Just as manufacturers automate their operations, Vesta, automated their business processes to increase efficiency and accuracy and they demonstrated those benefits by measuring key indicators before and after automation. They also look at automation as a journey. Key to their success has been a phased implementation based on an objective prioritization exercise.
And, once processes are automated, they are not set in stone. The combination of measurement to see what is working and what isn’t, and system flexibility, allows Vesta to continue to modify and improve both their processes, and how they are automated.
Both the organization as a whole and the individuals at Vesta have benefitted from automation.
Company benefits of automation
- Better control over contracts leads to more business.
- Improved invoicing provides on-time recurring revenue.
- Better budgets and insurance processes means less risk.
- Better maintenance satisfies customers and grows business.
- Better operations provide greater savings and margins.
Individuals’ benefits of automation
- Better processes = more control, less risk and less stress.
- More automation means more time to think and less time doing and guessing.
- Automation enables better answers to stakeholders.
- Automation means less time spent on low value work.
- An agile way of working and certainty of a job done well leads to job satisfaction.
To guide Vesta’s journey and accomplishments, they rely on data-driven measurement.
Measurement
You only know if you are succeeding and meeting your goals if you set goals and define your measure of success. Vesta followed a specific process to ensure meaningful measurement.
Vesta’s four steps to effective measurement:
- Set goals.
- Determine meaningful metrics.
- Collect and access relevant data.
- Use metrics to inform company direction.
Vesta set a number of goals based on what is important to their business.
Example goals set by Vesta:
- Speed lease turnaround.
- Improve space management.
- Streamline facilities management.
- Modernize contract management.
- Simplify invoicing.
- Improve reporting.
Once goals are set, a process must be put in place to determine what success looks like.
Maufras worked across functions at Vesta to determine a baseline of processes including those listed above. That baseline served as the starting point for goal setting. Vesta then set up their reporting using the Oracle solutions, to not only meet the requirements of management and Vesta’s obligations as a public entity, but also to measure progress from their baseline toward their goals.
Benefits of metrics and how they inform our organization’s direction
- Increased trust of executives and investors.
- Increased stock value resulting from that assurance.
- Projected costs and revenue inform new project decisions.
- Regional costs inform build versus buy decisions.
- Tracking efficiencies and costs inform split of lease versus service.
Vesta’s lessons learned on effective measurement
- Set up data management structure from day one.
- Create a single source of truth for the company.
- Develop a granular multi-level data structure.
- Instill consciousness about the relevance of data.
- Gather data that will benefit different departments across the company.
- Have the right tools to visualize reports and analytics.
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