Each day, businesses across the country handle countless transactions and obtain vast amounts of data. Unfortunately, while processing and utilizing this data, the opportunity for human error is high. These mistakes can be costly.
When it comes to obtaining data, human error has the potential to have financially damning results for a business. Gartner research placed the average yearly cost of poor data at $12.9 million in 2021. That year in the UK, organisations likely spent between 10% and 30% of their total revenues responding to data quality problems.
Whilst data has been labelled as overtaking oil as the world’s most valuable commodity, bad data can in fact prove costly to not only business operations, but its coffers as well.
Time to consider automation
Consider a manual process such as a financial controller; your business services its clients and at the end of each month invoices them for the work you delivered – as agreed upon. However, the presence of human error will always be lingering if automation is not placed at the centre of processes such as credit control. The financial controller may: send a late invoice, fill out incorrect details, or simply forget all together. The reality is that these errors will happen so long as human beings are undertaking these tasks. The power of automation can help provide seamless and efficient processes – saving businesses precious time and money – at a time when they are facing strong financial headwinds.
Being open to new technologies is a cornerstone to entrepreneurial success, and those businesses that are more resistant to new offerings are leaving themselves vulnerable to lagging behind the competition. New technological solutions can catalyse a dramatic improvement of productivity, staff and customer satisfaction, and any other factor that can impact a business’s growth.
Help is here when needed most
At a time when businesses slowly recover from the economic-bashing inflicted by covid, coupled with the deepening cost of living crisis – businesses simply can no longer afford to remain exposed to the threats posed by costly human errors.
The importance of offerings such as innovative information management solutions can now be seen as priceless to business operations. Applying digitalisation to your business’ document management – at a time when hybrid work is set to become a permanent fixture for many – will only add value to your business operations and eradicate human error.
Don’t neglect your information management
You can increase the efficiency of your business by creating a holistic view of all your data. Giving employees access to all relevant information to support decision-making is vital to a company’s success. Businesses cannot afford to leave themselves exposed to the threat of siloes; employees need easy access to relevant information when they need it. Automation is vitally important to ensure employees are able to access correct workflow and information.
The use – and archiving – of information can be more efficient by automating user and access rights, information categorisation, version control and archival. Additionally, the inefficiency of manual processes can be removed by automating information workflows that support business processes. Manual work takes time, creates costs and is prone to human error.
Automating workflow and information management ensures that documents will always be correctly shared from the correct user to the next. Allowing workers to gain easy access to correct information on demand. The alternative being the manual processing of information management typically leaves businesses vulnerable to human error through the creation of data siloes or even sharing incorrect information.
Cost-effective automation solutions are on-hand to help businesses navigate these challenging times. Gone are the days of automation being solely reserved for the deep pockets of larger businesses. Now, businesses of all sizes can automate key processes – saving time and money during a time when every penny matters.
Written by Colin Dean, Major Accounts Director at M-Files
