Small and mid-size businesses often struggle to keep up with the newest trends in automation. The traditional way of keeping books, filing inventory, taking orders, and even writing everything down on paper is swiftly failing.

In many ways, using manual processes makes it difficult for your business to grow and compete within your industry. As your competitors adopt new technology, and your customers become more demanding, failing to keep up will eventually have a detrimental impact on your business.

The best way to understand this is by looking at all of the opportunities and roads that automation could open up for you.

Account Management

Account management should be the first thing every business automates. From invoicing to general accounting, automating your accounting books, revenues, profits, and costs can help you make more informed financial decisions. If you are working with an inventory or in manufacturing, this can be essential for unlocking growth opportunities with cataloged data.

Account data gives you a clearer picture of where your business is losing money. It can also inform your future decisions and changes you implement. 

By contrast, manually inputting and updating all of this information across multiple books and files is tedious and error-prone. It is also time-consuming for your staff to find the right records and read through the information, making your data less likely to be used.

Cloud Storage

With cloud storage, you can ensure that all of your information is available wherever and whenever you need it. This can be particularly important if you want to quickly check something while you are away from your computer or if your staff isn’t at the office. Especially with the increase in work-from-home conditions, having all of the information digitized and available to the different users can be key.

These online systems can transform how you store, share and search for information. Together with automation, access or changes to the information can be controlled via workflows that mimic the way you run your office review and approval processes.

Data Synchronization

One of the biggest costs of manual processes comes from having employees whose designated task is to find and log information as needed. This means that oftentimes, the data will not be up-to-date until someone spends their work hours, updating your paper-based systems. Even after the system is updated, whoever wants access to it, will have to manually go get the file that they are looking for.

Automation and the use of digital systems completely transform this process. Without manual data entry, your data will be automatically added whenever there is a change. This is both simpler and less time-consuming for your employees, who will now have more time for important tasks – e.g. to check for issues and follow up with vendors, chase suppliers, reply customers, and etc.

Up-to-date data can be the key to better customer service too. From tracking orders and providing timely accurate updates to customers, to handling changes in appointments etc. Understanding your business’s performance in the eyes of your customers can set you on the right track for business growth.

Security and Back-ups

Another key problem with manual processes is the general lack of security in the way the material is stored. Put simply, even if the books and materials are kept in a locked cupboard, there is still the chance that the wrong people might gain access to it or that the document might be misplaced or destroyed.

With digital systems, these problems are immediately handled. Documents can be backed up easily and stored securely. You will never have to worry about losing information that could be fundamental to your business.

While manual processes might seem easier to learn and use, in time, they actually cost you. Automating your systems can help you make more informed business decisions, lighten your teams’ workload, and protect your critical business information. These are some of the reasons why businesses that have invested in digitalization have done so well in their industries.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization leverage the latest tools and unlock the full potential of digital transformation.

The post The Cost of Sticking to Paper: How Automation Can Help Your Business Compete appeared first on SYMLINC.

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) streamlines document processing methods and allows fast tracking, organizing, and sharing of documents. This tool extracts the raw and unstructured data from paper invoices, soft copy PDF files, tax files, emails, and other documents. Then checks and organizes it neatly into software such as excel spreadsheets.

Businesses in the manufacturing industry can apply IDP in supply chain management, customer services, inventory management, and order management to optimize their manufacturing workflow. IDP also enables quick and flawless automated end-to-end documentation processes across several departments. Overall, embracing such digital strategies will help to improve customer experience and enhance workforce engagement.

Adopting Intelligent Document Processing in your company

How can Intelligent Document Processing enhance manual processes without much disruption to your employees’ work?

A simple flowchart below illustrates a product order management system assisted with IDP. As the employee receives an order, the IDP system will read it and initiate the search for the specified items in the inventory records to find the number of products and their location inside the warehouse. These are picked up and scanned as sold. The IDP system records these sales and prints the sale invoices.

The digital record of sales in IDP can then be analyzed to find trends, highlighting the most popular products and observing customer behavior. Lastly, as the package is packed and shipped to courier companies, the IDP system allows automated notifications to the customers and manages payments.

Businesses can generate spreadsheets of payments received, estimate the company’s turnover, and manage reinvestments as well. Finally, the IDP system records returned packages and update inventory and sales records. The company can monitor trends of returns of products to identify poor products, ensuring customer satisfaction.

Hesitant about introducing IDP in your company? You can start from one department and extend it to the rest of the company in small steps. This way, the technology can be smoothly incorporated into your business workflow, allowing your employees to adapt. 

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization leverage the latest tools and unlock the full potential of digital transformation.

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How automating simple, repetitive tasks can save HR professionals time and energy

HR staff can be more effective when their time and energy are deployed on more productive activities such as developing programs to improve employee engagement or building out a learning and development program.

By understanding how automation can lighten the workload on your staff, and identifying the use cases where it works, you can leverage this technology effectively. This is key to improving HR processes and bringing your business to the next level.

How to get started in your organization

The first step to getting started is understanding the types of processes that can be automated and what automation tools are available.

