How companies will save in 2017: 3 effective ways

According to the definition of consulting company Deloitte, the current period in the global economy is characterized by uncertainty. Therefore, business around the world seeks to optimize and reduce costs. Today we will look at several ways in which companies from different countries are saving now.

Remote work will become more familiar even for large companies

A few years ago, remote work was for the most part the lot of freelancers. However, in difficult economic conditions it is often unprofitable for a company to maintain a large office. The development of communication tools allows you to solve many problems through the Internet. And that means - business gets an opportunity to save.
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In the USA, many large companies have been offering vacancies for remote work for several years (here is a selection of 10 such organizations ). The trend is also noticeable in Russia - according to the forecast of J'son & Partners Consulting, by 2020 20% of jobs in Russia will be virtual. Distributing remote work will allow employers to save more than 1 trillion rubles.

VimpelCom was one of the first large Russian companies that decided to take advantage of the transition to the “remote”. By the end of 2017, the company plans to transfer 50-70% of staff to part-time work outside the office. As conceived by the operator’s managers, this will allow up to a third of current office space to be rented.

In addition, the company expects a personnel crisis in the coming years - a shortage of employees arises due to the demographic failure in the 90s. This means that even so high competition for talented workers will increase even more, and the ability to work remotely will become another competitive advantage of the company. All this suggests that the distribution of distant work in 2017 will continue.

Automate business processes will become a competitive advantage.

According to analysts of PricewaterhouseCoopers, 64% of companies surveyed in Russia plan to reduce costs in 2016. This task can be solved by implementing business process automation systems - they are called order management systems (OMS).

In many industries, a quick response to a changing environment is required - this is typical of the banking sector, telecommunications, insurance, retail and so on. In such companies, most business processes begin with an incoming request from the client. Performance of typical works and services is a complex and extensive business process, at different stages of which interaction of employees from several departments is required. Often there are problems.

When using automation systems, business analysts draw the process directly in the form of a diagram, which then begins to be executed by the system. For example, when an order appears, employees of different departments can automatically send tasks that should be solved. If the process “freezes”, then the management immediately sees at what employee this happened - at each stage it is possible to set deadlines, approaching which generates notifications for those responsible.

In real life, a well-tuned and controlled business process can seriously increase a company's revenue. For example, in the field of telecom business processes are complex - only checking for the possibility of providing a service to a potential subscriber can go in two directions: automatic analysis of the coverage area on the base or manual checking, when it is possible to find out its scope only from paper documents. As long as employees figure out such intricacies, time will be lost - and it is important to connect the subscriber quickly - on the same day or the next.

You can save money when choosing the automation system itself. Existing developments from large vendors are expensive, and then these tools still need to be integrated with existing databases or accounting software, as well as developing their own user interface - the standard ones are usually too complex. As a result, the implementation may cost more than the license for the program.

Therefore, some companies tend to use open products, such as Hydra OMS - this system comes free of charge, stores all the data in its own database and has a friendly interface. Even companies that do not have serious budgets for infrastructure automation can use such tools.

New payment methods will be introduced.

Client convenience will remain the main goal of companies operating in the network. The easier and more painless a person can make a purchase, the higher the probability of a successful outcome. That is why, in addition to traditional methods of payment by bank cards, companies add other options. One of them is the introduction of payment support through the Apple Pay and Samsung Pay systems, which have already begun work in Russia.

The list of methods available for payment is constantly expanding - now you can make a purchase using Bitcoin, Dwolla, Amazon Payments, gift cards, reloadable prepaid cards, PayPal, Google Checkout, Google Wallet, etc. This process will obviously continue - different payment methods are suitable for different customers, and no one will choose the inconvenient option. Therefore, the company will either give the opportunity to pay as it is convenient to the person, or lose the sale. This is especially true for small spontaneous purchases.

The desire to make the purchase as simple as possible contributes to the popularity of automatic (recurrent) payments. According to statistics from the telecom field close to us, the introduction of auto payments allows us to increase the revenue of operators up to 8% - quite well in the current economic conditions. In addition, the saved card data helps the telecom operator not only to facilitate the payment of monthly payments to the client, but also increases the chance to purchase additional one-time services.