What is Process Automation – Advantages

Cut costs, invest in marketing, increase productivity, understand all the processes and reduce errors.

In the current scenario of high economic competition, organizations face significant challenges to maintain competitiveness.

Confronted by these challenges, companies are increasingly looking for ways of understanding what process automation is, and exactly how to apply it to their business models.

Process automation is becoming more and more usual on the market, mostly as a result of its corroborated contribution in production cost reduction.

In this article, I’m going to show the central concepts of business process automation and the benefits.

What is process automation and what can it do for your company?

What process automation is and do is to allow the organizations to project, execute, observe, monitor and continually improve the business processes, what makes process automation one of the most valuable and reliable competitive advantages that a company can have.

OK… let’s think about the definition of business process automation with an example… ok?

Well, do you use emails to control your tasks?

If your answer is “Yes,” then you do not use business process automation! I’m so sorry 🙁

With business process automation people count on a task list to control all requests in your business. All these tasks will follow steps you configure in a diagram, and everyone will work according to your standard.

See below an example of process automation on a cloud software. This is a task list interface:

Task managemenet

And below the form for the current task of the business process:

Task Form

Using a modern automation suite it’s possible to use a smartphone to work on a process instance:

Is it possible to integrate this task list with your ERP? Yes. Many times. But, it’s not mandatory. Keep it simple and stupid!

Now, some advantages of business process automation:

  • Optimization of primary processes: shortening of the production cycle, equipment optimization, and action resources minimization.
  • Monitor and control results in real time in a global aspect as well in a detailed way, helping the decision-making process.
  • Traceability of the process – concluded or in progress.
  • The process automation can integrate the entire database from different areas of the organization (e.g.: accountability, human resources, supply, sales and regional representatives) in just one system of shared information. It reduces the number of errors and increases the data process speed.
  • Determine, configure and standardize business performance indicators.
  • Get reliable reports with documented indicators, extremely useful to the management, at any time.
  • Identify and remedy inefficiency spots, wastes and misapplication of funds.
  • Implement of workflow to get rid of mistakes and process inconsistencies.
  • A significant increase of execution speed – a dramatic time reduction.
  • Time removed between activities.
  • More consistency in rules application of business management.
  • Traffic, buildup, printing and paper costs cut.
  • Possibility to use different systems, from different platforms (integration), without the worker having to memorize which screens to use (they are automatically available).
  • Operation uniformity – Quality even for SOX standards.

Are you looking for a business process automation tool? Read more Business Process Automation software.

A universal doubt of our readers is: what’s the difference between processes and workflow? If it’s your case read the article Workflow and Processes: Understand the Differences.

If you are interested to know further about BPM, you can continue on our website and learn what BPM is, and also what is process mapping.

What obstacles or challenges do you face as you try to gain widespread acceptance of business process efforts at your organization?

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