SMBs optimizing processes for future of remote work

Switch to remote work

The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a major shift in organizations’ perceptions of how efficient remote teams can be. With the enforced closure of workplaces across the globe, enabling work from home became a necessity for organizations to continue operations.

The switch to remote work has not been without its challenges, however, with organizations forced to develop methods to manage and optimize processes that support employees working remotely. This may have proven difficult for small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who have had to adapt to new practices that may have been completely alien to them, all while attempting to grow a business and gain an edge over more tech savvy competitors.

Jeff McKenzie, vice president, global product marketing, business process automation at solution provider Quadient, explains that many SMBs may have lost a key opportunity to engage customers when offices were closed.

“Many SMBs generate their competitive differentiation by staying close to customers and adapting to market changes quickly, which has traditionally been done by keeping teams actively engaged day-to-day with both internal and external customers,” he says.

Also read: How business are conquering change in hybrid work model

Overcoming remote-work challenges, such as the difficulty of managing and engaging disparate teams, has been facilitated by the advancement of technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, data security tools and cloud solutions. These technologies have a range of applications and can afford greater, more precise control over processes and easier, more secure remote collaboration. As these technologies become increasingly viable for SMBs, they allow them to enhance internal processes and optimize work for remote employees in ways that may not have been possible in the past.

This PEX Network report, created in collaboration with Quadient, draws on the insights of a range of process experts from Filter King, CocoFinder and Vinpit. It aims to shed light on steps SMBs have been taking to optimize processes and what technologies can ensure survival in a world dramatically transformed by the global pandemic.

“While the initial focus of implementing digital transformation initiatives was in response to work from home requirements, digital solutions have given SMBs better insight, visibility and control over critical business processes, helping organizations make quicker and more sound business decisions.”

Jeff McKenzie

Vice president, global product marketing, business process automation at Quadient

Optimizing remote-work processes through digital transformation

When facilitating remote work became a necessity for SMBs in 2020, many turned to the implementation of digital transformation initiatives to make this a possibility. This meant the adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms to enable automation or digitization of processes to make life easier for those working from home.

Jeff McKenzie, vice president, global product marketing, BPA at Quadient, notes that SaaS-based solutions have allowed SMBs to support remote workers and gain efficiencies in the process.

“While the initial focus of implementing digital transformation initiatives was in response to work from home requirements, these digital solutions have given SMBs better insight, visibility and control over critical business processes, helping organizations make quicker and more sound business decisions,” says McKenzie. “By implementing digital solutions and automated processes, management teams now have new insights and governance of critical business processes.”

One particular SaaS platform that SMBs have found beneficial to facilitate remote work is project management software. According to Rick Hoskins, founder of Filter King, a Miami-based SMB that manufactures and distributes air filters, this is the simplest and most efficient solution to switch to a remote-working model.

Executives and managers who use project management software have access to every department’s task list, deadlines, work allocation and project development, all remotely accessible through the cloud as Hoskins explains.

“This is a great solution to optimize employee evaluations as I can see at a glance how an employee is able to handle their workload, where their pain points and strengths lie, and how they are participating toward the greater goal of the company,” he notes. “This reduces managers’ workload and eliminates a lot of second-guessing.”

McKenzie believes that this adoption of SaaS is not temporary. As SMBs realize that digital solutions such as process automation and digital collaboration tools are helping drive new competitive advantages, we will observe a continuation of this trend.

When managers and colleagues are not able to check in and communicate with each other in person it is important to ensure that they are able to effectively work together through digital collaboration services such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Slack.

There are numerous opportunities to enhance the management of organizational processes in a remote environment, including collaboration and content management systems, which can ease the challenges of managing a remote team. The next section of this report will dive into the application of business process automation as a tool for remote teams and the benefits it can offer.

Business process automation as a remote-work tool

Automation can be a great asset for SMBs to optimize processes for remote work. It offers a wide array of benefits, including the elimination of human error and repetitive, manual tasks from employees’ workloads or streamlined document management systems.

Managers will need to ensure that the simple, day-to-day tasks, particularly paper-based processes, are streamlined so that they can be handled quickly and with ease. If organizations can take steps to automate at least part of these processes, this is one less thing that remote managers will have to worry about keeping track of or chasing disparate teams to complete.

Harriet Chan, market officer at public information search engine CocoFinder, found the application of automation to be an efficient tool to assist remote workers and empower them to work and collaborate to their “fullest potential”.

“Automation is key as it helps workers to keep track of projects with colleagues. Files, data and project status can be updated seamlessly in real time, which in turn enables employees to remain focused on what’s most important.”

SMBs looking to enhance remote teams’ efficiency may have been unsure where to start or hesitant to dive into full process automation due to cost or complexity. Quadient’s McKenzie notes that paper-based processes are a great place to start but warns against the dangers of “partial automation” as a solution for SMBs not ready to take the full plunge.

