Business Document Automation: 10 Benefits of Ditching Paperwork
The digital world is knocking at your business's door, brandishing the power and promise of paperless operations. Yet many businesses still stumble trying to make the digital transition in one critical area: routine paperwork.
Roughly 30% of documents used each day are still printed on paper, while four in 10 workers say they spend as much as 30% of their time on tasks related to both paper and digital documents. Paperwork will never go away entirely, but automating even some of your day-to-day documents will save time, gain efficiency, and improve accuracy.
What is Business Document Automation?
Business document automation is using technology to simplify and streamline document workflows, from generation to distribution.
Imagine producing every piece of paper your company needs — including proposals, quotes, invoices, letters, and more — rapidly and without any human intervention. Simply extract data automatically from your customer relationship management (CRM) system and voilà, you’ve got personalized documents at the click of a button.
Automation doesn’t mean losing the human touch. Instead, it shifts the focus away from mundane repetitive tasks and enables better use of human resources, driving up productivity.
Business Paperwork: The Thorn in Everyone’s Side
We can all agree that dealing with business paperwork is a hassle, whether paper or digital. Producing business documents manually consumes valuable time and energy. And if you’re still dealing with physical paper, you risk a clutter-filled office and an organizational nightmare, making it easy to lose important documents.
Another glitch with manual/paper forms is that they introduce opportunities for error. Any time you have to manually type information into a document, you’re risking making a mistake somewhere. Especially when filling out long forms with lots of data entry, a single mistyped number or decimal point can cause serious problems down the line.
However, today’s sophisticated technology lets you leave paperwork behind, taking care of form filling and document creation, so you can focus on achieving your goals.
Types of Business Documents to Automate
Several types of business documents are ideally suited to business document automation.
Business Proposals - Generate unique and compelling business proposals by harvesting key customer data points automatically from your CRM.
Quotes - Eliminate manual input and generate fast and accurate custom price quotes for potential clients.
Contracts - Input customer details from your CRM to generate and send contracts immediately.
Invoices - Let an automation solution kick off invoice creation and delivery based on the triggers you specify.
Customer Correspondence - Create personalized, client-focused messages using data pulled from your CRM.
Account & Opportunity Summaries - Pull real-time data into these summaries so you’ll always have the most current strategic analysis at your disposal.
10 Benefits of Business Document Automation
Document automation isn't just a trendy business phrase — it's an operational game-changer. Embracing document automation means bidding goodbye to unnecessary paperwork while unlocking several measurable benefits.
Document Automation Benefit #1: Time and Cost Savings
Did you know that sales reps spend only 28% of their time actually selling? Manual administration of business documents is time-consuming — time that could otherwise be spent on other revenue-generating activities.
Document Automation Benefit #2: Increased Efficiency
Efficiency isn't just about speed; it's also about productivity, which impacts profitability. Document automation increases efficiency by reducing human intervention, eliminating redundant tasks, allowing employees to focus on value-added work, and ultimately boosting productivity.
Document Automation Benefit #3: Enhanced Accuracy
Human error is inevitable when manually processing vast volumes of business paperwork. Document automation reduces mistakes significantly and ensures consistency across documents with data auto-filled from Salesforce or another database. Eighty-three percent of customers say they’re loyal to companies that provide consistent, seamless interactions across departments.
Document Automation Benefit #4: Improved Compliance
In sectors like finance or healthcare with legally required documentation, compliance is critical. Automation makes it easier for your team to maintain consistency and conformity, matching regulatory standards and mitigating risks associated with non-compliance.
Document Automation Benefit #5: Personalization
Personalization might seem contradictory to automation, but advanced custom features let businesses personalize each correspondence reflecting their brand identity while retaining individual client details. Consumers appreciate the personal touch, with 65% pledging loyalty to companies that provide personally tailored interactions.
Document Automation Benefit #6: Reliable Security
Data integrity and privacy are paramount in our digitally driven era, with 76% of customers preferring companies that offer better data security. Automating documents protects information and ensures sensitive data stays secure through encryption technologies or robust authentication methods.
Document Automation Benefit #7: Scalability and Flexibility
As your business grows, so do your documentation needs. Your team can stay flexible and streamline its workflow by using automated systems to scale up or down based on demand.
Document Automation Benefit #8: Customer Satisfaction
Swift and precise handling coupled with personalized touchpoints helps build a stronger client rapport. Business document automation significantly enhances the overall customer experience with your brand and fosters loyalty, with 72% of consumers saying fast service makes them come back for more.
Document Automation Benefit #9: Environmental Sustainability
Your environmental impact matters, with 78% of customers saying it influences their decision to buy from a company. Migrating to digital information recording and distribution lets you significantly reduce paper consumption, contributing towards environmental sustainability — a true testament to social corporate responsibility in action.
Document Automation Benefit #10: Work-life Balance
The ultimate benefit of document automation is the transformation in work culture as technology cuts down on busy work, giving employees more time for meaningful projects and personal pursuits, leading to a healthy work-life balance.
Reducing Business Paperwork with S-Docs
Manual and paper-based documents are tedious and eat into your productivity and efficiency. Modernizing your business document automation with S-Docs will streamline operations and accelerate success.
S-Docs is a document automation solution that’s purpose-built for Salesforce users. It works like an extension of your CRM, rather than a separate program, allowing you to seamlessly create and distribute data-driven documents from your regular work interface.
Whether you’re creating contracts or processing invoices, S-Docs speeds up processes and minimizes human errors, saving time and costs associated with manual document handling. Stop juggling pieces of paper and start experiencing what hassle-free business document automation truly feels like. Request a demo today. We look forward to speaking with you!
