In the digital age, success depends on properly automating business processes. Digitizing and standardizing processes and repetitive tasks reduce operating costs by 90%. Companies that want to be future-proof must introduce process-automation systems and position themselves for growth. 

Automation increases efficiency drives down costs and improves both customer and employee satisfaction. Businesses that stand out are those that have adopted automation and have become more agile and cost-efficient. They are paperless and have very few manual processes.

Paper-based systems add an $80 annual cost per employee to your company’s budget. Automating manual, paper-based processes allows an organization to meet its digital transformation targets. But it isn’t a good idea to rely on a single process automation strategy.

Why Betting on a Single Process Automation Strategy Is Bad

As digitization takes hold across the globe, companies in every industry are automating processes to slash costs, accelerate operations, and drive better business outcomes. The range and scope of the projects vary. There are simple, linear processes that require wizard-driven solutions, and mission-critical processes that involve multiple functional units and require sophisticated technology.

Unfortunately, some companies think the success they’ve had with a particular automation project should be made the standard across the entire company, regardless of the magnitude or complexity of the process involved. 

The all-in-one approach to process automation never works. What’s even worse is that failed projects burn up time, money, opportunities, and even relationships with key partners and customers, all because they have to endure bad experiences during project execution.

In today’s fast-moving world, companies face intense pressure to change, automate, innovate, optimize, and transform as quickly as possible. Due to this, some business leaders feel that a single automation solution is enough for all their high-urgency projects. But this is a sure road to failure. Every automation solution should be designed for a specific purpose based on predetermined objectives.

Why Process Automation Is the Future of Business Management

Traditional business management systems are often ineffective and don't cover the vast business environment accurately. Changing marketplace conditions have forced businesses to switch their management approach and use technology to stay agile in an ever-changing business environment.

Hyper-automation technologies and redesigned operational processes can help organizations to lower their operational costs by 30%. By 2023, most organizations will run 25% of tasks autonomously. Process automation digitizes workflows throughout an organization. It also offers multiple advantages such as:

Improved Business Productivity

Workflow automation reduces costs, time, and effort. Over half of employees believe automating repetitive tasks can save them 240 hours a year. This is because automation reduces human error, increasing the speed of work. 42% of business leaders also agree that automation can increase the speed at which employees perform tasks. 

A business process management system allows employees to focus on high-value work that fulfills a company’s primary objectives. It streamlines processes, allowing decision-makers to see the company’s progress in real-time.  

Higher Accuracy

When business processes are automated, employees perform their work better and are not disorganized. Fat-finger mistakes (errors caused by manual data entry) are eliminated because technology is used to collect data accurately. Results are consistent and of high quality, because each task is performed similarly. And as technology advances, workflow automation tools will also advance, further increasing accuracy. 

Increased Employee Satisfaction and Productivity

Most employees find manual tasks boring and laborious. 78% of business leaders believe automation can free up 60 hours a month. When employees have more time on their hands, they can work on more engaging, high-value tasks and intellectually stimulating activities. This increases motivation, satisfaction, and productivity. It reduces turnover and focuses human and financial resources where they are needed most. 

Better Data Management

Every company handles some form of data. Process automation makes extracting information much easier and simplifies working with unstructured data. The texts, emails, and content many businesses handle daily contain important information. Automation helps decision-makers manage data better for quick decision-making.

Business Process Automation Case Study: Poster

Poster, a Ukrainian POS company, used business process automation to transform its SaaS business management strategy and scale-up. The company made its subscription renewal process more efficient with subscription renewal automation software and app integrations.

Automating subscription renewal for customers reduced the workload for its customer support and accounting departments, saving the company 327 hours a month. The older manual subscription renewals involved 3 employees and took about 10 minutes. Customers had to wait up to 24 hours to have their accounts activated. The more customers Poster got, the bigger the workload became for support staff and accountants. 

Now, 85% of its subscription renewals for limited liability companies are automatic. Within half a year, Poster started receiving 4 times fewer customer tickets over subscription renewals. Automating the subscription process involved connecting accounting software, CRM, and business registration data monitoring software. 

The Right Way To Implement Business Process Automation

1. Analyze Current Business Processes

Define and break down business processes into individual steps. Everyone involved must clearly understand how the processes work. Outline how your organization carries out each step in the process and how automation should change it. 

Clearly defining, outlining, and analyzing how current processes are completed and managed is the first step to process improvement. You gain the insight you can use to improve operations. 

2. Define Your Vision and Goals

How would you like your organization to improve after adopting automation? This question helps you identify the gaps you need to fill to attain your automation vision. As with any new business venture, you need to set specific performance targets to ensure you make the most of your time and money. Define the criteria you’ll use to measure automation success.

3. Choose the Right Automation Tool

A third of the tasks in 60% of jobs can be automated. But choosing the right tasks to automate is only the beginning, you must also select the right business process management software. Analyze your organization’s needs through process mapping and value stream mapping. Doing so helps you understand what automation technology is best suited to your organization. 

Choose an automation tool that suits your needs in terms of skill level, tasks to automate, scalability, and types of users. It should easily integrate with your existing tools and be easy to use.  

4. Don’t Rush the Automation Project

To get off to a good start, begin with the tasks and processes that are easy to automate: those that require little creativity, problem-solving, and strategizing. You can start with a small pilot project and once it's successful, scale up its successful elements to replicate positive results. 

5. Perform Continuous Testing

Process automation tools aren’t rigid; they change as your business does. The key to automation scalability lies in measuring its success. However, it's not enough to measure productivity improvements: identify opportunities to refine and improve your automation initiatives. Regularly refining automated processes and automation goals will help you to continuously improve efficiencies and outcomes.

Final Thoughts

Companies that want to enjoy the benefits of process automation need to go beyond getting new software to changing their workflows. Your organization needs to align automation initiatives with company goals and objectives. It will become more profitable, agile, provide better customer experiences, and bring products to market faster.