Have you ever wondered if there could be some simpler processes for some of your office tasks? Say you are going for a much-deserved vacation and you are applying for leave. You shoot an email to the HR and CC’d the decision-makers. And you wait for the HR to get approval from them. You continue your work. However, this is still at the back of your mind. Only upon confirmation of leave can you book flight/train and hotel tickets. You have to do it soon or else you might lose some good deals.
What if we told you that you could be aware of whether the necessary people got notified about your application and you get instant notification when it gets approved? But, how? Workflow Automation Solutions. We can automate monotonous processes similar to the above example so that we can save time and some sanity.
What is Workflow Automation?
Workflows are tasks, both human and system, which are completed sequentially. We can automate workflows using technology to reduce processing time and errors and increase productivity and efficiency. We do that by automating the flow of data and replacing manual work with rule-based logic. The above example is one of the repetitive tasks that can be automated. Workflow Automation can be done in almost all aspects of your business. Customer services, HR department, Housekeeping services (hospitality industry), Sales processes, Project Management etc are a few of the places where this can be implemented.
How does Workflow Automation help you?
Workflow Automation helps us in reducing the time we spend on repetitive tasks and thus making us more productive. Now when we need to be environmentally conscious, automating workflow helps to reduce paperwork since everything gets done online. The advantages of going online are that we can now do a multi-location collaboration, integrate with third-party software, get approvals on the go, access everything via mobile, check the progress of the tasks, easier onboarding experience, ensure compliance, get reports and analytics, etc.
The Process
Workflow Automation process is pretty simple. You have to first identify the repetitive task that you would like to automate. Figure out what is making the task monotonous and consume more time than necessary. Define what you want to achieve once you automate the tasks. Discuss with your team who deal with the task regularly. Get their suggestions and then train your team. You can train the team and execute automation. Track everything. Find out where you need to make changes to improve automation. Make the changes and keep measuring the KPIs and ROIs so that you can understand how you benefited from automating the task.
If you are working in an organization and you find out that there are tasks in your company you feel could be automated you need to first familiarize yourself with how your higher-ups would respond to your suggestions. Based on that you can take a formal or informal approach. Understand your organizational norms and then pitch your idea. It is better to not make remarks about the existing system, instead, you can provide them with the advantages of automating workflow. You can help them understand the value of what you are proposing, the ROI and how it could help increase productivity across departments.
Uses of Workflow Automation
Once you start automating workflow, you would notice that it is less time consuming and increases productivity thereby significantly increasing your revenue. You can now remove all the unnecessary steps in the tasks. It will save your HR and sales executives a lot of time spent on calls. You save money. In short, more profit for you.
A multinational corporation approached us to help them in automating their HR processes after they noticed that their team was facing a lot of similar approvals and requests. Shifting the same from paper to email also didn’t work for them. We developed a customized workflow automation system for them which helped them reduce the time spent on getting approvals for similar tasks.
Their team could now access the system from anywhere in the world provided they have a good internet connection. The decision-makers could also approve everything via mail which helped them focus their attention on important things they needed to handle. You can figure out where and when the approvals get stuck because all the steps in the process are now transparent. This helps them improve their processes and train their teams better.
Conclusion
The world has gone digital. It is time your organization does too. Here is a checklist to help you choose the best Workflow Automation System for your organization:
- Easy onboarding.
- Accessible via mobile.
- Easy third party integration.
- Cloud operability.
- Reports and Analytics.
We would be happy to help you figure out the best Workflow Automation System for your organization. Get in touch with our executives to discuss more. Let’s become more productive!
