A full digital transformation must start with digitising information.
If you find a lot of your business processes are completed manually and handwritten on paper – for example sales reps out on the road have to write their orders down on site before calling back to the office to key in the order or financial invoices are printed and filed for reference – you’ll see an immediate improvement in your efficiencies and ability to take control of your business.
5 benefits of digital records:
Accurate and up-to-date
The most obvious and potentially key benefit of digital records is the ability to easily update, edit and have better visibility of document version control when information is stored digitally. Especially if your records are automated within a software solution, data can be more reliable and accurate, removing human error and ensuring you’re always confident that your financial, employee and customer data is correct.
Accessible from anywhere
If your documents and business data are stored digitally, in a central CRM and software system, the information can be accessed by all team members who need it removing the challenge of an employee only having access to customer information for example. Plus, key business information can be accessed away from the office allowing staff to have more flexible working hours and field reps to access key customer information on the road.
Team collaboration
If your documents can be accessed by multiple departments it promotes team collaboration and allows members to work together on projects even if they’re not geographically located in the same space. You can add comments to online documents that allow for a swift and efficient way of creating material. This is especially key in creative areas of the business but also for departments who cross-sell different products to the same customer.
Remove physical filling and archiving
Long gone are the ugly, dusty filing cabinets that create a cluttered working environment and tie down staff to an office space. Not only is this visually pleasing but also removes the hours spent filing and archiving documents. Plus, you can keep endless history on your company without using up vital office space.
Improve customer service
The ability to keep endless historical data improves the quality of your customer service. Whether your customer has a support query, wants to reorder something they bought in 2001 or need to see who their invoices used to be emailed to, you can easily answer your customer queries with complete visibility of customer history.