Business Process Automation

[ray_223]

Hi,

From Shortening your cash cycle

How far do people automate their businesses?

We have a reasonably small business but it is unbelievable how much time it takes to do all of those little tasks.

Our process goes something like:

* We get phone/email enquires (which may lead to an order)
* A customer orders from our website or phone
* We create a quotation and email it back (this is a manual process as it includes artistic design) - but the base quote details could be automated.
* We change/re-email until customer accepts quote
* Sometimes we chase up with them if they haven't responded to their emailed quote
* Once accepted we produce our product and send
* We also email to say the order has been sent
* We then may need to chase up if payment is overdue
* We may need to send a letter for overdue payment for legal reasons and chase the money up through the court system
* When payment is made it is recorded

We also do BAS, record business expenses and gather business data.

Everything is quite simple but when added up an automated system could save 30 to 60 minutes per order. It wouldn't take long for well developed automation system to pay for itself! (and as a software developer I have been tempted many times to start writing a system specifically for our business process)

How much effort do people put into automating their daily/weekly/monthly tasks?
How much time does it save (or do people estimate it could save?)
I'd also assume it would reduce errors and improve consistency

Any other comments?

[Adam Randall]

Originally Posted by ray_223

Hi,

From Shortening your cash cycle

How far do people automate their businesses?

We have a reasonably small business but it is unbelievable how much time it takes to do all of those little tasks.

Our process goes something like:

* We get phone/email enquires (which may lead to an order)
* A customer orders from our website or phone
* We create a quotation and email it back (this is a manual process as it includes artistic design) - but the base quote details could be automated.
* We change/re-email until customer accepts quote
* Sometimes we chase up with them if they haven't responded to their emailed quote
* Once accepted we produce our product and send
* We also email to say the order has been sent
* We then may need to chase up if payment is overdue
* We may need to send a letter for overdue payment for legal reasons and chase the money up through the court system
* When payment is made it is recorded

We also do BAS, record business expenses and gather business data.

Everything is quite simple but when added up an automated system could save 30 to 60 minutes per order. It wouldn't take long for well developed automation system to pay for itself! (and as a software developer I have been tempted many times to start writing a system specifically for our business process)

How much effort do people put into automating their daily/weekly/monthly tasks?
How much time does it save (or do people estimate it could save?)
I'd also assume it would reduce errors and improve consistency

Any other comments?

Hey Ray, my favourite subject.

I outsource our BAS/bookeeping/accounting so that is reasonably automated:)

The quoting side, we use quotewerks which integrates with the PSA system.

Ultimately our entire business is integrated from opportunities, quoting, CRM, Invoicing, Help desk, timesheets, projects, client machines, remote control, maintenance agreements, documentation etc etc.

All of the above integrates seamlessly with Outlook so appointments on our dispatch portal appear on our outlook calendar.

When I make a call to a client, I click on their name and an activity screen automatically pops up for me to enter what the call was about.

Its expensive but as you say pays for itself.

Its

[soliddata]

I have heard good things from other IT support people about quotewerx.

As you say Adam, a bit of effort and some initial dollars to make things link together saves huge time on an ongoing basis.

Kev

[SteveDavidson]

I'm in favour of it in the majority of circumstances. The time you save today could be the minutes and hours you need at some future point. That 30 minutes per order adds up, and it can mean anything from freeing you up to talk to another prospective client, to being able to hold off on hiring extra staff for just a little longer.