Smart digital tools to give small businesses a major boost

Running a small business can mean a frantic existence, especially in the type of industry that requires the players to be out in the field rather than office-bound. Although, these days, it is possible for many small businesses to be run entirely over the phone, with no need for an office at all. Integrated digital tools like Electronic Document Delivery (EDD) are putting a tremendous amount of power in users' pockets, making it vastly easier to do everything on the go, says Gavin Dunlop, CEO of ACTNET.

EDD is a comprehensive package that provides an affordable, adaptable and intelligent cloud storage and document delivery system. Through EDD, documents such as invoices, payslips, statements and contracts can be securely delivered and stored, even in high volumes. It puts detailed records of the business and its customers at the fingertips of the user. Documents can be retrieved from anywhere on virtually any device through EDD's online portal, which means small business owners and operators need never be out of touch when away from their desks.

This makes real-time interaction with customers possible, allowing users to respond to their customers' queries or provide them with whatever documents they require as they request them. What's more, EDD offers an end-user portal that customers can visit directly to retrieve their own documents, greatly reducing query volumes and freeing up staff for more important functions.

Detailed reports can be provided on every process, from the data entered by customers to the documents they've received and the details of the delivery. This means a meticulous audit trail is always readily available, as well as the kind of intelligence about the flow of information that before now would have only been available after hours of painstaking work to manually comb through records and compile it. Paper-based audit trails and the conventional postal service offer no guarantee that documents will reach their intended recipients or that the information recorded regarding their delivery is accurate.

Intelligence is a key factor with EDD, since it is able to link relevant documents as required. Paper-based documents can be scanned and uploaded to the archive, allowing for the linking of subsequent electronic documents. This creates an intuitive filing system that, once set up, will do much of the work on its own, saving e-mail attachments such as bank statements or invoices to the correct folders as they arrive. Records are not only kept up to date but highly secure, with each document encrypted and password protected, only accessible to the user.

EDD offers the kind of functionality that will go a long way towards improving a business's efficiency, whether large or small. For small companies, however, it can be a real game-changer as it empowers them to do so much more with so little.