Getting started on the road to recovery

As businesses move away from the initial response phase and into a recovery and innovation phase post-COVID-19, attention is turning to how to strengthen and prepare businesses for a changed future. Businesses that plan to ‘get back to normal’ will need to take a strategic approach to thrive in a changed business landscape. The road to recovery is a unique opportunity to revisit the business and revitalise for a brighter tomorrow.

Some of the things that may have changed for businesses could include:

• a permanent shift to remote working for at least some team members
• shift-based work to reduce the number of people in the office
• new processes to reduce the amount of movement required in the office

While making these changes may carry an initial cost, it’s important to look at this as an investment in the future of your business. With a clear-eyed approach that accounts for your current business opportunities as well as those you’d like to create in the future, you will be able to see what changes make the most sense for your team and how to implement them with minimal disruption.

Revitalising your business for the road to recovery

1. Adding digital workers

As you embark on the next phase of your business’s evolution and development, your people are likely to remain your most valuable asset. With a great team in place, your business can pivot to meet opportunities and continue to grow sustainably.

When people are stuck doing tedious, manual tasks, you minimise both their productivity and their ability to contribute meaningfully to the business. These tasks, however, are often absolutely essential, so it’s important to find a way to ensure they are done consistently and error-free while freeing up staff members to do the tasks that only humans can do, such as working with customers and innovating within the business.

Digital workers can step in and take on these tasks, freeing up your people to add more value and do the tasks they enjoy. Digital workers are sometimes known as robots. In a process called robotic process automation (RPA), digital workers can work tirelessly and error-free to complete those mundane tasks such as processing invoices or claims, completing financial processes, or managing HR-related paperwork, for example. They can complete repetitive tasks faster and with complete accuracy, leading to better outcomes for staff members and customers alike.

Supplementing your people with a digital workforce can let you move faster to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise, focus on customers, and reposition your business for future success.

To help accelerate your recovery, find out where your business scaled on the digital roadmap journey. Start by taking the Digital Readiness Assessment.

2. Reducing paper with digitalisation

The era of big data has proven the financial and competitive value of information. Even small businesses often have a wealth of valuable data hidden in paper-based archives and filing cabinets. Turning this paper-based information into digital data can deliver significant benefits.

When your data is digital, you can:

• find it faster and with less disruption to your workday
• route it through automated workflows, saving time and effort for your team
• create powerful insights to drive decision-making for the future
• free up physical space currently occupied by paper archives
• comply more confidently with information governance requirements.

Digital data makes your business more efficient, your people more productive, and your decision-making more informed. To digitalise your data, all you need to start with is a high-speed scanner with optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

3. Helping remote workers be productive

As organisations of all sizes shift to accommodate a remote workforce, this brings various considerations around how to make sure people get immediate access to the information they need without compromising security. Searching for and retrieving documents can be costly. Some estimates suggest organisations spend, on average $120 in labour to find one misfiled document; and one out of every 20 documents is lost.[1]

A cloud-based information repository is the ideal solution. It collates all documents into a shared location, accessible by authorised users from a variety of devices and locations. This lets staff access the information they need, collaborate with colleagues, and keep pushing projects forward, all without ever having to come into the office.

WeOptimise is a secure, user-friendly, cloud-based digital filing cabinet, offering storage for up to 250,000 documents, secure access for all of your staff, storage templates, and expert service to help you get started, including training and ongoing support.

Getting started

The road to recovery starts now. Adding new tools to your business can be a valuable investment to help you recover more strongly. As your recovery partner, Konica Minolta has developed these packages to help your organisation on its road to recovery. We’ve helped thousands of businesses gain a competitive edge and position themselves for the future. To find out how we can help your business by addressing your unique needs, contact us today.