Workflow Automation: Increasing efficiency in digital processes
Workflow automation is a very effective and cost-efficient way for growing businesses to get started with digitizing and digitalizing their processes and streamlining the use of multiple applications and platforms.
Leaders and employees at digital enterprises alike wish they could scale up efficiency, productivity, and take advantage of enterprise-wide process visibility whenever they need. What may seem wishful thinking to the uninitiated can, in fact, be achieved with the right combination of strategy and technology. Today, enterprise workflow automation has emerged as a viable option for achieving efficiency at scale. As businesses make rapid and significant progress with digital transformation, process automation brings them closer to becoming an agile, digital enterprise.
Workflow automation is a simple approach to streamline operations and reduce delays, allowing you to get more done in less time. It is a great way to get started with long-term automation initiatives driven by business process automation (BPA) and robotic process automation (RPA) and build a foundation of digitized processes to help employees get accustomed.
Don’t be concerned if you have qualms about automation. Workflow automation does not eliminate or lessen the human aspect; on the contrary, it enhances it. Automation prioritizes people’s productivity by taking over repetitive tasks so that teams can devote more time to planning, strategy, and execution.
What is workflow automation?
In most organizations, spreadsheets, emails, and manual processes and communications still dominate how tasks are performed and teams are managed. All of these task management tools rely heavily on an employee’s time and memory and are ineffective at enabling smooth collaboration for teams and visibility for managers or decision-makers. New-age enterprises can shed these dependencies and harmonize internal and external business processes and communications with focused digitization and workflow automation.
Enterprise workflow automation is the use of digital tools to replace paper-based and manual processes, usually through a solution at the back-end that connects with current business systems and controls. The tactical goal is to make sure that the correct people are working on the right tasks at the right time and that they have everything they need to do their jobs, when they need it.
Organizations can standardize processes and benchmark time, levels of approval, and resources needed for specific tasks and project types. This can ensure that business rules and compliance requirements are followed, human errors are reduced or eliminated, and the right people have accountability and visibility of processes being automated at each stage of a project.
Importance of workflow automation
Businesses are starting to realize that many of their manual processes can be digitized while existing digital workflows can be automated whenever possible, to reduce and optimize costs and increase efficiencies. Additionally, processes become more transparent by mapping workflows across each stage of the operation, providing managers and company leadership a comprehensive view of its operations.
With increased visibility into workflows, departments can improve communication between them to ensure that cross-functional processes are carried out smoothly. Moreover, improved efficiencies aren’t only limited to internal processes. Enterprise workflow automation has a lot of advantages when it comes to external functions such as sales, marketing, and customer service, and support. Automating replies to sales queries or service requests reduces response time and ensures that a query is forwarded to the right place and resolved quickly. As a result, customer satisfaction and trust in the brand increase, and experiences can be enhanced over time.
Process automation also gives an organization’s digital transformation efforts a huge boost in the long run. Workflow automation, business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning are just a few of the technologies that can help firms digitalize their operations and boost operational efficiencies through continuous, incremental digital transformation.
Advantages of workflow automation
Better productivity
Enterprise teams may use automated workflows to link different processes and applications into a single, simple flow that can be modified whenever required. There’s no need to rummage through separate applications for data, documents, forms, or approvals as project or operations workflows can be streamlined with automation to maximize productivity.
Faster problem identification and solution
Workflow-based software can flag any input if it does not conform to a predefined flow or logic. The person undertaking the task or a manager can quickly identify a problem and stop it from escalating to prevent safety or quality issues, while supervisors can track the issue and its resolution in real time.
Better communication and transparency
Workflow automation tools and solutions collect and distribute real-time data for real-time analysis, eliminating the time-consuming procedure of filing documents on paper or across several applications and systems. Everything is at one spot. Everyone who needs the data has access to it, which can help front-end employees and managers communicate more effectively.
These are only some of the use cases and benefits of workflow automation. Various organizations can digitize and adapt their processes to automation to make sure that core business functions benefit from cost optimization, faster turnaround, and better collaboration.
