Business Recovery » The roadmap to business continuity

The roadmap to business continuity

Sush Koka, director of global product marketing at Basware, outlines how automation of businesses procure-to-pay operations can build resilience for the future

Digital transformation is the adoption of technology to replace manual processes with automated ones. While digital transformation is well underway at many businesses, it’s no surprise that automation and digitisation have catapulted to the top of virtually every organisation’s strategic priorities list as a result of the pandemic.

But there are three questions that organisations should ask when evaluating their automation options:

  • Is it strategically relevant?
  • Is it tactically urgent?
  • Does it deliver fast-time-to-value?

A roadmap for today, tomorrow and the future

Large investments that have the potential for large paybacks over an extended period of time can be slow moving and harder to get approved, while smaller investments that generate rapid paybacks can impact overall efficiencies quickly.

With that in mind, organisations need to have short-term and long-term automation plans and create an automation roadmap for today, tomorrow and the future.

Learnings to take forward

Executives across the globe are now coming to terms with the short-, mid- and long-term impacts of the pandemic. Whilst companies and countries across the globe were unprepared for a crisis of this magnitude, both parties can learn a lot from the pandemic and apply those teachings moving forward.

In challenging times, a reliance on inefficient accounts payable processes such as physical paper and manual processes can cause significant slowdowns, and in some situations make it impossible to keep up with normal business processes. But automation can help minimise disruptions to financial supply chains and day-to-day business activities.

The many advantages of automation

Automation mitigates risk, helps to support a flexible and remote work environment, offers real-time insight into critical financial data, as well as guaranteeing support for your suppliers and providing visibility no matter where you are or what’s happening in the world.

In times like these, automation equips you with the ability to focus on what’s important – minimising supply chain disruptions and ensuring business continuity.

The Roadmap to Business Continuity report examines actions you can take with regards to your procure-to-pay (P2P) operations to build resilience into your business plan for the future.

You’ll learn what you can do:

  • TODAY to see where you can easily inject automation into your process with low effort and still realise major benefits like joining a business network to receive invoices electronically to enable a remote accounts payable (AP) workforce.
  • TOMORROW to contain costs when cash flow is tight. Forget analysis paralysis instead see how you can automate your AP workflow so your staff can do more with less, as well as how to make decisions quickly with more data-driven insights.
  • IN THE FUTURE to harness the power of visibility and transparency to prevent future supply chain disruptions, develop a reliable working capital strategy, and ensure sustainable business practices.

Faster time to value

As businesses change, so do priorities. A phased approach helps set the foundation for future investments, while taking advantage of the benefits at each milestone.

Accomplishing faster time-to-value and visibility across your entire organisation is what we call “visible commerce”. We see a world where there is complete visibility across all flows of money, goods, and services globally, leading to more effective and ethical decision-making – creating a better global economy for all.

Take action

Each section of this report details and prioritises recommendations, provides benefits, and discusses how other companies are taking action in these areas. The pandemic may have been a gut punch, but it wasn’t a knockout.

Download the Roadmap to Business Continuity report here:

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