Business
10 REASONS TO STRIVE FOR A PAPERLESS OFFICE

By Christina Bowe, Regional Director UK & Ireland, Perceptive Software
Paper-intensive accounts payable and accounts receivable processes present a considerable burden in the form of time-consuming manual keying, line item matching and routing documents for approval. These slow routines increase operating costs and create inefficiencies within any organisation.
The paperless office may seem like a pipe dream, but enterprises can take action to make it a reality. By having a clear methodology with accountability in place, businesses can continually improve on their march towards their paperless objectives.
Here are 10 reasons the paperless office is a goal worth pursuing:
- Easy storage: All documents entering the organisation can be scanned and electronically stored within a centralised, configurable content management system, minimising costs associated with physical storage.
- Automatic audit trail: With strict guidelines in place regarding document retention policy, maintaining documents electronically makes them immediately accessible for later inquiries.
- Time savings: Digging through file cabinets becomes a thing of the past. Content can be located within seconds via intelligent search functionality.
- Simplicity: Authorised users can perform many business processes with a touch of a button.
- Accessibility: Multiple people can view a document at the same document across multiple sites.
- Business development: With digital content management making key routines more efficient, management can focus more resources continual improvements and cultivating new business
- Security: With documents stored on secured servers, only authorised users are able to retrieve them. This is more secure than paper, which can be easy misplaced or mishandled.
- Better customer service: A document management system enables users to access all customer data quickly, supporting a faster, improved customer experience.
- Email efficiency: An effective document management system can communicate with internal server-based email systems to present emails like documents, saving time in digging up emails.
- ROI: Organisations typically observe a rapid return on investment with document management systems, often achieving ROI within one year of implementation.
Are you there yet?

Christina Bowe, Regional Director UK & Ireland, Perceptive Software
Paperless Office Maturity Models (POMMs) are diagnostic tools that help organisations measure their progress toward true automation in AP and Developed jointly by the Institute of Financial Operations (IFO) and Perceptive Software, they assess current processes and offer useful strategies for achieving the next level of automation, based on key questions about those processes.
Since Perceptive Software and the Institute of Financial Operations (IFO) created these models, there have been 204 such evaluations, encompassing businesses in industries including, Education, Retail and Banking, and from locales around the world, including Europe, Australia and the United States.
On a scale from completely paper-based (Level 1) to completely paperless (Level 5), the vast majority of these businesses fared no better than Level 3, with Level 2 (primarily paper-based, with most processes involving considerable manual labour) being roughly the norm. The full breakdown is seen below.
Paperless Office Maturity Models provide a starting point for pinpointing opportunities to improve key business operations. The paperless office may be a pipe dream for some, but in just five minutes you can take the first step to begin the profitable quest toward efficient, accountable, paperless routines. Measure your progress toward AP and AR automation and find out where your department scores compared to businesses around the world. After completing your submission, you will receive a personalised summary of your results and recommendations on how to get closer to a true paper-free environment.
Business
FTSE 100 edges up as HSBC, drugmakers gain

Via Reuters
By Shivani Kumaresan
(Reuters) – British shares inched higher on Tuesday, supported by gains in HSBC and drugmakers, at a time when tighter coronavirus restrictions have raised concerns about the pace of an economic recovery.
The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3% after two consecutive sessions of declines, with HSBC Holdings, up 2.5%, giving the biggest boost to the blue-chip index.
“HSBC is up on Asian growth. UK investors could play on the what the growth is like in China,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
“We are dealing with a market that is shuffling the cards at the moment in a sense that they had a big run over the last three months and is looking for direction.”
The FTSE 100 tumbled 14.3% in 2020, its worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis and underperforming its European peers by a wide margin, as pandemic-driven lockdowns battered the economy and led to mass layoffs.
British firms called for another 7.6 billion pounds ($10.3 billion) of emergency government help, saying they cannot wait until finance minister Rishi Sunak’s March budget to learn if they will get more pandemic support.
The mid-cap index gained 0.2%, with travel stocks easyJet and Wizz Air Holdings being the top boosts.
Shares of Experian Plc, the world’s largest credit data firm, gained 1.2% after its third-quarter revenue growth exceeded targets, helped by strong U.S. mortgage volumes.
OXO cube maker Premier Foods fell 4.6% despite a 90% jump in the third-quarter online sales, while British fashion group Superdry lost 12.9% after reporting a big drop in sales in the Christmas quarter.
(Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Shailesh Kuber)
Business
Google backs Indian courier startup Dunzo in $40 million fundraising

Via Reuters
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian hyperlocal courier startup Dunzo has raised $40 million from existing investor Google and others, it said on Tuesday, after seeing a surge in usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many Indians stayed indoors for much of 2020 because of the health crisis, Dunzo and food-delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy recorded a fresh surge in popularity. Naspers-backed Swiggy also runs a hyperlocal courier service.
“This capital stems from a year of robust growth amidst the pandemic,” Dunzo said in a statement. “As cities reopen, (Dunzo) continues to see strong growth across user segments.”
Besides Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada and Alteria also participated in the fundraising round, the Bengaluru-based company added.
Dunzo allows users to order groceries and other essential items from nearby stores as well as run pick-up and drop errands within the eight cities it operates in.
“As merchants go digital, Dunzo is helping small businesses in their digital transformation journey,” said Caesar Sengupta, vice president at Google, which has set aside $10 billion for digital investments in India over five to seven years.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Business
Bankers call for ‘hybrid’ shares to plug COVID corporate capital gap

Via Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) – European companies hit by COVID-19 could issue “hybrid” shares to plug a predicted capital gap of up to 600 billion euros ($723.48 billion) when government relief measures expire as vaccination programmes are rolled out, a report said on Tuesday.
The report compiled by consultants PwC and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), which represents banks and other market participants, said economic recovery is under threat unless the capital gap is bridged.
It proposes a new European-Union-wide hybrid security like preferred shares, a form of stock that has features of ordinary shares and bonds, typically offering a priority in dividend payments but with no voting rights.
“This is where hybrid and equity markets can play a key role in supporting Europe’s recovery,” AFME CEO Adam Farkas said in a statement.
Despite relief from governments and the private sector since the start of the pandemic, 10% of European companies have cash reserves to only last six months, the report said.
The EU has already passed a package of “quick fix” measures to make it more attractive for companies to rebuild their finances by issuing shares on the stock market rather than the more common route of taking on debt such as bank loans.
But many mid-sized and SME corporates do not want to give up control of their business by issuing ordinary shares, the report said, and are willing to pay a premium not to dilute their voting rights.
“Hybrid instruments are ideally suited to address these needs,” it said.
Policymakers could also explore further use of dual class shares to address the control concerns of companies, as well as debt for equity swaps to reduce leverage, the report said.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Catherine Evans)