Category: Communication

Document management that transforms paper into shared content

Charlie

Businesses are like machines: they have mechanisms, input and output, and a function. Certain businesses might also be compared with domestic appliances: as long as they serve us we are happy, looking to fix them only when we notice something wrong. But the forward-thinking entrepreneur will act before problems occur or the system begins to break down, because there is far more at stake when a business stops working than when your hoover gives up. A malfunctioning business cannot simply be disposed of and replaced. It is advisable then to extend the capabilities of an existing system before what works at a reasonable rate starts to fail. It always pays to be one step ahead of the game when you’re in business, and this includes looking after your document management, document processing and invoice processing.

The latter is especially important if your business outsources much of its work. A mobile team of employees will be loyal to a client that respects its worth but as soon as things look shaky they may seek work elsewhere. This is because freelance work is unpredictable and the self-employed need a constant flow of tasks. One obvious way to keep your mobile employees happy consists of paying them in a timely manner. Once they have billed you, invoice processing should be speedy and certainly within the time frame you promised. Allowing your freelancers to email their invoices and paying them by direct online transfer will save time, money and a whole host of complications.

Similar principles can be applied to the work that your team submits: rather than allowing a messy flow of print-outs and handwritten material to come in, you should consider the benefits of electronic document processing. Deadlines are often adhered to much more strictly when document management occurs on a shared network or online: everyone knows that their progress is easily traced and that things rarely get lost if they’ve been properly backed up.

Altogether, your business will function like a well-oiled machine if you pay attention to your staff, their payments and the overall workflow affecting the company’s output. Efficient invoice processing solutions not only increase employee satisfaction, they also guard against fraud. Streamlined document processing can entail working collaboratively; relieving pressure on the individual faced with an otherwise insurmountable number of tasks. Indeed, document management should not be top-down in this day and age but rather networked, creative and conducive to business growth.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information

Bid support: is it worth spending money on help?

Annie

Business proposal writing does not come easily to everyone, even professionals with a natural gift for selling.  Constructing a complex bid for a client is such a key part of modern working life, that companies are increasingly choosing to employ consultants to ensure that their proposals are as effective as can be.  In addition, many people are surprised at how educational sales presentation training can be.  A consultant with lots of experience providing bid support to different companies will really have the insight to help you look at how you can adapt your style to outperform the competition in your field.

Many sales teams find that they are stuck in a rut, having been creating business proposals in the same way for ages, with varying degrees of success.  If you are pitching to similar clients year after year, then it is often a good idea to surprise them with the kind of proposal they may not expect from your business, so that they regard you as a firm with the capacity to grow and develop; after all, the client is likely to want to work with a firm that is able to think creatively about its own projects.  This is where an outside opinion can be invaluable; it can be almost impossible for people in a business to challenge old ways of thinking that have been ingrained in a company for years.

Indeed, winning an important bit of work is not necessarily a matter of changing your approach to constructing the proposal itself, but about how you present it in the short time you have with the client.  It may be a sad thing, but these days, presentation is crucial.  People seem to have less and less time on their hands, and will not do you the service of listening attentively to every word of your carefully written bid.  This is why it is important to make sure you can convey the key points in the first minute – something which is easy to do once you think about it, but some teams need a little help to make sure this is achieved.

There is no reason to feel inadequate for asking for bid support or some professional help with your business proposal writing.  Rather, your boss is likely to be impressed that you are so keen to improve your skills.  He or she may decide that your entire team could do with some sales presentation training, and you might be the one who takes the credit for the business success that it creates.

Please visit http://www.salesengine.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Document processing: a time saving strategy

Charlie

A lot of the time in business it can feel like you are swamped with document management paperwork. It can get to the stage where it seems as though paperwork is the main activity of the company, rather than playing a back-up role to the business’s main lines of operation. Of course, many people have got so used to this that they maybe do not even see the need to revolutionise their document processing. This can be the effect of having fallen into a comfort zone, or, perhaps, having a tendency to want to oversee everything; fundamentally a tendency to micro manage, which can end up holding your firm back and result in a reduced level of competiveness. Nevertheless, invoice processing and similar operations can be revolutionised, making your company more dynamic, efficient and competitive.

With automated document managing, costs are reduced in the first place by the simple matter of reduced stationary costs. And this kind of cost, in companies beyond a certain size, can add up a lot over the course of, say, a year. But this is only the beginning of the implications that revolutionised document processing can have for the success of your company.

Reduced paperwork means not only less paper related costs, but lower costs in terms of the working hours of your staff. Ultimately, if there is paper to be filled in, somebody clearly has to fill it in, and this takes time. As the famous saying goes, time is money. It is true, also, in the sense that the time your staff spend on processing this paperwork could be spent on more productive activities, thus increasing the productivity of your company. But, as we all know, the paperwork needs to be done in any case, so until your company adopts an automated system for invoice processing, the time of your employees will always be eaten up by these demands.

Another way in which automated document management can benefit your business is by improving your relations with both clients and suppliers, and ultimately boosting you company’s image as an efficient and dynamic force. It may be difficult to see how automated document processing can achieve this. Human paperwork, let’s be straight, is slow when compared to that of a computer. When computer software is assigned to, say, invoice processing, invoices are then processed in an instant, and this, from the point of view of a client or of a supplier, is impressive.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Audio Visual Conferencing: From Simple Beginnings to a Spectacular Future

John

Video conferencing technology has come a very long way since the development of digital telephony transmission networks, which occurred in the 1980s. Back then, the first commercial telepresence video conferencing systems started to arrive on the market. But the audio visual conferencing that it was designed for was hard on transmission networks, and the compression of large volumes of data was problematic. As a result of this, the technology was costly, and this price transferred onto clients and customers.

The 1990s, however, saw a surge in development regarding the technology involved in video conferencing. For the first time the data could be compressed using Internet Protocol, which meant that audio visual communication was possible on desktop computers. Simultaneously the technology involved in the compression of data became ever more advanced. Step by step, conferencing solutions continued to evolve as an industry, and the ready availability of the required technology, coupled with a rise in international trade and a demand for fast communication, meant that these solutions became ever more affordable and, as such, ubiquitous in businesses.

Now we have entered the second decade of the twenty-first century, and technology is more sophisticated than ever. These are really invigorating times for global communication, and boundaries continue to be probed. But the best part is that this technology is available to your company for an affordable fee. Its use is not limited to the highest profile platforms such as the news media and awards ceremonies (in the form of satellite links, for example) but has spread to the wider public through the availability of personal internet access in the form of web chatting and, more recently the Skype phenomenon.

While in the past, we have marvelled at the idea of being in ever more realistic ‘virtual’ contact with people across the globe, this has only been an idea, and the reality has not done it justice. You only need to look at 1990s television adverts for internet providers to understand this; they make it seem like you could step into someone else’s world for a while before coming back to your own, when really the product they are advertising is video added to a phone call. In this era of audio video conferencing we have edged the reality closer to the idea. audio visual conferencing today is considerably more than just video added to a phone call. Telepresence video conferencing makes the whole experience as near to real as it is possible to get.

Please visit http://www.edgevision.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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