There is growing (and necessary) pressure on business owners to upskill and digitise their business in order to maintain efficiency and effectiveness. This can be extremely overwhelming and the options available are so plentiful that it can be quite difficult to make the first move.
Just like the desire for individuals to ‘unplug’ and get back to reality, business owners feel it too. So where should digital optimization be focused and where should businesses look at taking a step back?
The right tools are critical for a business to survive into the future and unfortunately, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are being left behind post-pandemic.
A paper produced by MYOB last year found that nearly half a million Australian SMEs have either no or very low digitisation and that increasing digital adoption could lead to a $10.5bn gain to the Australian economy.
However, before you rush off to invest in every AI technology available, there is an important lesson to be learned about good and bad digital adoption and to determine what processes are going to work for you.
Unfortunately, many business owners have the mindset that by replacing manual processes with digital ones, they will automatically become more efficient.
However, the cost of the subscriptions, especially if services overlap and the time it takes to integrate and learn the systems have meant that many of these digital options have failed to live up to their expectations.
Bad digitisation can cost an 100 employee strong business 12.5 hours per week, per employee. That’s 75 days a year, a day and a half every week or an additional cost of $2.78million.
Using digital adoption to your advantage is easy to see when it works. Research completed by MYOB and Forrester Consulting saw that businesses that used future-fit platforms were growing 3.2 times faster than other companies.
So how can you tell if digital adoption is working for you?
It can be felt quickly, with those making positive changes feeling the impact within a year. More is certainly not better when it comes to digital tools. The key is to keep it simple.
You should look for systems that enable you to streamline your processes and gain more insights into your operations. Tools that allow your staff to digitally interact and collaborate will enable a more seamless workflow.
Have a talk with us here at Accounting Tax Solutions on 07 5559 1200 to get relevant support on how you can best automate your business to increase efficiency and productivity.