Online Automation

Henry Ford was the first American to really exploit the power of automation. By automating the manufacture of his famed Model T, he made automobiles cheap enough for the average person to afford. Businesses have used automation to economize on the bottom line ever since. Modern companies use everything from automated mailing labels to sophisticated purchase information gathering systems to save time, money and serve customers more efficiently. The web makes possible an undreamed of world of automation. But too many companies don't take advantage of the possibilities. Want to make sure your company is using online automation to its fullest? Here's advice from Mark Rhoney, President of UPS e-Ventures. Delivery service UPS could have gone bankrupt from the web - instead UPS is using Internet capabilities to make its business run better.

First Take a Look Around Your Business

The first step in automating your business processes is deciding what can be streamlined. "Take a look at the most time consuming portions of customer contact and decide which ones could be done most efficiently in an automated fashion," Rhoney advises. You may have your own ideas about what works for your business, but according to Rhoney, the most crucial areas to automate are order management and inventory management. "If you take a look at customer satisfaction studies, you know that four to six days was acceptable for delivery. Now seven to ten is a long stretch and three to five is acceptable. Customers don't tolerate stock outs anymore," Rhoney says. "Sophisticated programming can streamline the back room processing of order management into the warehouse and inventory management systems that replenish. That eliminates a lot of paperwork and a lot of human error. That gets you a lower operating cost through lower cost of capital for inventory and lower manual cost to do it," he says.

Ask Your Customers What They Want

Don't get so lost taking a look around your company that you forget to ask customers about their needs. Before you spend money on a solution, make sure it's needed. "Focus less on what the competitors are doing and spend more time listening to your customers," Rhoney advises. "It's an indirect question. It's not 'What would you like me to put on the web?' It's 'How could I make our business transactions easier? What is it that doesn't work well when we do business together? Is it too many phone calls? Is it inaccurate order status? Is it late delivery with no notification? Is it inaccurate bills? What frustrates you?' " Businesses that learn to ask customers what they want can find a way to translate those needs into web-enabled automation

Automate from the Inside Out

No business can move from paper-and-people processes to web-enabled automation in one fell swoop. It makes more sense to automate your internal processes first. Then you can start using online automation to serve customers. "I think one of the biggest mistakes is forgetting to look inside," Rhoney says. "Companies may have proprietary legacy systems that you can't make work realtime on the web. People spend a lot of time and effort trying to put a square peg in a round hole. They take data that was meant to be displayed internally in a time-delayed fashion and display it externally, making it appear to be realtime. That's where people constantly get tripped up." Instead, companies should use networked technology within the company. That technology can then be translated to a web interface. "That way all of your systems, your payroll, your accounts receivable, your accounts payable, your inventory, your customer care, etc. are linked as best they can be. Then the information that's traded between them is realtime so that when you want to take it to the Internet and expose it through a web interface to your customers, you're all seeing the same information," he says. All in all, says Rhoney, automation is not a choice - it's a necessity for any business. "It's not about how to automate, but how to get started," Rhoney says. "This business evolution has begun. Start with the simplest thing, but get started as quickly as you can. Don't wait because every minute lost is a minute that your competitors are gaining on you."