Businesses everywhere want to know how they can save time and money. Today, the internet is full of stories about how going paperless is great for business. It cuts down the cost of paper, ink, printing supplies, and the shocking cost of storage.Digitizing business processes is one way to achieve this goal—and it’s something that more and more companies are doing. Here are 10 use cases about businesses that have undergone digital transformations to improve their workflows with GoCanvas:
1. The Austin Company: Streamlined Inspection Time Through Digital Solutions
The Austin Company, a US-based international firm, offers architectural, engineering, design-build, and construction management services. The company has a rich history, with more than 135 years of experience in serving clients in diverse industries. Their dedication to both to safety and quality has led to rigorous inspections.
However, paper forms were making inspections go longer, creating room for human error, and making document management a pain. It also took more time for the inspections to reach the office because forms had to be mailed, returning days later.
Today, they have optimized their inspection time by having employees fill out their inspections on smartphones and tablets. Charlie Engel, Austin’s Director of QA/QC, finds inspections today taking only 15 minutes. By implementing paperless solutions, inspectors spend less time on forms, and more time creating lasting projects.
2. Sabi Sand Wildtuin: All Information in One Digital Technology Database
Sabi Sand Wildtuin is a private game reserve in South Africa. Like many other reserves and national parks, they have struggled with illegal rhino poaching. In 2013 1,004 rhinos were illegally killed. As demand for rhino horn rises in South Asia, it’s become harder and harder to protect these endangered animals.
Sabi Sand was trying to track rhino poaching on their reserves. However, using a clipboard, pen, and paper was causing additional problems. It was difficult to map out where poaching was occurring, time-consuming to transfer to their database, and too slow to match the poachers’ attacks on their reserve.
Sabi Sand became part of the GoCanvas Ante-Up program, where GoCanvas donates our product to non-profits. We gave Sabi Sand 17 Android devices and a free GoCanvas subscription to help their paperless transition. Today, they can easily capture photos and document the location where they find poacher’s tracks as well as where the rhinos are being killed with the help of one digital technology database. With all the documentation available immediately in the cloud, Sabi Sand can see where there are weak points in their reserve and how to protect their rhino population that same day.
3. Plumbing Doctors: Saved $40,000 Digitizing Administrative Forms
Newcastle-based Plumbing Doctors were finding administrative complications with paper. They were scheduling jobs for their 11 plumbers. While some jobs were scheduled in advance, emergencies would also come up, requiring immediate attention. On top of that, each job required four different forms to be filled out. Not only did this document management process make each job take longer, but it also required more work back at the office.
The Plumbing Doctor’s team has ditched paper for a more effective digital transformation strategy, mobile apps. They focus on responding to emergencies and growing their business instead of paperwork. As a result, their team has been more efficient,and they’ve found real cost savings as well. “We’ve saved around $40,000 on employing an admin officer.” Managing Director Joe Evers said, “We control our business with only three full-time office staff which is unheard of in the industry.”
4. Smile Bright Dental: Improved Business Operations by Going Totally Paperless
Smile Bright Dental is a dental practice in an outer suburb of Brisbane, Australia. Looking to not only cut their carbon footprint but also their costs, they looked for a mobile app to help take down client information, and skip paper entirely.
They found GoCanvas, “it was extremely easy to set up all the forms” Stacey Sinclair, Office Manager of Smile Bright Dental said. Any updates as well are easy to share with the entire office. “It automatically syncs with all of the iPads in the practice so everyone in the practice is using the exact same forms.” Stacey said.
Going paperless has also allowed them to improve business operations and enhance the customer experience in new ways. When they had a rise in Korean patients, they were able to create forms in both English and Korean. Now patients don’t have to struggle to understand consent forms or medical history questionnaires. Not only has this put their patients at ease, but ensured more accurate information to help their clients in the long run.
5. Fire & Safety Commodities: Saved Time with Digital Inspection Forms
Fire & Safety Commodities has been serving New Orleans since 1979. They install 22 new fire suppression systems each month for local restaurants and auto repair shops. They also provide fire inspection services to ensure that equipment is operating properly and will perform as required in an emergency.
Fire inspections can take a long time if you’re doing them on paper. They are also prone to errors, illegible handwriting, blank fields, damage, and can easily be lost altogether in the filing cabinets. These errors were costing Fire & Safety time away from customers.
By going paperless and investing in new technologies, they were able to speed up inspections in real time and make them more accurate. With checkboxes and drop-down lists, an inspector can move quickly through an inspection. Pictures can be inserted as necessary along with electronic signatures. An iPhone takes up a lot less space than a big clipboard filled with blank forms.
Afterward, the completed inspections are sent automatically back to the office via a PDF document attached to an email. Clients can be invoiced sooner and payment is collected sooner. Today, Fire & Safety are not only freed from paperwork but also to spend more time doing what they do best: preventing fires.
6. Cool Frog: Save Time and Money with Digital Maintenance Format
Cool Frog is an air conditioning company based in St. Augustine, Florida. Starting during the recession, Cool Frog wanted to use technology to keep its overhead costs low. They transformed their maintenance form into a mobile app. This switch made it easier to organize their forms with cloud computing, but also to reach out to customers.
