How PDF can Transform your Business Workflows
Business workflows are often riddled with inefficiencies. According to research firm IDC, workflow inefficiency costs a business 20-30% of their revenue every year. Companies who still use paper or siloed systems which require a significant amount of manual data entry are common examples of inefficiencies in workflows.
Workflows often follow processes for years without any change to protocol. That’s why regular auditing of your workflows to see how you can improve is necessary. And that’s where PDF technology can come in.
PDF has been around for over 20 years. When it comes to transforming business workflows, PDF has been used by some of the biggest companies in the world to drastically improve productivity and reduce inefficiency. That’s because in recent years, PDF has grown to become a truly integrated technology that can be incorporated into any stage of your workflow.
Below, we outline 3 workflows for retail, insurance and engineering and how PDF can be incorporated into them.
Contents
PDF Workflows for the Retail Industry
Retail workflows can be quite complex. They involve many moving parts so automation can be tricky. We have redesigned retail workflows for our customers which has allowed them to have more control over their processes. This also enables more automation than ever before.
Retail workflow: Customer purchases a large item → customer enters address and other important details into a PDF form on the cashiers handheld device → the cashier submits the sale on their handheld device → the company database is updated (through FDF process) with this information, creating a new profile when necessary, from the customer → Sales receives information to carry out billing by input information from their database into a PDF templated document → an automated reminder is sent to the customers email address once the sale has gone through pulling information from this same database → the delivery department is then sent a request to deliver the large item via notification → The system recognizes the area of the address in the database and assigns the delivery to the nearest driver → the driver delivers the product to the customer, requesting them to sign for it in a PDF Form on their hand held device → The driver submits the successful PDF delivery docket to head office in front of the customer → Head Office receive successful delivery report and the customers profile is automatically updated with the new information → the customer received an email thanking them for their purchase and giving any further information they need as per the updated customer profile.
PDF Workflows for the Insurance Industry
When it comes to insurance workflows, these have transitioned from paper to electronic data rapidly in recent years. PDF obviously plays a big role in this transition. Many insurance providers have adopted PDF technology in their document management processes for selling policies, renewing policies and handling claims.
Insurance workflow: Customer purchases a policy → customer enters address and other important details into a PDF form online → the company database is updated (through FDF process) with this information, creating a new profile when necessary, from the customer → Sales receives information to carry out billing by inputting information from their database into a PDF templated document → an automated reminder is sent to the customers email address once the policy has gone through pulling information from this same database → the policy PDF is then sent via email to the customer → The system recognizes the renewal date and assigns an account manager to the case → The account manager submits a renewal policy in PDF to the customer → The customer signs the PDF and Head Office receive successful renewal report and the customers profile is automatically updated with the new information → the customer receives an email thanking them for their purchase and giving any further information they need as per the updated customer profile.
PDF Workflows for the Engineering/Construction Industry
When it comes to engineering/construction workflows, PDF can massively improve collaboration between engineers and their teams, both internally and externally. In the past, these drawings were done on paper and took a long time to go through the process of approval. Now, they can be worked on simultaneously by different people which greatly speeds up the drawing process and reduces the need for printing.
Engineering workflow: Engineer creates technical drawing in PDF → engineer sends the PDF to engineers/project managers → engineers/project managers add annotations/comments with changes on the drawing → engineer makes changes → engineer submits final drawing to team → engineer sends approved technical drawing to manager/customer → manager/customer views the drawing on their device from anywhere without having to print it
Working with customers in small, medium and large companies, we have identified how PDF technology can bridge the gap in their processes. Foxit PDF SDK can help you to improve workflow automation. Get in touch with us below to find out how Foxit PDF SDK can transform your workflows.
