First published: July 27, 2021 @ 6:00 pm
Process Automation is a business revolution that will make your life easier. What does it mean?
Well, firstly, it means that you can automate all the processes within your business with minimal human interaction.
It is not a very new concept. The automation of processes is already in use in many companies around the world.
In fact, Bill Gates even invented the concept of the automated workflow when he created MS Office software package and called it “Autoexec”.
However, what is new is the fact that there are more and more businesses around the world who are adopting this concept and implementing process automation solutions into their businesses and realizing how beneficial it can be for them.
What is Process Automation?
According to some sources, process automation is “a set of tools and techniques that are used to implement specific software applications to support or improve an existing business process.”
However, it means a lot more than just automating some specific parts of your business processes. The concept involves an entirely new way of thinking about how you run your business.
It involves creating better systems which help you automate certain tasks that you have been doing manually. It also involves automating these tasks in a way that will make them more efficient and effective.
Process automation, as we know it today, is a relatively new concept. However, the roots of this concept go back to the early days of computers.
As soon as computers became powerful enough to perform some tasks without human interaction, people started to experiment with this idea and find out what they can and cannot automate.
We sometimes confuse it with Business Process Management (BPM). However, the two concepts are not the same thing.
The main difference between process automation and BPM is that the former aims to automate certain business processes by using software applications while BPM focuses on optimizing these processes by using people or software applications or both of them together.
Process Automation Advantages
There are many advantages of process automation over traditional business management techniques:
1) Gives you more time for strategic activities
By automating certain tasks within your business you will free up your time so that you can focus on more important things like improving your company’s strategic direction or planning new projects etc.
This will help you become more efficient and effective in your business activities and make better use of your time.
2) Gives you more control over your business
By automating certain tasks within your business you will have more control over these tasks. This will allow you to perform these tasks more effectively and efficiently. This, in turn, will help you save time and money.
3) Gives you better data
By automating certain tasks within your business, you will have better data on how well you perform these tasks. This will allow you to make better decisions and take appropriate actions to improve the performance of these tasks.
4) Improves customer satisfaction
If your customers are happy with the services that they receive from your company then they are likely to become repeat customers. Process automation can help improve customer satisfaction by automating certain tasks that your employees perform.
For example, if your employees were spending too much time on performing some of their daily activities then they might not be able to spend enough time on interacting with customers or solving their problems etc.
By automating some of these activities you can free up their time so that they can focus on providing better service to customers and improving customer satisfaction levels.
5) Improves employee satisfaction
It is well-known fact that happy employees are more productive than unhappy employees. Automating certain tasks within your business can help improve employee satisfaction by giving them more time to focus on other important activities like improving their skills or doing work that they really enjoy etc.
6) Saves you money
By automating certain tasks within your business you will be able to save money on labor costs and other expenses related to these tasks. This will help you improve your profit margins and increase your profits.
7) Improves decision-making
By automating certain tasks within your business, you will have better data on how well you perform these tasks. This will allow you to make better decisions based on this data and take appropriate actions to improve the performance of these tasks.
How to Automate Your Business Processes?
There are many ways of automating your business processes. However, the best way to automate your business processes is to use software applications with specific designation for this purpose.
This will allow you to easily implement process automation solutions into your business without having to write a lot of custom code or develop new tools yourself. There are many types of software applications that you can use for process automation purposes.
The most popular types of these applications include Business Process Management (BPM) software, Workflow Automation Software, Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools etc.
There are also some general-purpose software packages that you can use for process automation purposes such as MS Office suite of products (MS Word, MS Excel etc.) or Open Source products like OpenOffice suite of products etc.
Some businesses even use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions for process automation purposes. Another popular approach to process automation is to use a combination of both general purpose software packages and custom-built software applications.
For example, you can use MS Office suite of products for automating some basic tasks within your business and then use custom-built software applications for automating more complex tasks.
Process Automation: Is It For You?
As it has already mentioned, process automation is not a very new concept. However, many businesses are still not familiar with this concept and are not yet implementing process automation solutions into their businesses.
This is unfortunate because many businesses can benefit from implementing process automation solutions into their businesses. If you want to improve the performance of your business then you should consider implementing process automation solutions into your business as soon as possible.
However, before you start doing this you should consider whether it is right for your business or not. If it is right for your business then there is no time like the present to start doing it!
So, if you want to automate certain tasks within your business, then the first thing that you need to do is figure out what exactly you need to automate and why you need to automate these tasks in the first place.
Once you have figured it out, then you can start looking for solutions that will allow you to automate these tasks.
How to Look for the Right Automation Solutions
You can either buy one of the existing process automation solutions or hire a software development company to develop custom software applications for you.
One of the best approaches is to first look for an existing solution and then customize it if necessary. This will allow you to save time and money while still getting a good quality process automation solution.
The next thing that you need to do is figure out how much money it will cost you to implement process automation solutions into your business.
If this is your first time implementing process automation solutions into your business then I would recommend that you start small and automate only those tasks that are causing problems for your business.
This will allow you to get some experience with process automation before implementing more complex solutions in the future. Finally, don’t forget about human factor when implementing process automation solutions into your business!
Eliminating All Human Factors: Is It Possible?
No matter how good or bad an automated system is, it can only be as good as the people that are using it. If your employees are lazy or do not want to use the new process automation solutions then they will quickly find ways to bypass them and go back to doing things the old way.
Some people might tell you that it is possible to completely eliminate a human factor from business operations but this is not true. In my opinion, all businesses should have a person in charge of monitoring the process automation systems and making sure that they are working properly.
You can automate everything in your business but there will always be a need for a human being to monitor things and make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Explore WorkDeputy for more tips and interesting articles on setting up process automation for your business!
