The larger a business, the more business processes it has, which, in turn, can potentially cause many things to go wrong. Although each department has its own list of tasks and set of priorities, they are all interconnected. Consequently, it’s easy enough for a single change in the flow of information to affect all the departments, creating a domino effect. These disruptive issues are usually something out of the norm, an emergency or a new development.
The reason a business is called an organization is because it has processes in place to manage all the disparate elements of a combined enterprise. This structure should be able to quickly adapt to disruptive change and nimbly smooth out anomalous shifts in how things work together.
Organization Adaptability
Successful businesses have a higher adaptability rate than businesses that slip from order to chaos when everything is not in synch. This higher adaptability rate is due to higher level priorities overriding lower level priorities when things don’t work out as expected. Let’s take a look at how automation can provide a stabilizing effect in an organization’s structure when it comes to payments, communication, and work projects.
1.Stabilizing payments through electronic payroll.
In the past, skillful management worked hard to make sure everything ran smoothly. For instance, that everyone’s paychecks came out in time in an accurate way. In other words, everyone got what they were expecting, ranging from raises to tax deductions, despite the difference in pay structure from department to department and person to person.
Usually, it took an enormous amount of effort using paper-based wage payment systems to make sure that everything was calculated correctly. For instance, delaying payment for a day because of variable changes in cash flow would be cause for widespread panic. Companies struggled with increasing costs and complexity to avoid creating inaccurate wage statements. Accidentally overpaying, underpaying, or not compensating for out-of- pocket expenses could cause a major disruption in the business day.
Automating payroll through an electronic payroll and wage statement method decreases costs while increasing the accurate accounting of all pay variables. Through the use of pay cards and online statements, it’s now possible for accounting to accurately manage change for all departments and individuals who have different payment requirements.
2. Stabilizing communication through mobile technology.
Another potentially disruptive element in an organization is a breakdown in communication. This includes internal and external communication.
The use of automated mobile communication platforms like moLotus and Kahuna ensures that everyone can stay in touch with each other.
Mobile communications increase the ability for work to be done from various locations without disrupting the flow of business. If, for example, a customer calls into a company to cancel a delivery order, the customer service rep can call the driver who is on the road to skip that particular customer address.
This mobile communication is not only done through smartphones, but also through notebooks and tablets. Mobile communication allows for information to flow freely when people are working from home, when an employee is on a business trip, and many other circumstances. In fact, employers, employees, and customers all take mobile communications for granted now.
3. Stabilizing workflow through collaboration technology.
A third way that business organizations can ensure stability is by increasing collaboration on all work projects.
Collaboration is a team effort, where multiple people in different locations can accomplish a joint venture. Content can be shared over a network as team members contribute and view documents.
One of the most expedient ways of collaboration is through cloud computing. Suddenly, time and distance are no longer problematic. All team members, whether they are local employees or overseas outsource members, can work together on digital documents and data that is stored off-premise outside a company’s firewalls. Work can be shared, edited, and reconfigured together. In addition, everyone can share the same proprietary software platforms.
This collaboration can be either synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous collaboration two or more team members can work on a project in real time, communicating as they work. They don’t even have to be in the same country. In asynchronous collaboration, working and collaborating are not happening at the same time.
Change Management
At the current pace of innovation and business growth, the quantity and variety of change continue to increase. Automation is one of the best ways to build an organization’s ability to manage change. In fact, it could be called a core competency. However, developing change agility is much more than good intentions, it calls for a structured approach that improves the way information is managed. Where is your organization today in coping with changes in the flow of business processes? What elements of automation will it be working on in the coming months?