Millennia Group Blog
ECM, EDMS, Imaging System, Cloud Storage – Which One?
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A Perfect Union Leads to More Sales and More Profit
- More Sales The easier your sales process is on the customer, from ordering to delivery, the happier the customer is. Happy customers refer new customers and sales grow. Workflow can help make the customer onboarding process more streamlined and help make sure the customer gets exactly what they bargained for. That makes a happy customer. Workflow can assist with returns or contract changes, thus making that process less of a burden on the customer. That makes a happy customer and generates more sales.
- More Profit This one is easy. If the process is streamlined, the cost per transaction or task is less and therefore, profits rise. Of course, profit will rise as sales rise, which is the point of #1. Every company can find an internal process that is less than optimal and may still involve moving paper around. Look at those processes and transform them into an efficient workflow and start reaping the benefits.
- Less Employee Turnover This one could actually be part of #2 because employee turnover is expensive. With efficient and measurable processes, companies can better match employee skill sets to the tasks at hand. When an employee is appropriately matched to their skill level, they will excel. When they excel, they are happy. Workflow also helps to balance workload, which means employees are not over stressed at peak activity times. More stress means less happy employees.
- Less Customer Turnover Here is another one that could be part of #1 above. It is very expensive to continually have to go find new customers. Every business owner knows that it is far less expensive and more profitable to sell to existing customers. If your internal processes are efficient and customers experience fast response times for support or they speak with knowledgeable representatives on the phone, they will be happier customers. Why are response times fast? Because the processes are part of a workflow and data is captured in an organized fashion and stored electronically which means it is readily available to the customer service representative. Why are representatives so knowledgeable? Because they have fast access to all of this well organized information.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Ready for Digital Signatures?
- www.arx.com, Cosign
- www.docusign.com, DocuSign
- www.echosign.com, EchoSign by Adobe
- www.rightsignature.com, Rightsignature by Citrix
- www.signnow.com, SignNow
- www.silanis.com, eSignLive
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Easy Isn’t Always Nirvana
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To Destroy or Not To Destroy, That is the Real Question
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For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Getting it Done – Integration 101
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For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Training, Overlooked and Under Appreciated
I am a firm believer in the benefits of training. A few of my reasons are as follows:
- Training leads to more consistent results
- Training leads to a shorter learning curve
- Training reduces the incidence of bad hires
These are all positives for any company and for all employees. So why is training neglected or avoided? I can think of a few negatives to training also, such as:
- Training takes time and time is money
- Training is boring and nobody pays attention
- Training is difficult in a fast changing business world
These may have some merit but they do not outweigh the benefits noted above. So what does this have to do with document workflow or imaging? As it turns out, document workflow and imaging can be somewhat complex and the output or outcomes can contain mission critical information. Therefore, training should be an important component.
Technology has provided us with some great tools to make training easier and make it appealing to more employees. For instance, training videos can be very useful and are on-demand and available anywhere. Those characteristics make videos appealing to many employees. There are also hands on training applications to give users the feel and experience of using the actual application, but the application is not live. This lets users get over the fear that they may “break” something in the application. Training sometimes is about trying things. “I wonder what would happen if I did this” or “What if I click on this button here”. These applications can be interactive and provide instant feedback.
This is not to say that you don’t need to create a training manual. Some employees will feel more comfortable with a manual that they can flip through to find answers. Pretty soon that need may go away and all users will “flip” through the online help. In-person training is of course still a popular and effective method. And in-person may mean remote using GoToMeeting or WebEx or Link.
The bottom line is that training can be done and should be offered in a variety of formats to effectively reach the greatest percentage of employees. Training is also continuous. Applications and hardware are changing all the time. New releases of software or changes in workflow should always be accompanied by follow up training, even if it is only 15 minutes.
Selfishly from an application providers perspective, I know that the value of an application increases as the level and quality of training increases. The good news is that it is a win win situation because the value to the client also increases with greater productivity.
So talk to your vendors about training.
Please contact us for more information on training on FileStar or CollectDocs
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Digital Document Organization – Got Folders?
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For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
A Little Out There
A National Digital Document Recorders Office
Many, many years ago a great idea came about to have local governments keep “recorded” copies of real estate documents. The purpose was generally to ensure that ownership could be proven and the legal relationship was recorded and recognized. Each local government runs its own recording office for properties in its jurisdiction, but there isn’t a statewide or national “Recorder”. This is also primarily a paper based process with actual document stamps.Location Services to Connect You With Your Files and Data
If you own a smart phone or tablet device you are aware of the feature that allows your current location to be known to various applications. For instance, if you use Yelp, the food rating app, just open the app and search for pizza. Yelp will find all pizza joints near your current location, whether that is at home or in another city. So is it possible that all documents and files related to the customer that I am visiting will be on my tablet as soon as I enter their office? Can all of this information pop up on my screen as soon as the phone system sees an incoming call from a recognized phone number? How about if you are a construction manager on the 30th floor of a building under construction? It would be great if the plans and specifications related to that floor were waiting on your tablet as you walked off the elevator. Just some thoughts, but some of it sure sounds nice, and my guess is, not too far into the future.Please contact us for more information or to get started today
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Taking Inventory of Your Digital Folders
- Folders on a network drive will not alert you when documents are added, changed or deleted
- Folders need to be manually updated for every change, such as customer name change, otherwise files will be lost to some users
- Tracking folder activity on a shared network drive is almost impossible
- Folder based systems never know that a file is missing; for instance, it is required that each employee have a signed I-9
- Full text search or advanced searches are impossible – ie; all invoices between two dates
- Folder based systems don’t require a user to follow any naming convention or add any specific information to a file
Please contact us for more information or to get started today
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Ready, Set, Start that BPA Project (but only after reading this first)
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Gym Shoes Required
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Business Process Automation – How is your Company Doing?
