Why businesses need to focus on Automation & Digitisation in 2021 CEO & founder of ExpenseOnDemand, Sunil Nigam, discusses
the importance of SMEs adopting automation and digitisation and shares his thoughts and insights into how firms are
@ExpenseOnDemand
Sunil Nigam, CEO & CoFounder, ExpenseOnDemand We launched ExpenseOnDemand in 2003 with a vision to enable companies & their employees globally to focus on their core job by offering a smart, simple & intuitive expense management solution. We continually update our technology to make our solutions current and affordable to everyone. When not at work, you will catch me mentoring young entrepreneurs, debating Indian history & global economics, reading a book, or cooking a meal for the family.
preparing for the ‘new normal’ and offices reopening.
F
or many years the ExpenseOnDemand app has been offering our clients around the globe a simple solution allowing employees to upload and claim business expenses from any mobile device. This helps them to automate their expenses process in a paperless & contactless environment. Our tech solution and ‘Pay as You Use’ model meant we were, therefore, perfectly placed to help our clients when the pandemic struck in early 2020 as their staff dispersed from offices and worked from home due to global lockdowns. Since the outbreak, businesses have had to adapt quickly to survive, manage their day-today processes and ensure their staff can work seamlessly whilst working remotely. This adaption was possible by sourcing tech solutions to automate and digitise parts of their business which had not been updated for years. The pandemic has caused a technological revolution as certain technologies which used to be convenient preCOVID have now become essential tools. Businesses
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cannot survive without. Zoom calls, Slack chats and Team meetings. These have become a key part of our working day, and so many other technologies have adapted quickly to the ‘new normal’. In a matter of months these solutions have advanced in what would have taken years and this has solidified what we now all know that we don’t all need to sit in the same office from Monday to Friday. We spoke to Hriidayesh Gupta from IntelliTicks, a client of ExpenseOnDemand, to find out how they have adopted technology to help them during the pandemic. “At IntelliTicks we have worked with ExpenseOnDemand for some time now helping set up their Chatbot both on the website and inside their app. The team had a single objective with their requirements for the bot – to provide the customer with a great experience when it came to support. In the process, we got the chance to understand the ExpenseOnDemand platform and found it very easy to use. I would highly recommend ExpenseOnDemand to businesses using paper wanting to automate their expense process.” We recently surveyed global
Financial Directors and leaders to highlight how they are coping with the pandemic and also their predictions for the next 12 months. The majority of financial experts expect automation to be more important than cash flow in 2021, which shows how highly businesses believe implementing and automating their systems is for their future success. This shift in priorities also shows some levels of optimism as businesses seem to be coming out the other side of the pandemic and now focusing on not just surviving but what tech they need to thrive. Our survey also revealed how businesses around the world feel about their current office set up and how and if this was set to change in the post-vaccine world. The results were surprising with 40% of all businesses globally stating they would be adapting their workplaces. 22% of all the firms surveyed stated they would be moving to a smaller office as most staff would be working from home at least part time while 18% confirmed they were looking to set up a network of regional offices instead of having a central head office.
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