Operating with high overheads is one of the major impediments to growth
facing small and medium-sized businesses. Regardless of productivity or
profitability, a certain proportion of your revenue will automatically
be given over to rent, utilities, administration and taxes.
Even if you are able to optimise your business processes to provide
better services at a lower cost, fixed overheads can remain a real
burden. In the worst cases, left unchecked, they can lead to reduced
profits, a lack of internal investment, poor cash flow, or even
contraction and bankruptcy.
Traditional measures to increase efficiency through higher productivity
can only go so far. Stretching resources, time and staff workload past a
certain point results in diminishing returns. The quality of products
decreases, staff morale falls, and a clear vision for future change and
growth is neglected.
Not necessarily fixed
There are ways to reduce or even eliminate overheads that at first seem
intractable. Rather than simply trying to optimise existing processes,
new solutions can be introduced.
Administration overheads can be cut significantly by adopting technology
to automate everyday business processes. Rather than expend time and
resources on constant spreadsheet editing and manual data entry,
repetitive tasks can be handled by a dedicated, centralised software
system. This solution increases accuracy and productivity while bringing
down costs at the same time.
IT costs can be alleviated further by moving to cloud hosting. Storing data and
software on a secure external server accessed over the internet
eliminates the need to maintain expensive IT infrastructure on-site.
This also has the benefit of allowing employees to work away from a
single location.
Physical premises
Business premises can be a real drain on funds, especially in prime
business locations where rents are prone to constant increases.
As more people communicate, shop and do business over the net, having a
physical headquarters becomes less relevant. With the right combination
of technology and working practices, it may not be required at all.
Evaluate how your employees provide goods and services to your clients,
and whether this can be done away from a current high-cost location. It
may even bring benefits to your company in terms of flexibility and
geographic reach.
Resource allocation
By automating the allocation of resources (including staff), greater
efficiency can be achieved by reducing the time and effort spent getting
the required resource in the right place at the right time, without
quality control or unnecessary stress imposed on employees.
Allowing clients to book resources through a portal and letting a
dedicated system designate them through predetermined rules and
criteria, means less waste and lower storage costs.
SwiftCase is a powerful, cloud-based business process management
platform that can significantly reduce your business overheads, leaving
you free to invest in growing your company and adapting for the future.
- Automate repetitive tasks, lower administration overheads
- Reduce IT overheads with a cloud-hosted solution
- Work anywhere, rely less on expensive physical premises
- Make the most of your business resources with automatic allocation
Get in touch with us today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.