According to Wikipedia, Business Process Automation (BPA) is “the strategy a business uses to automate processes in order to contain costs. It consists of integrating applications, restructuring labor resources and using software applications throughout the organization.”
BPA, as you can see, is a broad definition and sounds like a massive undertaking. Yet companies successfully complete “BPA projects” – knowingly or unknowingly – all the time.
Examples of simple BPA projects include:
- Accepting orders via online form (replacing the use of a fax machine or order clerk answering the phone)
- Replacing monthly sales reports created manually in Excel with automated reports and dashboards created by CRM software like Salesforce
- Using Mail Merge to deliver customized marketing materials to customers and prospects
On the other extreme are highly sophisticated BPA tools that have completely automated an entire industry – Netflix being a prime case study. Netflix was a game changer that radically altered the movie distribution landscape and generated billions in revenues for the company.
Not every BPA tool or process in your business will have results like Netflix. But you can expect well designed ones to have an ROI of 100% or more within a year.
Here are three other examples of processes that typically have a very high ROI:
- Accounts Payable Process – Converting a paper and labor intensive process with a digital workflow. This process typically involves scanning of the invoices at the moment of receipt, capturing enough information from the invoice to ensure proper routing to the responsible party. The end result of this process is that invoices are in the system faster and discounts can be taken, invoices don’t get lost or incur late payments, invoices are now digital and easily searchable.
- Contract management – Many companies use a contract management system to manage the critical dates and compliance issues for each customer contract. These systems can be a simple database of the critical dates all the way to a full workflow from initial contact creation with the prospect all the way to final execution of the contract. Many contract management systems will now incorporate digital signature capabilities, templates for new agreements and even clause libraries for very sophisticated contract creation and delivery.
- Vendor Onboarding – Every company has vendors and many larger companies have thousands if not tens of thousands of vendors. With so many new financial regulations and industry regulations it is now almost impossible for a large company to not have an onboarding process in place. These systems ensure that all required documents are collected, government mandates for minority or special class hiring are met and optimally the most qualified vendor is hired. Achieving compliance in this global business world is almost impossible with a paper based process.
Talk to Millennia. Tell us about your most cumbersome, paper-intensive, human capital consuming processes. We’ll bring our best ideas and technologies to help you turn those high risk, high cost situations into productivity and cash.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com
Organize, Consolidate and Share
Most businesses that we see operate with multiple information silos. From paper documents in file cabinets and files in shared directories on a server to files loaded in cloud storage and of course files on each employee’s computer.
It should be every company’s goal to consolidate all those silos into an efficient repository of critical business information that lets the company operate at peak performance.
Although most companies would claim they are accomplishing that goal by using data warehouses (CRM, Accounting and ERP systems), the real problem still looms below the surface.
The challenge arises when information needs to be sourced from documents (contracts, invoices, drawings, manuals, reports, legal documents, employee documents) and the myriad of documents that still represent an important part of a business.
When information is difficult to find, two things happen. First, immense time is burned up searching. Second, poor decisions get made for lack of information.
This need for information can be a recurring event in an ongoing business process like contract management, project management or financial reporting. This can become a very costly situation since it is happening on a daily basis.
There are also event-driven needs for data – such as when there is an audit or special project. In these situations, it is not uncommon for the entire office to shut down while the hunt for information ensues. Since such a search typically involves everyone from staff to executives, the costs become astronomical.
When all else fail, decisions are made in a vacuum of information – and risks increase. This risk is magnified when there is a merger or acquisition of another company. Not only is it likely that the acquired company had multiple silos of information, but the nomenclature and filing structure may be very different than that of the acquiring company.
Imagine having just one closet in your house – and no matter what you are searching for, it magically appears when you open the door. Whether it’s your coat, the car keys, your golf clubs or your running shoes. Whatever it is you are looking for – everything right where you want it. That would be a closet we’d all invest in owning.
At the office, we would all appreciate a similar scenario though wouldn’t we? A “folder” on our desktop – and no matter what it was we needed to find, it was always in that folder. This utopia may not be exactly possible – but at Millennia Group, we’ve come pretty close.
We start by cleaning up and consolidating the existing silos of information you have (shared drives, cloud storage, paper documents) into something more meaningful and effective. We even create rules and procedures for going forward (commonly known as Information Governance). Once we’re done, every piece of information you need will be instantly available – and you’ll have the confidence to know the information is complete and actionable.
Millennia Group has the tools and experience to help you organize, consolidate and share the information so that the information is where you expect it, when you need it. Whether your issue is ongoing or due to an acquisition, we can help. We can also help you design and implement an information governance strategy to keep your company operating at peak profitability and efficiency.
Talk to us today about your biggest data access headache – and let us bring that “magic closet” concept into your company – just like we have for some of the biggest companies in America.
Talk to us today about your biggest data access headache – and let us bring that “magic closet” concept into your company – just like we have for some of the biggest companies in America.
For more information on Millennia Group, please go to www.mgdocs.com or email us at info@mgdocs.com