Rapidly And Cost Effectively Build Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) With optidocs
optidocs is the easy way to rapidly and cost effectively build Standard Operating Procedures. A team of process experts will work with you to identify, screenshot and narrate your critical workflows in days, not weeks. This is achieved through a combination of process expertise, automated capture tools and a dedicated documentation team. This article examines the importance of SOPs, and provides information on how you can rapidly and cost effectively build SOPs for your business utilising optidocs.
Documenting procedures is essential but often the last thing organisations have time to do. While the concept of creating SOPs may seem simple, many organisations get stuck thinking about format and structure, before they even put pen to paper. As a result, the lack of SOPs results in teams constantly reinventing the process, while killing quality and destroying efficiency.
SOPs take people dependent processes, and make them part of the way you as an organisation operate. The objective should be to build standard processes, that results in a quality output, while enabling rapid knowledge transfer and training. A Director of optiBPO highlighted the benefits of having SOPs in a business.
“SOPs provide a baseline against which processes can be managed, performance reported on, and continuous improvement embedded. They should always be a living document, updated over time as a core part of an organisation’s intellectual property.”
Why does your business need Standard Operating Procedures?
The key benefits from building SOPs in your business are:
- Quality & consistency – SOPs provide a baseline against which activities are to be delivered. This will increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve quality by defining a “way” of doing things, rather than being person dependent.
- Training & knowledge transfer – A well-documented SOP can help to reduce the learning curve or training time of a new employee. By referring to the SOP, your new (or existing) employee will have a reference source that will get them up to speed quicker, saving time and money.
- Performance & continuous improvement – Having well defined SOPs provides an organisation with a baseline against which to measure operational performance. It also provides an opportunity to embed continuous improvement, through the updating of SOPs as improvement opportunities are identified.
- Growth & replication – SOPs makes it easier to replicate processes across your organisation. This could be across different regions, or to embed a newly acquired businesses.
How to create SOPs with optidocs
optidocs uses templates and structures that are industry-leading best practices, and follow four distinct phases:
- Define scope – Prior to building the SOPs, the taxonomy/process scope needs to be defined. optidocs leverage APQC process classification framework, the globally accepted best practice for this purpose.
- Capture and record – Automated tools are used to capture end-user’s desktop screens, workflow and voice to complete their tasks. These screen recordings are then used to build SOPs.
- Build the document – After validating the SOPs, a team of documentation specialist build the process based on the recordings. For most cases, this is typically done in days, and includes detailed worksteps, process notes, and screenshots.
- Review and finalise – During this phase, the developed SOPs are submitted to you for review. Once reviewed, feedback is incorporated, and the SOPs are finalised.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
