If you’re thinking of adopting business process automation software in your company, it’s important to check off some characteristics presented by the various software available in the market.
In this post, we’ve separated 10 points that you should check in order to choose the right software for you.
10 steps for choosing business process automation software in your company
1- Check your investment capability
Before any provision or analysis, define your budget for the implementation of business process automation software.
Remember that there may be a high initial cost, depending on the system chosen, in addition to recurring expenses such as maintenance or monthly fees.
The cost will depend on the number of processes you need to model and automate. Each process will need to connect to its company’s databases, forms, and internal systems to send and retrieve data. The project may well take 3 months or 2 years.
2- Try free trials and versions
Enroll in all trials and sign up for Freemium versions (free for an unlimited time but with fewer features) of the software that you find most appropriate.
There is no way to choose a business process automation software without testing it in practice, both with the technical team and with those who will use it on a day-to-day basis, as users.
3- Is it available for remote cloud access?
A cloud-based business process automation system makes team communication and collaboration much more responsive, allowing you to share process flows and, in some cases, model in a collaborative way.
This collaboration will make the processes much more “alive”, adaptable and transformable by all the people and entities involved in the process. In this way, process optimization becomes easier.
4- Check if it’s SaaS
SaaS is software marketed as services for the payment of a monthly fee. It’s already a consolidated trend and have several advantages.
By employing them, you don’t pay for an expensive initial license to use the software, but monthly installments, which are much more affordable. Because they’re used over the internet, they don’t need to be physically installed on machines and be updated every time there’s a new version. Every user can use it, without paying anything more for it.
5- Is it compatible with mobile devices?
Being able to check for updates to processes, new ideas and even send suggestions on the phone or tablet is an advantage that BPM professionals never fail to depend on nowadays.
For those who have the possibility of a home office, or are making a presentation to a client, whether internal or external, or even in transit, being able to use your tablet or smartphone to perform these tasks allows for much more team productivity and agility at work.
See in the figure below how a person can continue a process with a smartphone.
6- What is the notation used?
The use of BPMN, the most widely accepted process modeling notation in the world, is critical to making your business process automation system as up to date as possible.
See below how the HEFLO BPMN modeler works, which is 100% web.
In addition, BPMN notation facilitates the on-boarding of new members because they’re already familiar with the recognized notation. This reduces training costs and employee integration time.
Check out our blog: BPMN Notation
7- Look for low code BPMN systems
BPM low code systems are business process automation software specifically developed to allow easy and intuitive interaction with users without the need for them to know programming codes for modeling and process automation.
With this functionality, you can involve many more people with the business process automation software in your enterprise. This includes process clients and owners, enabling much richer contributions, and quicker improvement developments.
Also see: Learn more about Low Code and Low Code BPM Platforms
8- Check the installation procedures of the new software
How will you install the new software in your business? Is this process time-consuming, does it require compatibility studies with existing software and hardware?
Also check whether you will need to buy new equipment and servers, or remodel facilities.
It’s very important to have this information before acquiring business process automation software. If not, it can lead to additional costs or even to the stoppage of certain company operational activities.
9- Do dashboards help provide a systemic view of your business?
One of the most important process automation aspects is that you can depend on information on real-time process performance. This aids in decision-making and the process of continuous improvement.
Check how easy it is to create these dashboards and how you’ll view the data and information.
Check out: What is a dashboard: everything you need to know in the blink of an eye
10- Will it take a lot of time to train the team? What will the cost be?
Is business process automation software easy and intuitive to understand or will it require hours of intensive team training?
Remember that in addition to increasing the cost of deployment, lengthy training can delay your company’s use of the system.
Some Software like HEFLO provide a few hours of training. A tutorial also helps you understand the interface in the first few minutes after registering. The interface, colors, buttons were all designed to make life easier for the user and more understandable.
In addition, they have several small tutorials on process automation configuration, the creation of management panels, process start timers and many others.
Know more: Can continuous business improvement work without automation?
If you are looking for BPMN SaaS and low code business process automation software, get to know HEFLO.
In addition to being intuitive and with an extremely user-friendly interface, you can view free tutorials on our YouTube channel, We are HEFLO, so that your team can learn quickly to make the most of everything we can offer.
Here’s an example:
