For most businesses, the top priority is to boost productivity for maximum profitability. Thanks to ground-breaking technological innovations in the corporate world, companies can save time and earn more income by leveraging the automation of business processes.
While business process automation is beneficial in many ways, you should carefully determine whether automation is suitable for your business. You probably don’t need to automate your processes if you have a handful of employees. However, automation will come in handy if your employees run into tens, hundreds, or more.
If you have decided whether the automation of business processes promises more returns for your company, keep reading this post. We’ll show you the steps to automate your business processes for maximum efficiency and returns.
What is business process automation?
Business process automation involves using computers and robotic applications to execute tasks with little or zero input from human workers. Business Process Automation (BPA) helps to save time, downsize operational costs, boost efficiency, and increase business revenue if it’s the right fit for your company.
Most business leaders employ business process automation for repetitive tasks. Companies sometimes use BPA for tedious tasks requiring inch-perfect accuracy and extended periods to complete.
For instance, a Data Collection company might prefer to automate data collation and organization from multiple sources instead of delegating the responsibility to a human worker. The reason might be that consistently dealing with bulky data for long hours may be monotonous, resulting in decreased efficiency and slowed-down business growth.
What are the steps of automation process in business?
Business process automation can boost your company’s efficiency if done well. That said, please follow the steps below to automate your business processes and increase your productivity geometrically.
#1. Clearly determine your business operations
The first step before deploying automation into your company operations is identifying your processes. What are your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks based on the goals you set for your business?
To help you understand better, you can divide your operations into departments like customer service, marketing, accounting, IT, etc. This step will help you pinpoint the nitty-gritty of all your business operations and make it quicker for you to determine whether automating your business processes is necessary.
#2. Evaluate the security risks
Security is a primary concern on the internet, although more web features are curtailing digital security threats. Hackers can break into your company’s automation software and manipulate the applications to steal sensitive information.
Evaluating the risks of the automation of business processes before using them for your operations is essential. Determine whether an automation system is prone to attack or easily manipulatable to your company’s peril.
If using a BPA system can compromise your operations, try other options apart from business process automation. In the end, and with the right improvisation, the procedure may be better handled without BPA software.
#3. Calculate the automation ROI for your business
Many entrepreneurs assume that automation would be handy for their business because it helped other companies perform better. Unfortunately, that’s a shallow reason to automate organizational processes.
First, determine whether deploying business process automation in your operations is financially promising in the long run. Calculate the cost of operating BPA tools against human employees over a period and compare the ROI in both cases.
You don’t need to deploy automation software if it is more profitable to use human employees instead of automation software. However, in most cases for larger companies, deploying automation in one or more operations makes a significant difference.
#4. Develop SOPs
Experienced employees mostly prepare SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) to help other personnel understand how to perform a task. It would help to prepare an SOP for your developer before building an automation tool.
With the information from the SOP, developers can build business automation apps precisely tailored to your business operations.
#5. Explore ready-made automation software
It’s exciting to build an automation tool from the ground up. However, deploying ready-made automation for your business processes may be a better and more cost-effective approach. Look out for tools with the features you need in your company and schedule a demo to understand them better.
Interestingly, many project management tools, productivity software, etc., have built-in automation features your business can leverage. By learning how these tools work, you can find fantastic automation features your business could use.
#6. Identify mundane tasks
Choosing the tasks that need to be automated is a crucial decision most businesses have to make, but making the right choice is relatively easy. Identify repetitive tasks that are better off handled by a computer program.
These time-consuming, monotonous tasks usually affect the long-term productivity of your employees, making them less efficient and eventually affecting your company’s overall productivity. BPA tools can step in to automate those tasks with better returns.
#7. Prioritize areas to automate
The excitement around business process automation can make you somewhat irrational, so you must stay level-headed. Determine all the areas in your business that can benefit from automation and prioritize them.
Depending on your budget for deploying automation in your company operations, prioritize critical processes with the highest promise of returns. Focus on areas that can guarantee maximum efficiency.
Related post: How to Build a Successful Automation Strategy
What are the benefits of automating your business processes?
Business process automation is beneficial for companies in many ways. Some of the reasons to integrate BPA in your company operations are as follows:
1. Save time
Time plays a significant role in success. Companies that understand the value of each minute employ automation to increase output within a shorter time. Business process automation can take out the excess time human employees may require to complete a task.
For example, let’s examine a hypothetical accounting firm. Most likely, employees would have to make several calculations each day but with extreme carefulness not to misplace numbers.
This process might take hours. But more than that, employees may become bored and less efficient because of doing the same thing repeatedly. If you hire a developer to build an application that follows your employees’ SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), the app can make several calculations faster than many employees.
2. Save money
Improving cost efficiency is a significant advantage of deploying business process automation in your company. For most businesses, several operations are repetitive and can be handled by a computer. Still, some businesses pay large sums of money to experts to manage those operations.
3. Build employee professionalism
There are debates that employing business process automation would kill jobs. While this perspective is true in some cases, the upside to BPA is worth considering. For instance, letting machines do repetitive tasks can help employees free up more time to upgrade their skills and become more valuable to their employers.
It’s also vital to note that in many cases, BPA robots still need the help of humans to trigger, control, or stop their activities. Without control, business process automation robots lack sufficient intelligence to make critical judgments about any process the way humans do.
Related post: 7 Benefits of Automating Your Business Processes
What does the automation of business mainly address?
Business automation helps execute tasks faster and with greater efficiency than human workers. Automation for your business processes can help you save time, boost productivity, and increase your income.
To correctly deploy automation for your business processes, you need to define your company’s operations, prepare an SOP, evaluate security risks, calculate the automation ROI, identify mundane tasks, prioritize areas to automate, and more.
Do you want help with automating your business processes? KatPro Technologies is a reliable Microsoft and Nintex partner with a decade of experience in helping companies automate vital operational areas in their businesses for maximum efficiency. Book a free 15-minute demo with our professional team to learn how we can help you get started.
