For business owners, the start of a new year is a perfect opportunity to take a fresh look at their operations.

Even small optimisations to your systems and processes can create big productivity boosts, which in turn, can help you to drive significant improvements to your revenues and profitability.

Here are four tips for improving your productivity, so that your business can navigate the challenges and opportunities it will face in the year to come.

1. Planning is everything

In a world that feels more volatile and uncertain than ever, good strategic and project planning is key to success. It’s important to have clearly defined objectives for your business, with actionable steps that will help you to meet your goals.

Regular strategic planning will help you to reassess and adjust your business strategy based on market trends and internal performance.

Each project should also be carefully planned, paying close attention to the expected outcomes, the risks that may derail the project, and the resources required to complete it.

Break projects down into tasks, set deadlines and ensure that there are clear lines of accountability. Strategic and project goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed (SMART) to keep progress on track.

2. Centralise and digitise information

Poorly organised information, particularly a reliance on paper documents, is one of the biggest enemies of productivity in any business.

Many businesses are keeping critical information such as contracts and customer records in filing cabinets or on employees’ local hard drives.

Digitising this information and storing it in a centralised online repository can deliver immediate productivity wins.

Consider the benefits, for example, of being able to access all contracts with customers, suppliers and service providers via a cloud -based system rather than needing to rummage through a cabinet.

Once your documents are stored online, it also becomes easier for your team to share information and collaborate, saving time for everyone. This also enables your team to work remotely when appropriate.

3. Embrace automation and AI

Although many businesses have adopted software to automate some processes, you’ll still find many owners and employees manually executing a range of repetitive, time-consuming tasks.

Whether it’s manually tracking customer service requests, capturing financial information, or keeping track of legal contracts, the admin can be overwhelming.

Today, businesses can use a range of affordable, cloud-based software tools to automate these tedious processes and free resources up to focus on growth and strategy.

Such solutions help to reduce human error, improve efficiency, speed up business processes, and strengthen compliance with tax laws and other regulations.

4. Harness tech as an enabler, but don’t let it become a distraction

Technology has completely changed how businesses operate over the past 15 years. Mobile access to apps like email, social media and instant messaging allow us to work from nearly anywhere, be more responsive to colleagues and customers, and have access to real-time info at our fingertips. But there is also a downside, given the propensity of people to try to multitask.

These technologies can distract employees from their essential tasks. Constant WhatsApp or social media notifications can be disruptive when you need to focus on doing your financials or completing a customer proposal.

It can be helpful to set times aside during the day to respond to messages and turn notifications off the rest of the time.

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No business is an island, every company in the world depends on a delicate network of relationships with customers, suppliers, service providers, employees, contractors and other entities and people to run its operations.

In most cases, these business relationships are governed by legal contracts that outline the obligations and entitlements of each party.

Organisations, understandably, spend a great deal of time scrutinising and negotiating the terms and conditions of each legal agreement that they enter.

But once the contract is signed, it will often be filed in a cabinet or scanned and uploaded to the cloud, forgotten about until someone realises the other party is breaching the terms or that a deadline for cancelling the contract has been missed.

Research from World Commerce & Contracting finds that 9.2% of annual contract value is lost through poor management across the whole lifecycle, most of it after the contract is signed.

Businesses that thus treat their post-signature contracts as a living asset to be proactively managed and optimised can unlock significant value.

Here are some processes that fall under the umbrella of post-signature contract management:

1. Storage and visibility of all contracts the company has signed

The most fundamental aspect of post-signature contract management is gaining visibility of which contracts the business has signed, who the counterparties are, and which internal signatories are responsible for managing the commercial or legal relationship.

All too many businesses lose track of contracts that are in force because they’re scattered across different business units or departments – with no way of categorising them or knowing who has access to them.

2. Managing deadlines

Most contracts a business signs will be for a limited term, with clauses in the agreement setting out when the contract can be renewed, renegotiated, or terminated.

If deadlines and milestones are not properly managed, the business may find that a contract gets renewed before it negotiates more favourable pricing or cancels to switch suppliers. Or the contract might expire and leave the business without access to essential services.