• When identifying the types of tasks to automate, it is useful to consider the following:
• Which process can be streamlined?
• Is the task simple and repetitive?
• Which information can be accessed by employees with self-service tools?
• Which tasks involve a lot of paperwork and standardized forms?

Tools that are available and how they work in general:

• Intelligent Document Processing extracts data from sources such as PDF files, images, and hardcopy printouts to be stored.
• Self-service employee tools record hours worked or time-off requests and compile automatically during month end.

With a better understanding, identifying which workflow to automate within your business can be made simple. By following these simple steps, you can take advantage of automation in your organization and reap the benefits of increased efficiency and cost savings. Let us dive into some use cases for deeper understanding.

Use Case: Shortening Your Hiring Process

With a well-designed system of automation workflows, users enjoy the seamless experience of processing, classifying, and storing information for analysis. Such systems can then be connected to other software, such as email, to assist the user in completing last-mile tasks. 

Workflow for selecting the right talents from a large pool of candidates:

• Processing. The system processes the CVs of all candidates into structured and organized data.
• Classification. The system then shortlists the appealing options based on relevant search criteria for the role. 
• Storing. The system compiles the CVs that meet the criteria in the correct location.
• Analysis. With all the best CVs identified, users can dive straight in to analyze the most suitable candidates, saving an incredibly large amount of time. 

Workflow for arranging interviews:

• With the best candidates identified, the user can then trigger the system to send out the relevant documents to the desired candidates and schedule an interview.
• When candidates respond, the system creates events on the HR user’s calendar and notifies the user.

Automation has a much larger field of application than just the hiring process. Another good example is payroll management. 

Use Case: Simplifying Payroll Process

An automated payroll system can be designed to collect relevant employee data, such as their working hours, leave applications, and claims. The data can then be analyzed and potential errors spotted. This is a valuable addition to any business as human errors with payroll can reduce employee satisfaction and productivity. Such a system will also ensure that there are no delays, removing risks and grievances from the payroll management.

Take Action

Hiring and engaging the right talents are extremely challenging for smaller companies. Many companies hire more staff to cover the lack of skill sets within their team.

By using automation tools, you can hire the right talents and keep them engaged. Company expenses can be optimized to ensure operations scale smoother and faster. Tasks like the examples mentioned earlier are just two of a large variety. It is always best to start simple and work your way up into larger processes and systems to ensure a successful transition.

The right solution provider

Choosing the appropriate solution provider can be challenging. It is important to consider the provider’s experience in working with small businesses and their expertise in the relevant tools. Symlinc is a technology provider that assists smaller companies with automation and digital transformation. We provide various technical services to help companies optimize their investment in technology. Our services include but are not limited to:

• Automation and software development
• IT maintenance and technical assistance
• System integration and process management

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization leverage the latest tools and unlock the full potential of digital transformation.

The post Simplifying Human Resource Management with modern technologies appeared first on SYMLINC.

Many Different Excel Sheets in an Ideal World vs the Real World

Excel-savvy users utilize standard templates that use a consistent layout. However, this is usually not the case when your data comes from different sources. Flexibility in data management is needed to ease data transformation and consolidation. 

Here are some approaches to data extraction that users may be familiar with:

Retrieving Customer Data through Different Methods

Consolidation by Position

Your data in the source spreadsheets must first be organized in the same order, labels, arrangement, and location – data creation from the same template. In this case, Excel moves the customer data values from the source worksheets to the target worksheets and skips the labels.

Such a method will require you to format all the excel sheets into the same layout, which is time-consuming.

Consolidation by Category

Your data in the source spreadsheets must have the same headings and labels, but not necessarily be arranged in the same order. In this case, Excel copies the tags and titles to ensure data matches the target or ‘master’ worksheet.

Unlike ‘consolidation by position,’ you include accurate source data labels while referencing, which requires you to manually update the labels.

Consolidation by formula

For a more advanced approach, you can manually create a reference range from the worksheets you intend to include in the consolidated spreadsheet and apply formulas to compile the data. However, Excel formulas tend to be error-prone and require a certain proficiency level to attain the desired results.

Our Approach To Processing Customer Data

Consolidation by Automation

Despite the options spreadsheets provide to consolidate customer information from different sources, your workforce is still involved in much manual work needed. To achieve greater efficiency, an automated process with minimum human input should be considered. 

Sample workflow of such a process:

• The user initiates the task.
• The system collects data from the respective sources.
• Data is then processed and mapped to the correct fields.
• Output files are generated for individual reporting purposes such as customer relations management, sales reports, etc.
• The system then sends the files to respective stakeholders for follow-up actions.

From this example, you can see that automation not only streamlines the processes but simplifies reporting, and derives insights from numerous sources, all without having to learn VBA code! This becomes possible through effective automation partners who modernize your tools, improve your Business Intelligence, and provide efficient analysis tools.

A Step Closer to Efficient Customer Data Management

With Symlinc, you can now benefit from the opportunities data consolidation offers. Streamlined operational activities, reduced redundancy, and improved flexibility are made possible. As a spreadsheet powerhouse, automation ultimately helps improve your end-user experience.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization leverage the latest tools and unlock the full potential of digital transformation.

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