During the first wave, the COVID-19 virus has condemned many of us to working from home, and companies that digitised their administrative organisation in the past have been taking maximum advantage of the efforts made. Of course, it has been suggested for some time that working from home or remotely will become a more important part of our working hours.

In order to achieve a better work-life balance and to solve mobility problems, we will continue to work more often independent of place and time. However, the measures imposed by the government have now forced many companies to adapt to a new reality at a fast pace. And this new way of working is most likely here to stay in some way or another.

So in no time at all, we have transformed ourselves into efficient home workers, for whom no videocall app is still unknown territory. However, for companies where the financial and administrative processes are still mainly "on paper", homeworking is not always so obvious. They are often still confronted with a lack of efficiency in performing recurring tasks.  A lack of digital process flows often leads to many back-and-forth calls and e-mails to get answers to simple questions.

Seize this crisis period to prepare your business for the future! In this article we will give you some tips that can help you as a company to take important steps in the digital transition.

Digitize the buying process

With cloud scanning tools, to digitize paper documents, you can convert all your remaining invoices, which you still receive on paper, into digital form today. The person who placed the order or the person responsible can then approve the invoice online, whether he is at home or at the office. No more loss of time or documents due to paper invoices that have to be passed on within the organisation. We have digitized the purchasing process ourselves and, together with us, many of our clients.

Digitize the sales process

In our previous article we already explained a number of advantages of e-invoicing.

Thanks to digital invoicing, the number of processes in the company will be accelerated. Invoices are automatically processed and posted. Unnecessary steps of reading and "translating" invoices into digital language will be eliminated. Such a system also enables smoother and simpler payments and also ensures that the company's cash flow will be more stable. Digital systems also facilitate the invoicing of invoices. Thanks to digital archiving, companies have their documents available quickly and at the right time.

Digitize the contact with the end customer

In the current circumstances, customers still want to receive their products quickly and follow up their orders at all times from any place in the world. Allow customers to or can place their orders digitally This will lead to a shorter turnaround time from order to delivery and invoicing.

Use a document management system

Manage all business documents digitally via a document management system. In this way, you create a centralised organisation of documents and files, which, moreover, remain accessible to authorised employees at all times and from anywhere. Also for those who work remotely.

There are already a large number of such systems, from very complex and expensive to simpler and more accessible. We also used such a system to exchange documents with our clients, which we made available on our VGD customer portal based on the Tulip platform.

Use the available data

Thanks to such digital processes, companies also have a greater flow of data at their disposal. So get to work with this data as well! Automated reporting in the cloud allows you to keep your finger on the pulse and respond more quickly to the new challenges facing the company. Time that used to go to input is now free for analysis!

Go for the quick wins

During this Covid-19 pandemic, there are undoubtedly a number of bottlenecks that your company encounters and that make efficient homeworking and social distancing difficult. With small adjustments (at minimal cost) we often find a pragmatic solution that can avoid long lead times or frustrations.

VGD is happy to help you make the digital transition. Based on a quick scan, we can quickly and pragmatically propose a number of solutions and tools that will help prepare your company for the future.

Feel free to contact your VGD consultant or one of our ‘digital’ advisors for more information. Don't forget to follow uor Facebook or Linked-In.