3. Avoiding penalties and breaches

One of the vital aspects of post-signature management is ensuring that the business meets any obligations of the agreement, such as service level agreements or deadlines.

It’s essential to have full visibility of terms and conditions and ways to monitor adherence, so that the business doesn’t suffer any penalties for breach of contract.

4. Maximising benefits and incentives

Commercial contracts will often include incentives for exceeding service levels, discounts for early settlement of invoices, commissions for providing leads to a partner company, and other benefits.

Forward-thinking companies will want to be proactive about maximising these benefits to ensure that they’re getting the full value from each business relationship.

5. Keeping track of amendments and correspondence

Contracts often change over time as addendums and amendments are made. There is also often a lot of correspondence associated with each contract.

Keeping on top of this documentation is a key part of the post-signature process.

6. Contract management workflow

Through the lifecycle of a contract, there are many admin-intensive tasks that need to be handled. It’s best practice to have clearly defined workflows and automated processes to streamline this work.

This includes triggering workflows for events catered for in the documentation when they occur e.g., force majeure, cancellation, and breach.

7. Monitoring performance

Post-signature contract management also focuses on monitoring and optimising business value derived from contracts. Leading companies will closely track contract performance, financial implications, and other relevant metrics. This can help the business improve decision-making, processes, and contract strategy formulation.

Automation can enhance post-signature contract management

Many companies still think about contract signing as the endpoint, neglecting the critical post-signature phase.

But those that treat it as a strategic necessity will be able to maximise benefits, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation can simplify what was once a tedious and time-consuming burden, so that businesses can turn contract management into a strategic advantage.

Most businesses spend hours a month on administration, and the burden can become overwhelming during peak times such as financial year-end or over the festive season holidays when many employees go on leave.

Keeping up with paperwork can be particularly challenging for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) with a low headcount.

That’s where technology has an invaluable role to play in streamlining your operations. Automated software tools can take care of many routine tasks that soak up hours of your time.

This enables you as the business owner or a senior manager to free up time for activities such as customer engagement and strategic planning.

Here are some tips for using the latest cloud-based software solutions to free up a lot of time you used to spend on routine tasks:

1. Automate finances 

Many smaller businesses are still using manual methods like spreadsheets to run processes such as accounting, payroll, and invoicing.

But today’s cloud-based finance solutions from companies like Xero and Sage can automate many of these processes for you.

Rather than needing to do manual payroll and invoicing runs, you can get the software to do it for you with a push of a button.

The more transactions you process each month, the more time this will save for you.

2. Customer relationship management (CRM)

For businesses with more than a handful of customers, CRM is a no-brainer. CRM solutions tailored to SMEs make it easy for you to capture information about your customers and prospects, track the status of your leads, monitor your interactions with your customers, and send personalised messages.

Not only does this spare you from spending hours capturing data, but it also means that you’re on top of the status of every customer and lead in your database.

3. Business process automation (BPA)

BPA tools are becoming increasingly accessible to SMEs. These solutions help you to streamline your workflows around paper-intensive processes such as order entry, purchase orders and employee onboarding.

The benefits include faster processing times, increase accuracy in data capture, and better service levels for customers.

4. Contract management

Most companies need to manage between dozens and hundreds of contracts. This is an area where few SMEs are yet automating processes, but one where the benefits of automation are immense.

Artificial intelligence (AI) -powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions can enable businesses across all sectors to securely and efficiently store, organise and manage post-signature contracts.

These solutions allow you to automate processes associated with post-signature contracts to optimise efficiency. You can set up and trigger workflows for events such as renewals, terminations, price escalations, force majeure, cancellation, and breach.

This helps you to manage the benefits, obligations and deadlines associated with contracts in a way that minimises risks and maximises value.

Improve efficiency and grow your business

Automating administrative tasks will enhance your operational efficiency and business performance.

It will allow you and your team to focus on more strategic and value-added activities, perhaps even freeing up more time for you to enjoy the festive season break.

With automated processes, you will also have more accurate data at your fingertips, be able to be more responsive, and be able to comply more easily with tax laws and other regulations.

Automation holds the key to running a leaner, more agile, and more competitive business.