Have you ever heard something time and time again until you know it… but, for some reason, you hear it again and it seems like the first time?
Yesterday was one of those days for me. I was talking with a company that has had paper in Accounts Payable for years. As an AP automator for 11 years, I have been “preaching” the need to free up employees’ time and then use that time in more efficient and effective ways. I have even gone so far as to create a term for this free time gained… I call it “New Time”. This new time is the amount of productive time a company can gain without hiring.
New time is one of the most important aspects of automation to understand. New time not only justifies a large corporate investment, it also has the ability to save a project or expedite a corporate decision. Think of situations in your business life where there is a single number that can both propel and expel a decision. Fascinating, isn’t it? New time is so misunderstood that I have dedicated my next book to the subject. The new book will be full of case studies on how companies that are automated in AP (and have been automated for a long time) have capitalized on this idea and used new time in a positive way.
One of the common questions I ask companies considering automating their AP process is, “What is driving the need or desire to automate”. I get a range of answers:
- We want to go green
- Our business is growing but we don’t want to hire more people
- There is a board need to eliminate staff
- Our competition is doing it
Here is an answer I was given yesterday that really struck me when I asked what is driving the need/desire to automate AP…. the answer, “We have a lot of skilled people doing a lot of unskilled activities and I want it to stop“.
WOW! What insight… give that person a raise – what a leader! This statement is profound on many levels – (1) This lady values her employees’ time based on their skills <this is a big one that too many companies skip over> (2) She wants to make the business better (3) She recognizes that there is a better way.
New Time equals a better use of your people’s skills!
To get your copy of The 8 Pitfalls of Accounts Payable Automation – click here to buy.
For more information go to www.newwayap.com
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