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According to the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC), small and medium scale enterprises make up nearly 97 per cent of all businesses. These SMEs employ the majority of the workforce across the APEC economies. Suffice to say that SMEs are the drivers of growth, and we cannot deny their immense contribution to the GDP. However, it seems that the surging digitization has escaped most of them. A large chunk still depends on antiquated workflows and business processes. Imagine the level of productivity and growth they can achieve with workflow automation and optimized processes?!
Owners of small enterprises are under constant pressure from low revenue streams, rigid budgets, and finite resources. Irrespective of the fact that the primary goal of these enterprises is to reduce expenses and labour costs, they still find it incredibly difficult to deal with the up-front cost of investing in this very outcome.
Areas of Workflow Automation for SMEs
Small businesses today face the threat of lagging behind their competitors if they fail to automate routine processes. Today, technologies like enhanced computing power and robust networking are developing at a rapid scale. Now it has become more than easy for SMEs to deploy automation solutions for their daily processes and manage numerous tasks between their workers.
Put simply, workflow automation solutions are no longer a luxury that can be leveraged only by large organizations. Given below are some of the most effective spheres of automation that SMEs should regard as an investment for their future expansion and growth.
Payroll Solutions
Numerous small business payroll solutions streamline the process of automating payroll from scratch or automate transitioning from another system. Managing employee payroll is necessary for success. A payroll software solution from a reliable workflow management company will automate activities in areas like:
• Running payroll
• Management of payroll taxes
• Compliance with existing payroll legislation and guidelines
Staying away from such a solution will only lead to more expenses and a wastage of time and resources that you can deploy elsewhere. It is no wonder that nearly 40 percentper cent of SMEs consider taxes and bookkeeping the most frustrating and time-consuming parts of owning a business.
Benefits of Payroll Automation
Many small business owners spend endless time managing the scheduling of employees to guarantee them sufficient coverage. Payroll systems offer features that facilitate the automation of scheduling according to the individual employee data. You can also integrate the software with systems that monitor worker’s paid time off, sick leaves, and vacation days. Their efficacy lies in the fact that the reporting functions filter down to every single user.
The significance of reliable payroll software becomes more pronounced in certain scenarios. For example, you may feel entirely at ease with the employee reports display data but still find workers with queries on payday.
Payroll automation is an all-inclusive solution for SMEs, manageable from a mobile device. It allows owners to keep a tab on things when they are on the move.
Automation for Enhancing Team Collaboration
Teamwork lies at the heart of any business. Smooth interaction between team members is critical to sustained success. Workflow automation solutions like project management board allow teams to monitor their work progress together. Many cloud-based solutions work well with remote team members as well.
There is also scope for engaging in more confidential activities like signing contracts, discussing acquisitions, investments, and negotiations. Many software solutions can create ‘virtual data rooms’ that safeguard sensitive information. Collaboration tools with such a feature can manage functions like access control and printing permissions and impart granularity that enables you to decide who can make changes.
Marketing Automation
Automating your workflow is perhaps the best technology practice that you can implement to enhance productivity. Going by the recent trends, automating might just be what your organization needs to overcome the market-wide productivity slump.
With the dominance of online marketing, SMEs find themselves with no shortage of marketing options. Thankfully, the trend is complemented with an equal, if not more increase in the number of marketing automation options. Marketing automation provides marketers with the ability to form one-on-one cross-channel journeys that impart consistent and connected customer experiences. It entails providing the right content to the right customers at the right time, thus nurturing their trust.
Automation of Customer Service
Today, the customer is king. Nurturing a bond with customers is a crucial priority for managers and their staff. At the same time, there’s no escaping the fact that providing excellent customer service can turn out to be quite draining on the finite resources of an SME.
Providing quality service can be best achieved by streamlining this function through a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. They collect and manage customer-related information and interaction. By availing such a solution for themselves, SMEs better align themselves with customer needs and provide customized recommendations according to customer history with their organization.
As you can see, there’s no end to the benefits that SMEs can get by leveraging workflow automation. It enhances collaboration, reduces overhead costs, boosts productivity, and frees up the team to concentrate on innovation and creativity. However, it is wise not to view workflow automation as a magic solution to all business concerns. You need to think every time you implement such a solution carefully. Step back and take a moment to analyze your workflow and then figure out the solution to help you manage it in the best way possible. Reach out to Ezofis to reap the full benefits of workflow automation.
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Source by Arun Kirupa
