Surviving COVID-19 as a Services Company for Financial Departments

José Galván Sayago of Normadat tells us about business processes automation based on records management for reducing cost.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

José Galván Sayago: Everything is fine, thanks.

Tell us about you, your career, how you joined Normadat.

José Galván Sayago: I’ve been working in Normadat for 30 years now. From the sales department to CEO.

How does Normadat innovate? 

José Galván Sayago: We are focused on business processes automation based on records management for reducing costs. For instance, accounts payable optimization.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

José Galván Sayago: In the beginning, we were all shocked because of the lockdown. All businesses were suddenly closed, and we had to be able to change our processes and mentality as fast as possible. Fast movements were essential.

We were able to endure a stop in our finances for some months just because we have a very healthy financial statement. After that, we could see a flourish and the businesses were slowly flowing, as a company with essential services, thankfully we could make business faster than others, so in the end, our business finances didn’t suffer too much.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

José Galván Sayago: Yes, for sure, almost the entire employees had to suffer an ERTE (in Spain, a kind of part-time and temporal dismissal), and it was quite difficult to deal with, even being empathetic. We are more than 150 employees.

We’d tried our best, but you always feel it’s not enough.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

José Galván Sayago: We were using our CRM for sales and marketing basically, but now, we are currently working with all departments, even Operations and IT, in order to be able to track all our contacts history for being more efficient.

A CRM is very important to organize properly your contacts, leads, projects, issues… business in general. But you can’t forget the software ecosystem you use day by day helping your customer relationships; they build your company as well: ERP, CRM, ECM…

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

José Galván Sayago: Well, Covid opened a lot of help from the government, but they were focused on companies with problems to keep afloat, not our case, fortunately.

In this case, we were part of the solution because we can help companies reduce costs, optimize processes… we can help companies to be more competitive.

Your final thoughts?

José Galván Sayago: Digitization and ability to adapt to your environment.

Talented individuals working in teamwork and good leadership.

Resilience, motivation, and a lot of imagination and creativity.

Your website?

https://www.normadat.es