Cost Reduction Survey

 

In these difficult economic times businesses need to identify and implement cost reduction and enhanced cash flow opportunities and integrate them into the business operations.

 

You can decrease costs substantially in your organization by increasing the use of electronic transaction processing with an EBFM approach.  Electronic Business Flow Management provides the analytical basis to identify manual intensive processes and inefficient electronic systems processes to enable improvements.  Reduce paper handling (invoices, remittance advise, checks, etc.) and manual data entry.  It is amazing how many companies continue with labor intensive practices when information technology has provided cost effective solutions for many years.

 

By applying enhanced electronic transactions to your business processes, you can reduce staff, decrease time to cash receipt, eliminate error prone remittance application, and reduce the order to cash depository process.

 

This short questionnaire will help identify areas where enhanced business practices and enhanced information technology solutions can aid to enhance cash flow, reduce operational expenses and provide enhanced business processes to the entire organization.


Order Processing

 

  • Is your order to delivery cycle driven by electronic order processing tied to timely invoice generation and payment processing?
  • Are material procurement processes automated and integrated into your inventory management system?
  • Are procurement orders and delivery receipts integrated with the inventory management systems and payment processes?
  • Do you have a chargeback program documented to insure that customer charges are valid and accurate?
  • Is your inbound order processing fully automated for your top 10 customers?  (Typically the top 10 customers can be up to 80% of your gross order volume.)

Invoicing and Payment Receipts Processing

 

  • Are invoices generated and sent electronically to your customers; at least the top 20% which represent 80% of your cash receipts total?
  • Are your cash receipts processed by a bank ‘lock box’?  If so, are the bank receipts electronically submitted to your Accounts Receivable system?  Are they automatically applied to outstanding invoices on a systematic basis?
  • Do the top 10 customers pay the invoices electronically by direct deposit to your bank?  Are remittance advices received electronically and automatically posted to your Accounts Receivable system?

Shipping and Receiving

 

  • Do your shipping and distribution systems generate shipping documents electronically and send them in advance to your customers (Advanced Ship Notice) and tie directly to the invoicing systems?
  • Do your warehouse and inventory receipts system accept electronic shipping notices and tie directly into the receiving operations?
  • Are receiving documents automatically and electronically generated and processed by your warehouse receipt operation?

 

If you have answered ‘NO’ to more than three of these questions, you may be spending more than necessary on your business processes.   Let us review your operations to identify areas where enhanced information technology processes and business process integration can help streamline operations, reduce costs and improve business partner relationships.


Call NOW to schedule a ˝ day consultation (on-site or video-conference) with your senior staff to review operations and answer these questions in a positive manner.