Are paper and email systems slowing down your business? Are they also costing your company valuable dollars? In these slides, we look in detail at how exactly automated approval forms processes would work on an intranet before we go on to look specifically at the efficiencies to be gained from doing so to save you time and money.

1. APPROVAL FORMS
AUTOMATE YOUR FORMS WITH AN INTRANET

2. Paper and email systems often mean that your business is less responsive, slower to react and
takes longer to achieve the same task that a competitor using automated processes can do in a fraction
of the time.
Approval processes make up a large chunk of operations in every business – from purchase orders
through to vacation requests or expenses claims. And so it’s a great place to start when exploring the
efficiencies and savings to be gained in your company from automating business processes.
In these slides, we look in detail at how automated approval forms processes would work on an
intranet before we then go on to look specifically at the efficiencies to be gained from doing so.
You can also find out how to create your own digital form and workflow the quickest and
easiest way here.

3. HOW INTRANET’S APPROVAL FORMS PROCESSES WORK
In simple terms, the intranet replaces the paper form with an electronic version that’s completed online and is then
forwarded automatically by the intranet to the relevant staff member or manager for action.
Previously, companies trying to automate approval processes that used traditional approaches to software development
found it impossible to cope with the sheer number of approval processes typically found in a business. Even those
companies with an internal IT resource quickly became bogged down.
The other option for organizations was to go down the route of purchasing some kind of business process management
solution. However, these are often expensive and can be over-engineered, therefore, making them difficult to use for the
average staff member. In addition, these systems don’t always integrate well with other office systems.
An intranet offers an entirely different approach.
You see, it’s an easy process to automate your paper and email approval processes using your intranet’s
fully customizable approval forms if this functionality is available.

4. An intuitive interface is beneficial here so you won’t need an internal IT resource. Drag and drop fields, easily
implemented rules and actions, along with email notifications and submission reports make it a comprehensive solution.
And the added bonus is that there’s no need to print anything!
You should also be able to setup status and rule-driven workflows to give managers the necessary oversight and
ability to manage the end-to-end process.
What’s more, it doesn’t matter what the size of your business is – the benefits apparent from an automated approval
forms process will be just as great in small to medium-sized enterprises as they are in the large corporates.
And for those businesses that already use G Suite or Office 365, then it’s possible to embed the relevant
form creation apps directly in your intranet pages. In this way, you can easily provide important
contextual information. What’s more, multiple users can be working on the same form simultaneously
with all updates automatically saved in real-time.
HOW INTRANET’S APPROVAL FORMS PROCESSES WORK

5. ORGANIZATIONAL
BENEFITS

6. SAVE TIME AND MONEY
The approval process in most businesses typically involves three
steps.
The first step usually involves the staff member completing a paper
form and either passing on the hard copy or scanning it and emailing
to the manager for approval. At step two the manager checks the
request and may approve it or send it back for amendment. This is
done either with the hard copy or via email and can involve the form
going backwards and forwards several times until all the details are
correct. The third and final step usually involves a finance team
member updating the internal system and filing away the request
either electronically or in a paper filing cabinet.
With an automated process, the time savings for each staff
member involved may only be a few minutes per approval, but when
you consider it against the number of approvals taking place it
represents a considerable saving.
What’s more, we haven’t factored in any staff time spent following up
on requests, dealing with and rectifying errors or chasing missing
information and documentation.

7. IMPROVED OVERSIGHT
Automating your approvals process also gives you better
oversight.
You can easily see where things are at and can identify and deal
with any blockages. Ask any organization about their approvals
process and the number one complaint is usually time wasted
chasing down approvals and sign-offs from management. It’s a
frustrating experience for all those involved and also means that
your business is slow to react.
For example, how many times has the purchase of a much-needed
item been delayed in your business because of glitches in the
approvals process?
Automating your approval forms through the intranet will do away
with this problem as the process becomes smoother and
quicker and the improved oversight means that roadblocks are
dealt with more easily.

8. ELIMINATE THE POSSIBILITY OF ERRORS
Let’s face it, with manual paper and email-based systems the
potential for human error is always there lurking in the
background.
The routing could go awry, important data may go missing, approval
forms could be misfiled or errors creep into the calculations. And
the consequences of these mistakes – direct as well as indirect
costs incurred – while sorting them out can easily add up to a
significant amount.
With an automated approval process, however, these sorts of
problems are eliminated. The intranet will automatically route the
online form and will take care of data validation.
What’s more, there’s no chance of you losing that email or
paper form. All pending items yet to be actioned can be built into
your customized reports.

