companies that still do it.

But it doesn’t stop there. An article in Entrepreneur estimates that America spends $460 billion in salaries for paper-driven information overload management, while reduce.org notes that “the cost of using paper in the office can run 13 to 31 times the cost of purchasing paper in the first place.”

[There are other forms of saving, too. Listen to our podcast episode for a story about a company that had to hire more employees just to manage the printing of their holiday cards.]

The amount of money your business can save is based on all of the factors listed above. However, the fact that you’ll save is undeniable. Those savings become even more significant when you replace the pounds of paper and office printers with a single, affordable monthly document management software subscription.

5. Save space

Here’s a fun activity for you: look around your office. Count the number of filing cabinets. Maybe they’re near your desk. Or maybe you have an entire room dedicated to historical company documents. You might even have a desk with baskets of paper on it.

Now imagine going paperless and seeing all of it disappear.

Go further. Imagine what you can do with that space. A breakroom for your employees? More pictures of your family on your desk?

It may seem like a small point, but the organization of your office sends a message to your customers and employees alike.

Now, those same cabinets are signs of disorganization and chaos. It’s hardly the impression any business wants to give.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember that going paperless doesn’t mean getting rid of every single piece of paper in your office. It’s more of a methodology that allows you to significantly reduce your business’s reliance on paper and save money while focusing on better organization and increased data security.

Your biggest takeaway should be this: digital documents don’t equal organization. You can spend just as much time getting lost in scanned files that you already do with paper documents. If you want easy access, searchability, and centralized data, you’ll need a document management solution.

There are plenty of them out there, so do your research and choose wisely.

Tag: document management software