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5 Ways That Task Automation Can Save You Time & Money

Using applications to automate routine tasks is more efficient than using manual tools. Yet most companies rely on manual tools. Automation can solve this problem by streamlining the way you do business. Here are five areas in which automation can save you and your employees time:

1. Document Management

Using forms, policies, contracts, and other types of documents is a mainstay in business. Manually tracking, updating, and storing documents can be time-consuming. Plus, if you need to update a paper document that is in a file cabinet in a different office, getting the document can be time consuming.

To save time and hassle, you can use a document management solution to consolidate your documents into digital format and automate processes to manage them. For example, if your staff often needs to update documents, you can have a document management software track all changes and manage pending updates through an approval process.

2. Appointment Scheduling

Setting up meetings might seem like a trivial task, but it eats away at your productivity a few minutes at a time. Appointment scheduling software can help you track and schedule meetings with colleagues and customers. Many of these appointment schedulers synchronize with programs such as Microsoft Outlook. Resources like boardrooms, vehicles and portable projectors can be scheduled through a world class scheduling solution like Office 365.

More advanced appointment scheduling solutions offer additional functionality. For example, some provide online forms that customers can use to request or cancel appointments.

3. Fixed Asset Management

A common way to manage fixed assets is to use spreadsheets. For instance, business owners sometimes enter computer serial numbers, software license numbers, and other details about IT assets in spreadsheets. Manually tracking and updating assets is a tedious job that is often postponed or overlooked.

To make sure it gets done, you can use asset management software. These applications often use barcodes to track assets and automatically update their details. They can also notify you about upcoming events such as a software license that are about to expire or equipment that needs maintenance.

4. Human Resource Management

Small business owners can spend as much as 25 percent of their time handling employee-related paperwork. You can spend less time if you take advantage of human resource automation.

Employee self-service applications are an important part of automating human resource management. With a self-service application, your employees can update phone numbers, addresses, and other personal information on their own. Depending on the application, they might also be able to perform other tasks such as submitting vacation requests and changing benefit options.

A human resource automation solution can free up your time in other ways as well. For instance, you can use it to streamline your recruitment, hiring, and performance evaluation processes.

5. Inventory Management

Every business has inventory it needs to manage

Inventory management programs track when inventory is received, used, transferred, and sold. Most programs provide other time-saving tools, such as tools that create purchase orders, issue work orders, and manage shipping processes.

Besides saving you time, inventory management software can help you reduce costs. You will be better able to determine how much inventory you need to carry and when you need to reorder it. With this information, you can more strategically control inventory levels. Reducing unnecessary inventory, can reduce inventory cost, while increasing necessary inventory will help ensure inventory will be available when needed.

The Bottom Line

These five areas are only examples of the automation possibilities. In many cases, taking advantage of automation tools does not require a large capital investment. There are many inexpensive tools. Some automation solutions cover multiple objectives.

PC Corp can help you identify the best automated tools for your business. Contact your PC Corp Account Manager or call us at (780) 428-3000, ext. 3

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