The previous article's main point was the importance of automating some monotonous tasks in your company. With business process automation being such a great way to advance your company, it probably sounds like it will be incredibly difficult to set up and quite expensive. The truth, however, is very different because making such a crucial technical leap for you and your company has never been easier.
In this article we’ll give you the steps you need to get started with Business Process Automation.
Identify repetition or routine
Several manual processes and duties could be automated. It only seems sense to start by identifying these tasks. They frequently involve a lot of administrative work and always adhere to the same rationale or norms. Common offenders include actions like manually entering data or copying data between systems.
Map out or create your business processes
You should carefully examine all of your current company procedures. If you omit to inform the computer of any step in the processes, it won't carry out those steps because it only does what you tell it to.
To ensure that everything in the procedures is right and that no steps have been missed, take the time to map them out or perhaps even build a flowchart. New processes that you want to deploy can also be developed, but they will need the same amount of thorough planning to ensure that they function well. When laying out the procedures, the factors must also be taken into account. For instance, if an automated system sends you an invoice for more than a particular amount, do you need to confirm it with someone?
Automation tools and triggers
Finding a programme you like and feel comfortable using to start this process is the key to success. There are a plethora of options to choose from, ranging from free-to-use to paid subscription. If you’re a Microsoft 365 user you may already have access to their tool, Power Automate, with your licences.
The trigger for each of the automated procedures is what you should next search for. The computer isn't going to complete any of these operations just out of the blue, it requires something to tell it to start.
When it comes to gathering and sharing data, this could be something similar to an email inbox going from 0 unread emails to 1, or it could be triggered by the time, for example, at 8:00 am on a Monday it would gather and send the data out. These triggers may originate from different apps, but connecting them to your automation software is simple because it only requires you to select the software you wish to use, sign in, and provide it permission to use it.
Automate data sharing
Because they are so linear and differ so little, if at all, data exchange tasks are excellent candidates for automation. The collecting and distribution of data can be automated, making it one of the simplest processes to do so. You might have them automatically gathered, entered into an email template, and sent to a mailing list each month, for instance, if you collected the Google analytics data for your website each month and shared it with specific individuals. This would save the time it would take to gather all of the data each month, write them up, produce an email including the analytics, and send it to everyone who needs to receive it.
Streamlining the communication and task management
Having an automated system in place for understanding what duties you have to perform and receiving feedback on these activities is quite paramount in our modern age.
For instance, if you have four employees working on a task, you may review them, give feedback on each one, and then they can adjust their work as needed in response to the input. This eliminates the need to stand with each person as they do tasks and review them before giving feedback, which would take up a lot of your time, as well as theirs. Alternatively, the employee can continue working on anything else as you review their work and while they are responding to modifications.
Making document sharing easier and faster
To try and distribute documents to everyone who needs them might be a tremendous hassle. Nonetheless, there is yet another operation that is simple to automate. Anyone who requires documents can sync them to their computer from the cloud by using a cloud service like OneDrive to save all of the files on the cloud. As everything is backed up to the OneDrive servers, there is no need to waste time emailing files to individuals, attempting to exchange files one at a time, or even risk losing work.
Possible Client Correspondence
It's fantastic to have a contact page on your website where potential customers can inquire about or try to sign up for your business, but handling all of the information yourself can take a lot of time. But it's also possible to automate this. All correspondence you receive can be answered immediately, adding all of the information provided to wherever you save all of the customer contact details.
BCNS Your Automation Partner
We at BCNS can help you set up these automated processes so that your company remains busy and efficient. Our team of specialists can assist and direct you through it whether you wanted to automate already installed systems or you had a new automated system that you wanted to install.