Before, one of their most difficult marketing tasks was collecting emails. With GoCanvas they, “never had a customer refuse to give their email address.” Not only did going paperless cut overhead costs, but it also solved their marketing issue as well!
7. Triumvirate Environmental: Improved Data Analytics
Triumvirate Environmental is a leading provider of waste management, field services, and technical services to a variety of industries in New England. They help their clients reduce waste and save money. But they found themselves struggling, their safety programs were cumbersome and not fully utilized.
The problem wasn’t their program, it was paper. Today with the help of going paperless, Triumvirate has been able to improve data analytics by deliveringfuller site audits and performing site assessments with mobile apps. They’ve set up over 200 employees with GoCanvas. More than faster audits and easier organization, Jeff Fontas at Triumvirate explains,
“Through GoCanvas, we now have a direct way of submitting and retrieving our data, parsing it, and acting on it when it provides us with new opportunities. We didn’t have that before; we were missing the narrative our forms were presenting us. Today we use that narrative to guide our operation.”
8. Sonoma Valley Pool and Spa: Upgraded Customer Satisfaction
Sonoma Valley Pool and Spa offers premium pool services and repairs to the heart of America’s wine country: Sonoma, California. Each weekly visit requires chemical testing and maintenance of the pool. In the past, all of their service notifications were filled out by hand. Saul Rozema, the owner of Sonoma Valley Pool and Spa, decided that just writing this information wasn’t enough. The tags that were left could easily get lost. In addition, clients would often inquire about the services provided.
Today, Sonoma Valley Pool and Spa has moved from paper receipts to digital service tags. Saul, has found going paperless to be a huge differentiator in exceeding customer expectations. “One of my biggest selling points,” Saul said, “is the digital service tag.” His customers love getting his emails with visuals. “Some look forward to it every week.” With a mobile app, he can easily add photographs to his reports, making it easier for customers to understand work done or any repairs needed. This means less time on the phone and more time doing billable work.
Today, Sonoma Valley Pool & Spa’s paperless reputation has grown to the point of having a waiting list of eager customers! “We’re not even in the Yellow Pages anymore.” Saul said, “It’s just our reputation and our website.”
9. Fulmax: Utilized User-Friendly and Customer-Centric Mobile Platforms
Fulmax provides pest control services in Monterrey, Mexico. With almost 600 services performed each month, Fulmax was becoming bogged down in paper. Fulmax employees tracked information such as the location of pests, what work was done, and when the work was performed, collecting this on paper.
With carbon copy triplicates, every copy became “more difficult to read and easy to lose” Gabriel Martinez, the owner of Fulmax said. This meant that customers would struggle to understand their reports. Worse, paper forms were slow, causing billing to take longer.
Fulmax ditched paper for mobile apps in January of 2013 to become more user-friendly and customer-centric. Today, their field workers get pre-populated work orders on their smartphones and tablets. No longer do they have to drive between the office and clients’ locations. His workers can do more jobs in a day and focus on the customers, while the billing office sends out paperless invoices more quickly, no longer having to transcribe forms into their database.
Like Sonoma Valley Pool and Spa, Fulmax finds being paperless a major differentiator. “We’re different here” Gabriel notes, “nobody else uses these systems.” We’ve been able to enhance customer needs, clients notice the difference immediately. No longer do they have to squint at pink or yellow forms. They receive clear and concise reports immediately in their inbox. In the end, everyone benefits!
10. R&R Electric Inc: Digital Transformation Initiatives for Data Collection and Filing Forms
R&R Electric Inc. is a small electrical company in Florida. They have provided commercial, and residential services for 25 years and are committed to providing great services at affordable prices.
Regardless of the excellent service, paper forms were costing their business both time and money. Work and service orders took weeks to return to the office, extending their sales cycle. They found themselves having to remember information from memory, or spend extra time chasing down forms in their system.
R&R Electric Inc. saw the benefits of digital transformation initiatives and transitioning to paperless solutions. Their technicians began filling out work and service orders on iPads. Instead of days or weeks before forms returned, all of their forms were made available immediately in the cloud. They can now email customers work orders right after the work is finished.
Filling out forms has also become faster for their technicians. They now use reference data analytics to pre-populate value lists, making it faster to fill out. They also set up formulas inside the app. Now the technicians simply enter the work done, and the app calculates the job’s price. Not only is it faster, but it has reduced errors in job pricing. While initially skeptical, R&R Electric Inc. are believers in paperless business. “It’s the only way to go!” Roger Wortman of R&R Electric Inc. said, “It takes very little time to implement and makes the business far more efficient.”
Streamline Your Business and Save Money with a Digital Transformation
All of these case studies are perfect examples of digital transformation and what it can do for your business. Creating a digital transformation roadmap will propel your business goals. The automation of business processes and workflows will save time, reduce costs, and enhance the customer journey. All while freeing up your team members to focus on developing your product or service.These are just some of the many companies saving thousands of dollars this year by switching to mobile apps.Sign up for GoCanvas free today.
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