Research reveals digitisation boosts output, but SMEs still experience frustration

According to the research conducted by TomTom Telematics, 81% of decision-makers working for small and medium-sized businesses that use vehicles believe they could get more jobs done if they could digitise more of their workflow. Yet, when asked how they handle everyday tasks such as expense management, customer updates and quoting and invoicing, the majority revealed they either manually or somewhat manually do so.

Elsewhere in the study, 59% of respondents agreed that reporting working times took up too much time. There was also a general consensus that fuel and vehicle management was an area for concern, with 66% saying they could do more to reduce fuel costs and 55% saying their vehicle costs were higher than necessary.

‘We spoke to over a thousand companies from across the EU and the USA,’ says Beverly Wise, Sales Director UK, TomTom Telematics. ‘Two things came up again and again. First, SMEs are frustrated by the costliness, time ineffectiveness and potential for error experienced when handling essential tasks manually. And two, managers want digital solutions to take care of these jobs.’

The respondents also expressed frustration regarding internal communication and team management. Fifty-one percent said the inability of their field teams to follow the assigned schedule has a negative impact on their business and 53% indicated they are not certain their drivers are behaving safely on the road. Meanwhile, 55% agreed they have an issue regarding miscommunication with their field team.

‘This is another area in which decision-makers are using automation to cut out inefficiencies,’ says Wise, ‘Twenty-three percent of respondents now fully automate the process of identifying and dispatching the best team member for the job, while 41% mainly automate it.’

Download the report on Digitising The Workflow (PDF File: 5.09 MB)