From reducing errors to cutting down on wait time, business process automation can bring your organization a variety of benefits. If you're considering using business process automation for your company, the following two SYDCON projects are excellent examples of what you can accomplish.
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Project #1: Combining and Splitting of Orders for an eCommerce Company
The client is an eCommerce company that sells consumer goods in large volumes. Before working with SYDCON, the client experienced serious inefficiencies in the way that they processed orders. During times of peak demand, they had to spend more time on picking, stacking, and shipping orders. This often led to delayed order shipments and employees being stretched to the limit in order to keep up with demand.
Eventually, the client came to a crossroads: the choice of either hiring more people or automating some processes. Although the client often makes use of temp workers throughout the year due to heavy spikes in demand, they frequently hit the limits of their capacity even with this additional workforce.
SYDCON developed a plan of action for the project by speaking with a department head at the company, who provided ideas on how to efficiently pick and process orders. For example, the company wanted the ability to combine orders together, so that they eliminated the need to make repeat trips in order to retrieve the same item over and over.
Based on these recommendations, SYDCON developed software that allowed employees to combine and split orders as desired. During the development and testing process, the cooperation of employees who would actually use the program was invaluable. Because bugs and flaws in the software would be highly detrimental to the client's operations, SYDCON went through several rounds of testing, feedback, and suggestions in order to create an excellent solution that satisfied the client's needs.
The client has seen multiple benefits as a result of its enhanced capabilities for the ordering process. Customers are happier because their orders are being shipped more quickly, and employees are happier because they aren't constantly being stretched to their limit. As a result of working with SYDCON, the client has become more efficient and can get more things done in the same amount of time. According to the department head at the company, SYDCON's efforts were a "game-changing process."
Project #2: eCommerce Order Integration Across Business Platforms
The client for this project is the same as in the previous project: a large eCommerce business that frequently processes and ships consumer goods at scale. The company provides several different systems for customers to place an order: through their eCommerce website or by taking in order files.
Before reaching out to SYDCON, the client needed to carry out massive amounts of data entry from each of these different systems. After taking in an order, the client had to print it and then enter it manually into the QuickBooks accounting software in order to eventually create an invoice. In addition, different departments were responsible for different parts of the order entry process.
Understandably, the client faced several pain points as a result of this outmoded data entry process, including the sheer volume of the orders and the time it took to enter each one. Of course, order entry is a business-critical process that creates problems with invoicing if not carried out correctly.
The client realized that the faster these orders were entered, the faster they could create an invoice and get paid. After speaking with SYDCON, the client determined that a centralized order repository was the best solution for their pain points. During the project, SYDCON set up a parallel development and testing environment so that the live production environment could continue operating as normal.
SYDCON created jobs that ran overnight to collect all of the orders from the different business units and store them in a single repository with an API connection to QuickBooks. By pushing these orders into QuickBooks automatically, the client no longer needed different departments to do manual data entry. SYDCON verified that the data was entering QuickBooks correctly and exposed any errors that were made as a result of manual data entry, such as incorrect pricing, quantities, or items.
Prior to working with SYDCON, the client would lose money by making errors in their invoices. If the error was discovered after the invoice was sent to the customer, then they would leave it untouched, which could mean that the final price was lower than it should actually be. SYDCON helped the client stop hemorrhaging money by eliminating manual errors, helped employees be less stressed by removing manual work, and helped them to get paid more quickly and efficiently.
Final Thoughts
When evaluating the benefits of business process automation for your company, think about how it can help both you and your customers. On your end, you'll have much more time to take in more orders, and also be able to spend the extra time on things that matter more for your business. Even better, your customers will also be happier because they'll receive their orders more efficiently and with fewer errors.
