Where To Automate Your Business To Drive The Most Innovation
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Forbes Tech Council

Innovation is often framed as a eureka moment, but really, it’s more of an iterative process based on short-term needs. I’ve seen this time and again in the world of tech development. Small problems lead to small discoveries, which then accumulate into monumental changes. Ideas from different industries cross-pollinate into major breakthroughs.

Consider the iconic space race. In a 1961 speech, President John F. Kennedy declared that the United States would reach the moon by the end of the decade. He urged Congress to utilize resources to speed up progress, and, though this seemed like an audacious idea at the time, in 1969, the world watched the Apollo 11 successfully land on the moon.

In business, we usually innovate to solve problems on a lesser scale, but it’s need-driven nonetheless. Evolving markets and fierce competition make it necessary to find new ways to improve existing processes, and automation can be a powerful force behind these changes. In business, necessity is the mother of innovation.

The Short And Long Term Of Automation

In my experience, companies first automate to improve efficiency or productivity so they can reach a discrete goal. After they’ve met that goal, they continue to rely on that automation technology to maintain their operations and deliver a seamless customer experience. The journey to automate business processes often begins as company-focused, but it tends to transform into a customer-focused endeavor. It’s in this later stage that companies experience the real payoff.

Automation is about the long game, but getting over the initial hurdle of implementation can be a challenge. My advice? Be courageous and don’t listen to the naysayers. Take the first steps, implement a thoughtful automation plan and enjoy the benefits as they develop. If there’s pushback on the upfront costs, be sure to frame an automation upgrade not just as a tool for process improvement, but as an innovation engine that will provide benefits to customers down the line.

Let’s say an insurance company wants to cut the labor cost of its data entry team, so it automates how documents are digitized, analyzed and stored. Labor cost-savings happen over the short term, but at the same time, the company is creating a deep repository of client data. Eventually, it can mine that data to help drive innovation across product development, service offerings and customer outreach efforts. What starts as a bottom-line initiative can easily turn into a top-line growth strategy.

The point is that implementing automation is the beginning, not the end. I’ve seen too many companies settle for good when they could have had great because they were overly focused on immediate gains at the expense of a longer-term transformational strategy.

A Strategic Approach To Automation

Automation can lead to innovation as long as it’s applied to the right processes. Here are the first places to look within your business to determine whether it’s time for an automation overhaul — and whether that transformation will help you innovate down the line.

1. Rethink Treasury Functions For Greater Financial Agility

Your treasury department offers great opportunities to increase efficiency, improve accuracy, free up resources and unify payment channels and financial data. Automating in this area will lead to faster processing and a real-time data refresh, which equates to improved liquidity and financial decision-making. In short, the faster your treasury functions, the more agile your business.

Automating routines empowers professionals inside and outside finance to focus on growing revenue, rather than solely keeping the books. And more than that, you might just prevent a large payment from being lost, which happened to a major client of ours before they automated their remittance processing functions.

2. Unify Communication Channels To Improve Business Intelligence

The mailroom is a perfect automation starting point. Not only is traditional mail processing tedious and error-prone, but it’s also entirely disconnected from your other communication channels.

Automating mail processing and digitizing mail contents can free up workers, reduce delivery times and open the door to enhanced data analytics. More than that, it allows various communication channels to be integrated into a single platform so all correspondence is in one place; mail contents are searchable, shareable, and secure; and downstream workflows can be kicked off at the click of a button.

When mail is digitized and combined with incoming correspondence from other channels like email, fax and EDI, business intelligence and decision-making are improved. When departments are better connected and information is more easily shared, innovation is more likely to happen.

3. Unlock Innovative Potential Through Document Digitization

Beyond the mailroom, there are other valuable uses for automated document digitization technologies. Paper-based forms, records and other workflows move slowly, take up a lot of space and require a lot of labor to manage. On the other hand, these same documents can be scanned, and the data within them can be extracted, indexed, organized and securely stored with minimal human intervention.

Digitizing paper-based workflows saves time and reduces costs, and extracting data from physical records enables you to build valuable databases that are available for advanced analytics. Improved data management can make it possible to evaluate internal processes, better understand your customer base, generate key market research and begin new initiatives.

When Is The Right Time To Automate?

If your business has a solid foundation and you are looking for ways to improve, starting the iterative automation process is likely a smart next step. On the other hand, if workflows are not yet well-defined, you are still building your core customer base, or you simply exist in an industry that relies heavily on customized, one-off products or services, then automation may not yet be for you.

