P R OCUR EMENT INSIGHTS
much faster as it ’ s pre-approved .”
As well as reducing the time it takes to fulfil orders , going digital reduces the ecological impact a company has . It ’ s not often you can argue that the most efficient process in any given scenario can align with the best environmental decision , but Esker certainly makes a strong case for that , when you consider that it ’ s enabling a customer to send and received tens of thousands of digital documents each year , which reduces CO2 emissions and the need to cut down trees .
“ We certainly know that we are reducing the amount of paper in companies and that there are environmental benefits to it ; we know we ’ re saving trees ,” Smith says , before adding that , unlike Esker , saving the planet has not been a key motivator for companies .
He admits : “ Customers seem to care more about the cost-savings . We actually talked about doing more campaigns around green initiatives in the past but , surprisingly , it wasn ’ t as high of a priority within companies as we thought it would be . I was actually quite shocked .”
Something that will always be popular ,
however , is harnessing technologies that enable human resources to be freed up for more valuable tasks , as it delivers salary savings while significantly minimising the risk of human error .
“ The goal in many cases is to reduce human interaction and automate processes to the highest degree ,” Smith says . “ Then you can find other reasons to use those humans . With order processing , many customers are repurposing people that were interacting with those orders coming in to more
46 May 2018