What processes can your business automate?
Business process automation has the potential to save your company a significant amount of time and money. Process automation takes tasks that are currently in the hands of human staff, and automates them via software. The effect is extremely useful for streamlining workflow, saving staff time and eliminating mistakes.
But exactly what kind of processes can be automated? Here we take a look at some of the tasks that lend themselves to business process automation, to look at how they can be integrated into your business.
Repetitive tasks
Some of the most valuable tasks to automate are the repetitive tasks that often bog down the working time of staff. If your team is being asked to perform simple tasks over and over again, not only is it generally a poor use of their time, but it can also lead to them switching off and making mistakes.
For most businesses, staff represent the majority outlay in terms of costs. Using their time badly is not cost effective. It is a much better idea to automate repetitive tasks to have them conducted by software. This not only cuts down on mistakes, but it frees up staff time significantly, allowing them to focus on more productive work.
Document management
So much of document management comes down to signing off and processing. This is something that can actually be automated easily. Software can easily be programmed to understand the necessary parameters for approval or denial, and this can be then be rolled out across a number of processes.
Issues such as electronic requests, getting signatures, meeting parameters and archiving can all be managed through a single workflow process.
Decision making drawn from data
Decision making is something that can take up a lot of time, especially if it is something that employees are asked to do manually. An example here could be in a financial organisation where a customer is seeking approval for a loan. Rather than a manual process, the member of staff can used automated software to process financial background and credit checks.
This means that the customer gets the approval or denial as soon as possible, and it avoids having to use the time of the staff as well as a senior manager.
Back-office finance tasks
Accounting tasks are some of the most common to be automated. This is partly because the time and input of accounts staff is so valuable, and partly because many of the tasks of day-to-day accounting are both time-consuming and repetitive manual entry. These are the types of tasks that are ideal to automate.
Issues such as invoice processing and reconciliation of accounts can be automated, meaning that staff are freed up to get on with other work.
Job-specific research
A number of jobs are reliant on research carried out by staff members. This often means a great deal of sifting through data, looking for examples, and pieces of information relevant to the task at hand. Once again, this is a task that takes up a great deal of time, but is also highly prone to human error, as missing the crucial data wastes a significant amount of time.
Automating the process of searching through data, especially in very large data sets, is a potentially huge time-saving opportunity. Many industries are already rolling out business process automation looking for data everywhere from crime records and legal file through to financial risk analysis and weather and climate research.
If you are interested in learning more about business process automation or having your processes streamlined, get in contact with the experienced team at Document Options today. We have extensive experience managing process automation and can provide you with advice and guidance on any related matter.
