Complex processes in companies require more human capital, time, and administrative costs. During the "Efficiency Conference 2020," a discussion initiated by the IT solution manufacturer "Sekasoft" for organizational management, representatives of Lithuanian companies discussed the benefits that business process and document management solutions can bring to companies and how to successfully implement changes.
The need is dictated by the pursuit of business process efficiency
According to Sigita Vaičiūtė, Sales and Marketing Director of the intercity passenger transport company "Toks," the implementation of business process and document management systems began when it was observed that long and expensive processes were hindering growth.
"There was a need to grow, but the issue of efficiency was an obstacle. We started the implementation with what was most important to us – working with charter transport, the tourism market, and individual clients. The first task was efficient management of orders, customer information, and documents after order fulfillment," said S. Vaičiūtė.
Vaida Seibutytė, Head of the Process Management Group at "Lietuvos paštas" (Lithuanian Post), recounted that just three years ago, little was known about process management in the company, which has one of the largest service delivery networks in the country. Departments operated differently, contracts and other documents were entered into "Excel" files or company systems, and almost 6,000 employee vacation requests were sent by mail: "We realized that our large company cannot function without such a system."
According to Rasa Danielevičienė, Head of the Business Process Development Group at "Rimi Lietuva," disorganized processes and unintegrated systems prompted the company to implement business process management systems a decade ago. Today, according to the network representative, the system helps meet emerging new human resource management needs.
"Systematizing processes and having well-organized information helps to onboard new employees, e.g., providing them with necessary information, familiarizing them with documents. This was especially relevant during the pandemic when we avoided physical contact," R. Danielevičienė affirmed.
Results – already in the first year
S. Vaičiūtė calculated that after implementing process and document management systems, the company's turnover grew by half a million euros in the first year, 23% of working time was saved, and the share of administrative costs was reduced.
"We saved human resources, almost tripled the response time to customer inquiries. Our market is competitive, especially during the season: customers often state that they expect a response to an inquiry within, for example, 5 minutes. It is understandable that without information and an implemented process management system, people cannot react so quickly. Today, we can do it even faster," S. Vaičiūtė enumerated.
According to V. Seibutytė, after implementing the document and process management system at "Lietuvos paštas," the first results were quickly noticed – the document circulation and signing time were shortened, and resources began to be saved more efficiently. The implementation phase itself was particularly beneficial, as a detailed review of documents and consideration of the necessity to collect and digitize them led to their number being halved. Today, the implemented tools allow the company to develop its operations more efficiently and more easily ensure essential process control.
"We finally have control mechanisms and can see how many purchase agreements there are, who is responsible for them, how many have been signed, what orders have been executed. We started seeing everything in one system, and this is not just about saving time – we got a tool where we can monitor how much and what we have, how much we can or cannot spend," V. Seibutytė noted.
