March 2011: Admin Notes
Where do I want to go? PAPERLESS! How do I get there? ONE STEP AT A TIME.
By Diane Essington, Office Manager
You want to get the office to a paperless solution, but there are so many details of the job that need to be considered. How do you generate electronic documents? How do you deliver them? Who do you deliver them to? Where and how do you file those electronic documents? How do you access the filed documents? How is access limited for sensitive documents? How do you convert paper documents to electronic documents? How do you tie related documents together?
Solutions for each of these steps need to be found and implemented.
No Big Jump
We wanted to roll out an electronic invoicing solution in our accounting department. We communicate with our clients mainly by email. Why are we not delivering invoices that way? What is needed to take that big jump?
After some months of research and planning for cost and time effective tools for all aspects of this solution, it became clear that going paperless is a journey we may have to accomplish one step at a time.
Step One: We added "electronic delivery of invoices" to our ERP software, which allowed us to batch print and file invoices as a pdf file, and deliver them to an email address. Plus, we can do the same with monthly statements.
Step Two: We started to send monthly statements via email. We watched and measured the response to that method of delivery.
Step Three: Then we started to send invoices via email. We communicate with our customers via email on a very regular basis, so it was easy to add invoices delivery to that communication string.
Steps Still to Come
We are building a solution to tie service call detail to the appropriate invoice email so that we can stop mailing service call details. Should we buy new software, customize existing software, or find a more creative solution? Could we export information and provide a link? Maybe.
We mail software subscription renewals with additional pages of information. Can we do that in an efficient batch email effort? About two thirds of our customer base are now receiving statements via email. How do we accomplish electronic delivery to 100% of our customers? What if we started to accept electronic signatures? That could change our quoting processes.
There are still many more steps we can take on this journey.
Learnings on this Journey
Building a good business solution takes many steps. We would like it to be accomplished all in one easy effort that was carefully planned out and efficiently executed. However, easing into a new routine one step at a time may open up new procedures or solutions that will lead you down a better path.
If you are not receiving your Integrated Computer Systems invoices via email and would like to receive them electronically, please email (diane@ics-support.com) or call (Diane at 425-820-6120) and provide us with the proper contact information including contact name, phone number and email address.
