In one situation it was as simple as reducing filing to allow more time to spend on customer service.

Example One: Work Order Automation
  
The customer is an engineering services and product distribution organization.
  
80% of their revenue is generated form product sales but 40% of their margin is generated from services.
   
When we were asked to review their current paper process for automation we discovered that 80% of the paper generated and filled out redundantly was related exclusively to the services organization. This resulted a negative effect on the largest profit margin producing area of the company.
  
Though the development of a inexpensive workflow application we will be able to reduce paper flow by 70% and vastly improve administrative efficiency. As a benefit we freed up a considerable amount of engineering capacity as well!!

In another it was the design and implementation of an inexpensive work order management application that reduced paperwork by 60%!.

Example Two: Check Filing
  
Our customer had a front desk position that was responsible for matching work orders to invoices and then payment stubs to the invoices as received.

As we evaluated the customer’s procedures through our DiscoverIT! process, Info-lution proposed to eliminate as much paper as possible in the system. There was concern that the customer would not be able to match payment stubs to invoices if we only had “electronic copies” of invoices.

We asked a simple question, how much time are you spending matching payment stubs to invoices today? The answer was 1-2 hours per week.

We then asked how often they needed to access the actual payment stubs? Response was once or twice every couple of months.

Info-lution proposed that the payment stubs be kept in a separate file categorized by month. If it was necessary to access a payment stub it would take 15 minutes maximum to find it. If they had to do that 12 times per year it would take 4 hours versus the 52 to 100 hours they were spending today to match and file.

Along with online billing capabilities this position now spends much more time effectively servicing customers and performing revenue generating duties.

Candidate areas for evaluation are pretty easy to find. Look for activities that do not directly contribute to speaking with customers or manufacturing products. Most of our support activities are necessary but typically not all that is done in these activities is.

Give us a call. We would be glad to come over and walk though our DiscoverIT! program with you and your team. If you have any specific questions or would like to meet with one of our consultants, please contact us...

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