Cost is a key consideration for all businesses and never more so than during times of crisis. When situations such as the current pandemic arise, it is usually followed by economic challenges for most companies and controlling cost becomes vital and one of the key factors to an organization’s long-term success.
However, equally imperative is the need to think carefully and choose effective means that achieve results with minimal disruption to operations.
So, the question that CFO’s ask at such times is, how can businesses deliver better outcomes in times of a crisis?
For us at Silah, focus on healthy cash flows was a key success factor over the last year. By maintaining the critical balance between our responsibilities towards our staff and investing in resources, we ensured sustained growth. Technology investments, in particular, that ensured continuity irrespective of service delivery location are showing returns for us and our clients.
While these are difficult times, they have also offered opportunities to effect change and replace outdated functional cost focus with a new end-to-end cost optimization and reorganization. Using mechanisms that regularly tracked inflow and outflow of cash, made sure we were able to realize operational efficiency and cost savings.
More and more the trend today is a shift away from traditional cost reduction measures and embracing more innovative cost-saving initiatives, blending technology and business process optimization together to transform into more streamlined and lean organizations. Technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and cloud computing, along with flexible business models have the potential to boost enterprise performance and increase efficiencies at a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches. These trends, in fact, are a priority on the agenda of many organizations globally, with significant investments in these technologies.
Over the past year, we have all learned that many operational functions are not adequately prepared to handle the unprecedented. These functions were built for an earlier time, when change was more gradual, disruptions were less frequent, and customer expectations were lower. Today, companies need greater transparency into demand, supply chains, and production capabilities, so that they can respond proactively or in real time to rapidly changing conditions. The positive takeaway is that these disruptions have led to growth, streamlined operations and more innovation.