I feel bad for low tech people. If you think of it, being low tech is not so bad… you get to watch a lot more TV, take walks and have more face time with people… that’s face to face time… not Apple’s version of FaceTime.

The Setup

I have the fortune of talking with dozens of companies a week about Accounts Payable Automation. Rarely do I run into a company that I would consider “high-tech”. Most companies that I work are struggling with technology and some are even propelled unwilling into a high-tech world. There are three things you should be aware of when starting an Accounts Payable Automation journey and you consider yourself “low tech”.

Thing 1 – Low Tech Doesn’t Mean…

Low tech and easy to use are two different things. It has been my experience that the two don’t go together. As a matter of a fact, I have found that the two (low tech and easy of use) aren’t related at all, just.. To be clear (you are welcome) those AP Automation offerings that are low tech lack in a lot of feature, and therefore benefits, that will make automation easy. Also the technology is not the only thing that you should consider, take into account what services the service provider offers, and have that factor into your decision.

Thing 2 – Focus on Outcomes

Instead of evaluating technology as being low-tech or high-tech, better advice is to focus on outcome. That’s why I counsel people on calculating their return on investment and the amount of time that automation frees up. Those are two examples of forcing on outcomes that are valuable to your automation goals.

Thing 3 – Let the Software do the Work

Thinking you are low-tech and looking for a low-tech offering will put you in a very difficult spot of having to do most of the work. Now, follow my logic. If you opt for low-tech you normally get cheaper. If the offering is cheaper there will be certain things that you have to do manually. Those certain things generally are scanning, indexing (process), manual approval routing, just to name a few. You will be better off finding a service provider that will do as much work as possible. If you find a service provider that does, say the three things I listed above, then the software is doing most the work. When the software does most of the work, you will have more time to do other things, which is the point of AP Automation.

Finally

A little part of me always dies when a company and their leaders want low-tech offerings because they don’t see themselves as being high-tech. When you do that you leave a lot of benefits on the table.

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