TECHNOLOGY for any SMEs considering cloud automation ...
Future-proofing and flexibility Firstly , get a sense of the time that your key processes currently take . Ascertain what the biggest pain points are in your business , and assign them some quantifiable time . Then , evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your current processes .
“ Look at what your growth is , where you want to take your company , and ask yourself whether your current systems and processes can support that . Then , if not , you need to devise a business system that can support your business .”
“ Think about where you want your business to go . Identify where it ’ s growing and ask yourself , ‘ can my system support that ?’. If not , then you need to put something in place that not only supports where you want to go in the next two years , but even further than that , because you don ' t want to be changing business systems every two or three years . So look at the pain points you have today , but also , more importantly , where you want to take your business .”
In this way , once you pinpoint what you want to achieve , you can use the cloud ’ s huge arsenal of technologies to improve efficiencies across your entire operations .
Pointing to NetSuite ’ s latest updates as an example , Schwarz outlines the exceptional breadth of the cloud ’ s digital transformation potential .
“ The big announcements that we made were around the launch of AP Automation , the SuitePeople Workforce Management , the Ship Central , and the CPQ ; even though those seem like pretty disparate features , they all are about automation and efficiency ,” Schwarz explains .
“ Providing your sales team with more efficiencies in the configured price to quote , providing your accounting team with more efficiencies when processing accounts payable , and ensuring you have some wiggle room , as every business is trying to do more with less .”
“ And that ' s what this is all about – providing those efficiencies in the various processes . Because every business has thousands and thousands of processes , whether it ' s payroll , financial , HR , in your warehouse , in your supply chain , and so on . It ' s about going in and trying to get even more efficiency out of processes that are already beneficial .”
This quality is integral to the benefits of the cloud – it lifts that score of operational management off your plate . Although that ’ s not to say that you ’ ll never have to think about it again , it does mean that your priorities can return to the parts of your process that are your strengths .
“ For any small business approaching the cloud , no business should feel like they ' re being pushed into a solution . Really , it all comes back to , ‘ what are the pain points as a business that I ' m trying to solve ’, and going back to understanding what your processes are , where you want to take your business , and asking whether you have the systems and people to support that ?”
“ As a business owner , you should , I think , be looking at these things holistically , if you ' re seriously into growing your business for the long haul .” mobile-magazine . com 131