Last Updated on October 30, 2024 by Owen McGab Enaohwo
Florinela Serban was saddled with the responsibility of streamlining the business processes at Onogo when she transitioned from being a customer service manager to the head of operations.
Having worked in the organization’s customer service department for five years, she was aware of a need to create a more solid operational structure with a workflow system.
She did not want just any kind of system but one that would be a part of the company for the long haul.
After trying a few systems on the market, Florinela was convinced that SweetProcess was the real deal. She tells us how the software has helped in fine-tuning the company’s expansion.
About Onogo
Established in Jersey, Channel Islands UK in 2008, Onogo is an e-commerce business that offers a wide range of consumer products at competitive rates. It provides the best online value and service via several channels including Amazon.
Onogo has grown to become an elite Amazon seller. It is among the top 1,000 global sellers on the platform—a feat attained through hard work, dedication, and a knack for continuous improvement.
The organization recognizes the importance of business partnership and that has been part of its natural evolution. It partners with top brands to get their products to consumers across the globe.
Referred to as the Home of Top Brands, the company’s biggest asset is its team of local Jersey people who deliver on its promises.
Listen to the audio interview
Subscribe for more customer success stories
The Challenge of Managing Change
A business that fails to adapt to its growing needs stands a risk of becoming obsolete. As the company began to expand, there were rising demands from its customers and partners. Keeping up with this change was difficult in the absence of a solid business structure.
“We had to make a lot of changes to be able to keep up with the times and the requirements from our customers and partners. You cannot sustain growth unless you have processes in place. You need to have a structure, so people know what they need to do to deliver on the daily requirements.”
This was a defining moment for the company as its fate was hanging on how it would manage the situation. It needed an effective workflow software to manage the change. and SweetProcess came to the rescue.
Choosing the Best Workflow Software
A lack of preparation for growth is counterproductive—Florinela and her team understood this and had to be proactive in managing the company’s growth. As they got to a point of making new hires, they also had to make provisions for how to equip their new hires for efficiency by creating process awareness.
Florinela’s first task as the head of operations was to document the company’s processes and procedures, and she needed an effective tool for that. She was aware of the basic documentation tools available, but she wanted a system that had more to offer.
“I didn’t want to just start the documenting procedures as Google Doc documents or creating charts and then they would just be left in a drawer and nobody would look at them. I wanted to do something more and I knew that there were options out there that would make it more interactive; and again it would have to be something that would grow with the business.”
She didn’t have to look too far—there was a handful of tools on the market. But after trying them out, it was clear that SweetProcess was the best.
“I tried about three different software and one of them was SweetProcess, and out of all of them, SweetProcess proved to be by far the best option.”
How SweetProcess Impacted Onogo Positively
Adopting SweetProcess at Onogo has been of immense benefit. Florinela and her team are getting the most out of the system, and the results have been amazing. She gives us details of how SweetProcess improved their operations.
1. Easy process documentation
If you have difficulty in documenting your business processes, it suffices to say that the users of those documents will have difficulty in using it. The simpler it is, the better. The processes that you toiled to create will be abandoned if they are complex or cumbersome.
“The main difference with SweetProcess that appealed to me is the ease of use… There’s a lot that you can also do with the content. You can add videos and photos and links to more information; and not only that, but you can also run it as tasks and on the backend.”
2. Decentralized Knowledge Base
Documenting their business processes on Google Docs did cross Florinela’s mind but doing that would mean having their documents all over the place. She wanted a system that would store all their documents in one place for easy access, location and continuous update.
“SweetProcess not only presented a platform to document the procedures and to bring all the teams onboard on it, but it provided an option to get all the information that we have in one place because that was another issue as well. I’m sure this is something that every company struggles with if they don’t stop and look at getting everything under one umbrella for easy access.”
3. Speedy employee onboarding and training
Employee onboarding and training is a crucial activity as it equips employees with the necessary skills to carry out their responsibilities. Many organizations either waste so much time on the training or cannot provide sufficient training.
SweetProcess enhances employee training by giving new entrants access to all the information they need. They also have the opportunity to cross-check any information on the system at any time.
“Once we finished documenting procedures for the first two main departments that we did, everyone started appreciating having the procedures and using them to train their new colleagues.”
4. Quality control and assurance
The goals of an organization are achieved faster when there is collaboration and engagement among workers. SweetProcess has enabled the organization to have uniformity in their duties by using the same documents as opposed to doing things individually.
“The sales team that we documented all their procedures, they are very good at what they do and that’s one reason why we’re so successful. But at the same time, they’ve all had different ways of doing basically the same process so bringing them all together and getting the agreement to say ‘Okay, let’s do a standard of this process. What’s the best version of it that we could use and look at efficiency and time reduction?’”
Important Advice for Streamlining Business Operations
Having successfully led the team at Onogo in streamlining their business processes, Florinela has a piece of advice for anyone looking to do the same. She says that it is important to go back to the basics, question how you are doing things, and start documenting your processes early.
“I think it’s major for any growing company to make sure that they start looking at processes and storing their information on time because you have people with the knowledge and you need to make sure that knowledge is shared and is kept also with the company.”
Taking Your Business Operation to the Next Level
Operations at Onogo have never been smoother. All the information and resources that team members need to be great at their duties are just a click away. There is no wasting of time looking for documents or trying to remember information forgotten.
“You can go to SweetProcess and find the information related to your role and your duties there. You don’t need to search in Google Drive or Asana or other documentation or make notes separately and burden yourself with loads of information.”
When you make your employees’ work easier, you increase their productivity level as they get to do more in a shorter time. Sign up for a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess to get started right away. No credit card is required.