Automating Your Business: Tasks You Shouldn’t Do Manually
According to a recent survey, 52% of small businesses say that “improving productivity and efficiency” is their main management focus, whether by providing better tools and equipment, enhancing communication processes, or through other means. However, many companies fail to realize how much closer they could get to reaching their goals by simply automating some of these tasks.
Every week, enterprises waste hours completing manual processes which could easily be automated, even though the technology now exists to execute everything from administrative assignments to more substantial marketing and financial undertakings. While most global enterprises do automate tasks (58% to be precise), this statistic shows that over four in ten of these companies still don’t. There are a huge range of ways to automate your business processes, and we’ve outlined a few of them below.
General business tasks
Moving data between software
Manually moving data between systems is incredibly time-consuming. For instance, many companies pull data from their ERP system and upload it elsewhere, copy information from one spreadsheet to another, or email data between individuals. This also risks errors — after all, humans make mistakes. EASA’s software, for example, can reduce the need to manually move data by integrating processes from multiple software sources (such as Excel, ERP systems and databases) into a single, shareable web app. The underlying programmes remain within a company’s network and are the engine of the app, which has a custom user interface that enables individuals to access and utilize files. However, users will never directly alter the original file itself, just the input data. By consolidating businesses processes from different software sources in one place, employees can focus their attention elsewhere, therefore improving company productivity
Creating proposals
Generating new proposals can be a long-winded and tedious process. Automation tools can consolidate these tasks, making it easier to coordinate them among individuals, while preset templates also make it far quicker and easier to write them.
Backing up files
Rather than manually backing up important business files yourself, sign up to a cloud-based service and establish a regular point each week (or day, if necessary) to back it up. This will not only save you time but, like when you stop manually moving files between sources, helps prevent errors,