Mind your (core) business & grow

There's a proverb that says old habits die hard. This is certainly true in business. Even though the world has gone digital, many organizations are still drowning in paper documents, records, unstructured data and semi-structured formats with no ability to convert it all into useful, accessible and searchable information.

These paper pileups and data disconnects disrupt your daily operations and take up a significant amount of your time and resources every day. When you consider how often this can happen across your entire organization, the true impact of paper and disconnected data quickly becomes clear. As an example, take a peek into the day of a life at the fictional company Customer First Corp.

Accounts payable

For Albert in accounts payable (AP) and his co-workers, invoicing is a daily struggle. Databases are filled with duplicates of the same vendor, listed multiple times with different contact names, addresses and account numbers. Because there is no way to identify duplicate invoices, vendors can — and sometimes do — get paid more than once.

Making matters worse, the AP department cannot pay invoices coming in from vendors who are not set up in the system and registered as approved vendors. However, no automated response notifies unregistered vendors – no link to register is provided and no instructions on how to resubmit their invoice.

Records management

Rita in records management oversees a team who is responsible for documents, records and forms. They are required by law to keep records — taxes, employee records, claims, financial statements, legal documents and much more.

The amount of business records they manage continues to grow exponentially, and it comes from numerous sources in many different formats like emails, PDFs, Word documents and more. When retaining these paper documents and records, the team often stores them in file cabinets or other storage facilities, opening the organization to damage or theft.

IT

Ike in IT is trying to move IT from a cost center to a revenue generator. However, outdated technology and inefficient systems make that goal unattainable. In a digital world, to remain relevant, Customer First Corp. must be equipped with always-up-to-date modern technology, expert resources, hiring and training — all of which mean huge investments. Improving digital presence continues to represent a large portion of the IT budget.

Digital transformation

To stay competitive and relevant, Customer First Inc. reinvents the entire business process, including:

• Cutting the number of manual steps required.
• Reducing the number of documents.
• Developing automated decision-making.
• Dealing with regulatory and fraud issues.

We are living through a fundamental transformation in the way we work. This isn't a time to sit back and wait for events to unfold. This isn't about some 'far future' of work — change is already happening and accelerating.

Digital transformation sweeps across all of these functions of the company, making it a mammoth initiative that Customer First Inc. isn't prepared to take on alone.

Obstacles include the amount of time, resources, money and technology needed make digital transformation a reality — all of which distract from core competencies. The future isn't a fixed destination. Plan for a dynamic rather than a static future.

Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO)

It's all about doing business smarter and faster with more efficiency and less redundancy. If Customer First Inc. were to choose to work with RICOH Business Process Outsourcing, the company could align its goals and help achieve digital transformation. Digitizing documents in and of itself creates a visible difference on the bottom line.

In addition, with Ricoh as its BPO partner, Customer First Inc. remains current on the newest technologies without taking on the high costs. We invest in cutting-edge technology and capabilities to improve efficiencies, while Customer First Inc. reaps the rewards of such innovation without needing to invest in the capabilities.

BPO provides the ability to quickly scale up with an already trained staff who can handle the increased volume of business, making the business much more nimble. High fixed costs become variable costs based on your scale, growth or workload.

As a result, departments across the Customer First Inc. focus less energy and fewer resources on everyday business processes not related to the core business and are able to fuel growth by recommitting resources to core objectives. The company is able to improve their bottom line and delight customers.

Achieve your business's full potential and help maximize efficiency, agility and customer satisfaction, with RICOH Business Process Outsourcing services.

Source : RICOH USA.