Time is a limited resource, but the decision on how to use it irrevocably changes the business flow.
“Time” is one of the most frequently used words:
“I don’t have time.”
“We’ll do it when we have time.”
“How the time flies.”
“We have to organize our time better.”
And the one we all know so well:
“Time is money.”
Probably because it’s so precious and there’s never enough of it. In the race with time, the general networking of the world certainly made the communication easier. If we take into account how easy it is to convey information from one part of the world to another digitally, and how fast and cheap that type of communication is, it comes as a bit of a surprise that a lot of companies still interchange their documents in a paper form. Every company wants to stay competitive on the market and have good relations with people, organizations, and institutions whose interests are related to the company’s business activities. For a successful collaboration, it is necessary to pay attention to details and to be punctual, yet exchanging documents in a paper form is susceptible to errors and delays.
But let’s not waste time on words: we have illustrated the specific numbers of the time needed for processing paper and electronic documents.
The illustration shows that the processing a single invoice in a paper form takes twenty-one minutes. Seems a bit much for just one invoice, does it not? So what is different in the electronic data interchange? Numerous processes are automated and the others are shortened. Two and a half minutes is all it takes to process an electronic invoice.
We will now explain the savings on a specific number of electronic documents. Let’s suppose that 3300 documents need to be processed monthly. To process that number of documents in a paper form, you need 144 man-days (man-days consist of the 8-hour working days). Electronic processing takes 2,5 minutes per document, which amounts to 17 man-days. To sum up, here’s some basic math: when we deduct the number of man-days needed to process the paper documents from the number of man-days needed to process the electronic documents, we get a real saving of 127 man-days.
We highly doubt that there’s a company out there that hasn’t thought about reducing the wasting of the resources, but a good number of them probably did not realize the potential that lies in the electronic data interchange.
Even if we only take into account the time saved (we will talk about other advantages some other time), that time can be productively used. You don’t have to invent a new, unseen way of doing the business to be successful; invest your time in improving the quality of it, bettering relations with customers and other relevant groups, and that will make you stand out on the market.
Just in case all this talk about numbers made you sleepy, let’s recap. E-business is your efficient helper in the battle against inefficient business practices. By switching to the electronic business you are switching to a smart way of doing business – business that saves time and money. And if we bear in mind that time is money, just think about all the money you’ll be saving.
And who wouldn’t want that?
Nino Strajher, director