We’ve only scratched the surface here of what is possible. Automation is up there with the assembly line or the personal computer — transformative technologies that enable innovations far greater than themselves if done at the right time. In the end, it's important to do your research and determine the best time for your company to take the automation leap.

This article was originally published on June 10th, 2019 on Forbes

For more up-to-the-minute Exela news, bookmark the Exela Blog. To learn more about Exela’s rapidly deployable business process automation solutions, check out our Solutions page.

Author Name
Ron Cogburn
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Retailer Uses Digitization to Transform Human Resources

Case Study Featured Content

How one national retailer’s growth strained the HR department before Exela helped them digitize.

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Human Capital Management
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

A nationwide retail organization’s expansion and workforce growth placed a huge strain on their internal Human Resources department’s ability to maintain a sufficient level of efficiency and quality of service. Managing and storing paper-based records presented a daunting task as the number of storefronts continued to increase. In particular, they were having difficulty with ongoing recertification of expiring employee documents and the ability to generate timely reporting for auditors.

SOLUTION:

Exela’s solution was to digitize all existing employee records, and to implement entirely digital onboarding and record-keeping procedures. This solution included a customized onboarding workflow for new hires, added system functionality that addressed the tracking and management of expiring documentation, and dynamic dashboarding capabilities for Human Resources managers.

BENEFITS:
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Infrastructure Upgrades Enable Account Expansion

Case Study Featured Content

Exela’s PCH platform replaces legacy infrastructure, which enables access to adjacent whitespace and expansion across the insurance value chain.

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Digital Mailroom
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

Fortune 500 supplemental insurance company faced serious mailroom challenges that were hampering business development. Millions of pieces of inbound mail were being processed daily through a people-based, labor-intensive workflow. Time sensitive mail and correspondence was often delayed due to a lack of process visibility and accountability. Inefficiencies in the mail processing workflow were also having a negative impact on call center volumes and overall turnaround times.

SOLUTION:

Exela overhauled the insurance company’s entire mailroom process to streamline claims, payment, and remittance processing. Legacy systems were replaced with a new technology stack that reduces staff, boost efficiency, and enables the future expansion of the system.

  • PCH Global improves auto-adjudication, shortens cycle times, and enables bidirectional communication

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Hashtag(s)

Manufacturing Company Goes Paperless

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A North American manufacturing company digitizes and automates their AP process

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Digital Mailroom
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

Prior to an upgrade of the customer’s existing SAP ERP platform, invoices and payments were processed manually. Under this inefficient manual system, analysts were spending valuable time on phone calls, sending emails, confirming receipts, researching missing data, and routing paper to and from vendors – all of which had been negatively affecting payment cycle times. The SAP ERP upgrade provided both EDI and imaging capabilities, so the customer elected to transition to paperless processing. The move to a paperless AP environment would involve approximately 1,800 active vendors and affect PO and non-PO invoice processing. The customer tasked Exela with developing a solution that would automate invoice processing through a digital vendor portal, while meeting the following objectives: improve supplier satisfaction by providing easy access for self-service, reduce internal manpower cost, reduce paper submissions, and transition approximately 1,800 active vendors to the self-service web portal.

SOLUTION:

Due to the complex nature of the customer’s environment, Exela recommended a transition plan divided into multiple phases with the first two phases focusing on the most critical aspects of the solutions, PO invoices and non-PO invoices. Once the first phase was underway, invoice mail and supported documents, faxes, and emails were routed to Exela’s Troy, Michigan facility for processing. Exela provided the capturing, validating, and processing of imaged data for use in the new environment.

One of the key challenges of the launch was getting vendors to buy-in to the self-service portal. In addition to sending out notices and adding portal information to internal documents, AP analysts were challenged to encourage widespread adoption. The customer set recruiting goals for analysts, offering prizes to top recruiters who hit major milestones, such as being first to get 100 vendors signed on. Group progress was shared during weekly meetings, creating a competitive atmosphere.

Saving time for both internal customers and suppliers was a primary goal in developing the digital vendor portal. A snapshot dashboard was developed displaying the status of multiple invoices on a single screen, which made it easy to track payments by vendor ID, invoice dates, amounts, clearing information and other data, and all data was available for export to PDF, Excel and Word file formats. The dashboard enables suppliers to easily view status as well as confirmation of what invoices were in the system.

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  • 95% AP invoice automation from a single digital portal from ingestion to authorization
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