Efficiency doesn’t always begin with a top-down directive or a new strategy meeting. Sometimes it starts with an overworked team and a bottleneck that’s become so normal, nobody questions it anymore.
In one growing business, the billing department was spending nearly half of every week reconciling data between two separate systems: their invoicing platform and their general ledger software. Each invoice had to be verified line-by-line and re-entered manually. Any mistake required hunting down paperwork or replaying entire email chains.
No one complained. That’s just how it had always been done.
But when the company introduced Data Processing Automation (DPA), everything changed. A straightforward automation began syncing the two systems each night. Errors disappeared. Manual entry was gone. The department instantly reclaimed 20 hours a week.
It would’ve been enough to stop there. But something unexpected happened.
The team—freed from the drag of repetitive work—began thinking differently. With just a bit of encouragement and daily enhancement check-ins, they began identifying other inefficient habits that had crept in over the years. They asked better questions. They started solving problems on their own. They became a department that didn’t just do the work—they improved the way it was done.
Sometimes all it takes is a single breakthrough to open your team’s eyes to what’s possible.
Where in your business are people still doing work the hard way—just because no one’s questioned it yet? If you can spot one of those areas and eliminate the friction, you might not just gain efficiency—you might unlock a whole new mindset.