“We use the term ‘partial automation’ to describe situations where one part of the process is automated, but the end-to-end process is not,” he explains.

An example of a process that often receives partial automation is the use of mailing hardware to accelerate production, often seen in businesses who employ legacy work practices, which take system data, export it and then manage the process using disconnected tools.

Also read: Change management in digital transformation initiatives

However, when mixing automation with manual processes there is a possibility that human error can be automated into the process, exacerbating any inefficiencies, and remote employees may also not have day-to-day access to some of these disconnected tools.

In these cases, SaaS solutions help unify and connect employees working in different locations, allowing them to virtually collaborate and execute tasks from anywhere.

When fully automating mailing, SMBs can achieve a lot more than just enhanced speed. Automation also adds a layer of security by removing human error from the process entirely and ensuring that the right documents go to the right person every time. Research from Quadient reveals that full automation is the most preferable method, with partially automated mailing processes displaying higher error rates than even manual ones.

Document delivery solutions such as Quadient’s Impress, can help SMBS save costs and gain operational efficiency by eliminating manual document processes. This tool collates multi-channel document automation into a single platform, so that entire teams can have full visibility over outbound document workflows, no matter where they work from.

The next section of this report will look into what the future holds and the decisions that SMBs will be forced to make regarding remote work practices.

Preparing for the future of remote work

Organizations are beginning to understand the benefits of employing remote teams, particularly with regard to cost savings from the reduced requirement for office space and staff having experienced the convenience of working from home. For these reasons, it seems likely that remote working is here to stay.

Quadient’s McKenzie believes the decision to maintain remote-working systems in order to attract top talent or stick to their roots with physical locations that allow them to be close to customers is a difficult one for SMBs.

“Remote work is here to stay, but for SMBs it may not be as prominent as it will be with large enterprises,” he says. “As the best employees are demanding more flexible work situations, however, SMBs will be forced to respond and therefore remote working must be supported.”

While it is likely that once Covid-19 restrictions are eased many employees will be going back to the office full-time, this may not be the case for everyone. SMBs have the option to combine traditional and remote-working practices in order to achieve ‘the best of both worlds’ and continue to attract talent that demand flexibility while maintaining that personal touch with customers.

Miranda Yan, founder of used vehicle research provider Vinpit, believes this to be the case, stating: “SMBs would still keep remote work running to some extent and probably adopt a hybrid workplace model that would see employees dividing their week between home and the office.”

As SMBs begin to understand the correct balance between remote and office work, hybrid systems will become increasingly efficient. Coupled with organizations taking steps to ensure that hybrid teams are supported and empowered with the correct tools and optimized, hassle-free processes, there is no reason why hybrid models cannot work.

Also read: How to achieve agility in financial services

As mentioned earlier in this report, paper-based processes such as mailing are good candidates for being optimized. As an example, Quadient Impress can offer SMBs the ability to consolidate communications from multiple sources into a centralized location, like a mailroom, reducing the need for document sharing between disparate teams.

To ensure they are prepared for the future of remote work, Quadient’s McKenzie offers his two top tips for SMBs.

“Firstly, focus on anytime anywhere access, which means deploying SaaS solutions to empower your staff,” McKenzie advises. “Secondly, leveraging out of the box processes instead of developing customer workflows can remove a lot of the headache that comes from attempts to completely overhaul and optimize processes.”

Digital solution providers are hyper-focused on customer needs and therefore offer a best practice approach. When leveraging these best practices businesses create a more scalable and flexible work environment which benefits the organization over time.

Final remarks

This report has taken a look into the rise of remote work, which has become the norm for many of us, and assessed how this is affecting SMBs and the ways in which they will need to prepare for the future.

Remote working practices are now commonplace for most organizations, with research from Recode predicting that as many as 70 percent of the global workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month by 2025, suggesting that remote work is here to stay. Supporting this with digital transformation initiatives is no longer optional for SMBs who will need to enable SaaS and digital collaboration solutions to make remote teams viable in the long term.

Some businesses have seen success through the application of project management or document delivery software, which can assist organizations in keeping tabs on remote teams and their workloads and take a lot of pressure off the shoulders of managers. Others have noted the advantages of maintaining remote teams in the future and predict that we will likely see a combination of remote and office work become the norm in the future.

To ensure processes are as stress-free as possible for remote staff, SMBs can look to process automation to reduce the need for managers to check in on the status of smaller tasks, which can be automated, such as single or batch mailing of documents like invoices or reminders. These are great steps to take to prepare for a future that undoubtedly features remote work and hybrid models in a prominent way. Those who take steps to account for this now could find themselves ahead of the competition.

Read the full report here