9. COMPLETE APPROVALS ANYTIME
AND ANYWHERE
Increasingly customers, partners, suppliers and even staff members
expect to interact with your business at a time that’s convenient to
them. It may be that your customers and suppliers are actually
located in different states or even countries. And with more and
more workers working from home, it’s quite possible that even your
workforce are no longer sitting next to you in the office.
The nature of a cloud intranet means that your business will be able
to process approvals from any time zone or any location with a
smartphone or tablet.
There’s no need to wait until managers are back at their desk and
there won’t be the inevitable backlog as the they catch up on
approvals in the system while they’ve been away. And if the
manager is away on vacation, then the intranet can delegate
responsibility to another staff member to cover their absence.
The boon to your business in terms of faster workflow, greater
continuity and increased efficiency is obvious.

10. AUTOMATIC ROUTING
Approval processes in a business can be complicated, especially
when the expenditure exceeds mandated authority levels.
There may then be multiple levels of approval involved based on
spend and the type of activity. It can quickly become a
convoluted process involving several personnel and many
steps. The potential for something to go wrong is huge – a step
could be inadvertently missed off, or worse still internal fraud or
corruption can develop. And it’s likely that the sums involved will be
significant.
Let the intranet take care of this particular organizational headache
with its automatic routing.
Use the intranet’s rules and actions function to ensure the correct
layers of approval are embedded in the online form. And unlike
paper and email systems you’ll only have to do it once and that’s
it, the job’s done.

11. AUTOMATIC UPDATES
The more manual steps you can remove the better.
Therefore automating steps such as automatically updating the
person who submitted the original form can end up saving time and
money.
In this busy world it is so easy to miss an important step such as
this so wouldn’t it be great just to add a rule to your online
approval form that says as soon as the form is updated by you,
then send an update to the person who submitted the form.
Make sure that your intranet has this type of functionality.

12. BE GREENER AND MORE
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Email and paper systems typically involve printing and
scanning documents. Often an actual signature is required which
means that even when the form is emailed it has to be printed off,
signed, scanned and returned.
As well as being a slow, antiquated process, all that paper and
printing is also doing nothing for your green credentials. And
the green credentials of companies are becoming important to
increasingly discerning consumers who look for businesses that
are environmentally aware and operate greener working
practices.
So why not do your business and the environment a favor by
cutting down on paper with an intranet-based automated
approvals system. It may well have a very welcome knock-on
effect in terms of raising your ethical profile too.

13. INTRANETAUTOMATEDAPPROVAL FORMS PROCESS:
IT’SANO-BRAINER!
With so many potential benefits on offer, an automated approval forms
processes delivered through your intranet is really a no-brainer!
But the best part is that the forms creation function is only one of
the great tools an intranet has to offer. And so as well as enjoying
the efficiencies and savings to be had from automating your business
processes, there are also further great features on offer.

14. • Company and team news pages and blog:
Improve internal communications in your business
with the intranet’s team and company news feeds.
Keep all employees up to date with the latest internal
and external news.
• Corporate calendar:
Keep all important company events and deadlines in
one central location for staff to reference when they
need to. Do away with the need for all-staff emails
advising of a change of date for the staff conference.
Simply update the corporate calendar instead.
• Quizzes and surveys:
Improve your levels of staff engagement with the
intranet’s in-built quizzes and surveys function. You can
gather employee’s views on a whole range of issues
from a new staff handbook to a rebranding exercise or
even the location of this year’s Christmas party.
• Staff directory:
Consign paper staff directories to the past with the
intranet’s online version.
Include photos and biographical details as well as
information on current work projects and areas of
expertise to bring the concept of a staff directory to life
in a way that a paper version could never do. And if a
staff member leaves, it’s easier to make changes to an
online directory than it is to a paper one.
• File and document storage:
Make it easier to share information and data across
your business with the intranet’s document
management system. D
o away with shared folders or external document
sharing sites with an intranet solution. Utilizing a
familiar file explorer interface, files can be shared
both internally and externally. And the intranet’s
advanced search capability makes it easy for
employees to locate the information they need.

15. Interested in finding out more?
Then get in touch with us here at MyHub.
Our intranet solution is super easy to set up using
pre-built, easily customizable templates.
You don’t have to be a technical whizz, pretty much
anyone can have a professional-looking and fully
functioning intranet up and running in just a matter
of hours.
And with unlimited data and numbers of users on
offer, the MyHub intranet is available for a fixed
monthly fee making it a cost-effective solution as well.
Take advantage of our no obligation demo or
free 14-day trial and explore all the possibilities.